Democrats’ Kabuki Security Theater
05/27/2021
This is part three of a multi-part series entitled “Democrats Love The Security Deep-State“.
<—Read Part Two “Deep-State Fetishizes New Domestic Terrorism Laws.”
There’s one final fallout from January 6th (J6th) that Democrats are both failing and succeeding at (it’s based on one’s perspective; are the Democrats incompetent accidentally or intentionally?)1 How are the Democrats going to hold former-President Trump accountable for J6th? Kabuki theater obviously. House Democrats passed a measure supporting a 9/11-style commission to review the event.
The proposed commission passed the House “with GOP support in a 252-175 vote, as lawmakers seek more information on what led to the violent attempt to disrupt the transfer of power to President Joe Biden. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., opposed the plan and his leadership team formally urged Republicans to vote against it. Thirty-five GOP representatives supported the measure, while 175 Republicans voted opposed it.”
Pramuk, Jacob. “House Passes Bipartisan Plan to Investigate Capitol Insurrection as GOP Leaders Balk.” CNBC, CNBC, 19 May 2021.
There are still important questions that need answering. Questions about the full conspiracies involving various neo-fascist organizations, like the Proud Boys; or the complicity of neo-fascist members of congress allegedly providing operational intelligence to insurrectionists; or the executive branch’s full role during the event. These are all questions worth answering.
But what exactly is a commission going to find that the FBI, DOJ, (presumably the NSA), multiple Inspector Generals, and numerous legislative committees aren’t already looking into?
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pointed to ongoing law enforcement investigations that have resulted in hundreds of arrests as well as bipartisan investigations into the events of Jan. 6. He said a commission would result in duplicative efforts.
“So there is, has been and there will continue to be no shortage, no shortage of robust investigations by two separate branches of the federal government,” McConnell said. “So … it’s not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet another commission could actually lay on top of existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress. The facts have come out, and they’ll continue to come out.”
Grisales, Claudia, and Barbara Sprunt. “House Passes Bill To Investigate Capitol Riot, But Its Fate In Senate Is Unclear.” NPR, NPR, 19 May 2021.
I hate agreeing with Mitch McConnell, but a broken clock is right at least twice a day. On Friday, May 28th, 2021, the proposed commission failed to pass the 60-vote threshold necessary to get passed a filibuster in the Senate.
“The vote was 54 to 35, showing the bill had a bipartisan majority of support with six Republicans voting with Democrats… The six GOP senators who backed the bill were: Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Nine Republican senators and two Democrats didn’t vote.”
Nobles, Ryan, et al. “Senate Vote Delayed for January 6 Commission.” CNN, Cable News Network, 28 May 2021.
Justifications for continuing to investigate J6th shouldn’t include devising ever more authoritarian laws (as described previously). It should include holding everyone involved accountable, including–and especially–President Trump.
The legislative branch certainly has a role to play in punishing those responsible. However, there are far more effective legislative means of accomplishing this. Trump was impeached by the House on January 13th, 2021 for Inciting an Insurrection, a vote which was bipartisan in its condemnation. I completely agree with the decision to impeach Trump for this. But, it’s what comes after that makes me skeptical of the Democrats true intentions. If the argument is that Trump is a proto-fascist and presents an existential threat to the survival of the nation,2 then the focus needs to be on the easiest means of holding Trump accountable.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment grants congress the power to permanently bar an individual from holding elected office if they engage in insurrectionist shenanigans. Congress could do this with a simple majority vote in both Houses and Trump will be permanently removed as a future political threat forever.3
Section 3: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Section 5: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Why didn’t the Democrats do this? For the same reason they continuously increased Trump’s military budgets and military authority, reauthorized the Patriot Act giving him overreaching surveillance powers, and voted to give him more money for immigration enforcement. Democrats and liberals will scream from the mountaintop how Trump is the 2nd coming of Hitler and an existential threat to the nation, while at the same time funding the same government institutions that empower Trump to be what they allegedly fear so much. Democrats (and neoliberal media corporations) would much rather us all have Trump Derangement Syndrome4 so they can blame everything on him while obfuscating the fact we still don’t have Medicare for All, we still aren’t taxing the rich, aren’t holding corporations accountable, aren’t getting a $15 an hour minimum wage, kids are still in cages near a shut-down border, and a laundry list of other promises made that have yet to be fulfilled despite Democrats holding majorities in both Houses of Congress and controlling the executive branch. Trump single-handedly saved the cable news industry who were suffering abysmal ratings prior to his announcement in 2015. Democrats have made a killing in political contributions by saying, “If we don’t get this $25 right now, democracy as we know it will end.”5 Keeping Trump relevant means more money for the oligarchs that run the government and the media.
