Two years

Where were you two years ago today?

Is January 6th, 2021 a date that lives in your mind, like 9/11? 

Or for my parents’ generation, November 22, 1963?

Or for my grandparents’ generation, December 7th, 1941?

It should.

Because two years ago today, a group of people, waving American flags, Trump flags, Confederate flags, and even Christian flags, started with a demonstration in front of the Capitol building — after listening to speeches by Donald Trump and others imploring the audience to “fight like hell” to take their country back. 

So they went to the Capitol.

Inside, Congress was going through their Constitutionally mandated responsibility to cast their electoral ballots.

The 2020 election season would soon come to a close.

But not without a fight. And it turned out to be a literal fight. 

We should not forget that there were people who stormed barricades, pushed past police officers, and eventually gained access to the Capitol building and marched to the door of the House of Representatives. 

Does anyone want to think about what would have happened if they had gotten in? 

Does anyone remember that someone brought a noose and a scaffold, and that one of the slogans the mob was screaming was, “Hang Mike Pence!”?

Does anyone remember that portions of the Capitol building was wrecked, and that part of the wreckage included bodily waste smeared on the walls?

I know there are people who argue about whether or not January 6, 2021 was an insurrection or not. I’m not going to fight with people. 

Today, in the same chamber, as I write this, Kevin McCarthy has lost 13 ballots to become the new Speaker of the House. Since the Republicans now have control of the House, it should be easy for them to elect a Speaker.  Right?

Uhhh, apparently not.

It’s 9:57 p.m. as I write this, and in three minutes, the House will reconvene for round 14. At this point, I fully expect to start hearing the fight theme from “Rocky” playing and Kevin McCarthy entering in boxer shorts and wearing boxing gloves. 

Until a Speaker is elected, the new House cannot be sworn in and they cannot do any work. According to CNN Politics, this is now the longest speaker contest in 164 years.  The last time a speaker contest went this long was in 1859, two years before the Civil War started.

There are a group of Republicans that are determined that McCarthy NOT be Speaker, but as I’m writing this, I just saw a tweet saying that the House is reconvening and that finally, on the 14th ballot, McCarthy should win his speakership, the House can be sworn in, and work can finally start. 

I fear that another January 6th could happen after the next Presidential election. All you have to do is scream loud enough, “The election was stolen!” and if you can get a large enough following with enough influence, you could very easily duplicate the events of January 6th.  

I hope not, but I’ve become very cynical and jaded, especially in the last decade and particularly in the last six years. Politics and news used to be fun for me to watch and listen to. Now I can barely stand it. 

Let’s hope the House chamber has lots of coffee. They will need it.

And let’s hope that maybe the American electorate has more common sense than I give it credit for having!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.