The Democrats’ choice to not invoke Section 3 of the 14th amendment & their failure at securing a guilty verdict in the impeachment trial, has allowed Trump to reconsolidate his power within the Republican party. Most Republican congressmembers either have aphasia when anything related to J6th is mentioned or have openly kissed the ring swearing unyielding fealty to MAGA ideology. The few Republicans that have pushed back against Trump like Representatives Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Liz Cheney of Wyoming, and Senator Mitt Romney of Utah have been marginalized by the party. They are being relegated to the fringe Never Trump side of the party (mostly old neocons from the Bush administration) which has little actual influence within Republican politics and are really only popular with Resistance Liberals and neoliberal media organizations they can grift off of.
It didn’t have to be this way. House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., suggested back in January that an impeachment trial in the Senate should be postponed until after President Biden’s first 100 days in office. This would have allowed Democrats to successfully implement President Biden’s campaign promises. This obviously wasn’t done and the Senate convened the impeachment trial from February 9, 2021–February 13, 2021 resulting in an inevitable acquittal. Meanwhile, the people suffering during a pandemic still weren’t getting (and still haven’t gotten) the $2,000 stimulus checks they were promised immediately.
Representative Clyburn’s suggestion could have (and should have) been done. Holding the trial later in the year would allow all the other agencies still investigating to gather even more data which might have swayed more Republicans to vote guilty. The legislature has the sole power of impeachment & adjudication and can decide to hold a trial whenever it wants.6
Section 2: The House of Representatives… shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
Article I of the U.S. Constitution
Section 3: The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.
Why did Democrats ignore Clyburn’s suggestion? Reporting from Politico shows the Democrats had no expectation that Senators Jon Ossuf and Ralphael Warnock would win the Georgia run-off election on January 5th giving Democrats a slim majority in the Senate; and therefore, made no plans for what they should do if they had a governing majority.7 Holding the impeachment trial immediately gave them cover from actually dealing with important problems that Americans needed fixed; it also served to boost ratings for cable news corporations which have been evaporating since Trump left office.
The final reason my skepticism remains well over 9000 regarding an official J6th commission is the Democrats strategy during the impeachment trial back in February. Democrats didn’t present a single witness. Not one. Former-president Trump & former-Vice President Mike Pence are private citizens, no longer protected by executive privilege. They absolutely could have been subpoena’d to testify, and, if they refused, could be held in contempt and jailed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy could have been compelled to testify about what they knew and when they knew it during the insurrection. Every aid and cabinet member surrounding Trump during the four hours of the failed insurrection could be forced to testify exactly what happened publicly to the American people. But, despite having a majority in both houses of Congress, they didn’t call a single witness. This tells me the Democrats have no intention of ever holding Trump accountable. Afterall, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.8
So, a 9/11-style commission seems like ever so much security theater by Democrats. Democrats could still subpoena Trump & Pence right now to testify to an existing congressional committee. Nothing is stopping them. The 9/11 commission lasted for almost two years. While this was necessary to properly investigate 9/11, there is already a great deal of information known regarding J6th, and congress already has the authority to get additional unknown questions answered without need for a long & expensive bureaucratic commission. Senator Susan Collins of Maine says she’d like there to be no deadline for the commission to complete its investigation meaning it could drone on for years (the deadline is currently December 31st, 2021).9
“There’s plenty of time to complete the work,” Collins said.
The whole proposal smells more like the Clinton investigations during his presidency, the Benghazi investigations during the Obama presidency, and the Mueller investigation during Trump’s. A endless series of bureaucratic “investigations” that takes up all the oxygen in political discourse and wastes tax payer’s money. The Clinton congressional investigations lasted from 1994-2002 and cost $69 million. Benghazi-gate involved 8 congressional investigations lasting from 2012-2016 costing $7 million. The Mueller investigation created by Congress to investigate the RussiaGate hoax10 lasted from 2017-2019 at an estimated cost of over $30 million only to find zero evidence of collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government.11.
And, at the end of what could be a multi-year Kabuki quest for vengeance & honor, do people really expect it to end with Trump behind bars? For years, neo-liberal media figures like Rachel Maddow insisted that Mueller was days away from finally closing the cuffs around Trump’s incredibly, microscopic hands. Then, Democrats insisted they finally had Trump cornered with Ukrainegate, only for the impeachment trial to end in a victoriously acquitted Trump. Democrats have chosen to take the most difficult methods possible in holding Trump accountable because the establishment needs Trump to keep from supporting policies that oligarchs oppose. If anyone thinks Democrats are ever going to hold Trump accountable, I have a bag of magic beans to sell you.12
Along with a permanent standing army in the Nation’s Capitol and new domestic terror laws, security theater continues to serve the neoliberal goals of “distracting” the Democrats (and more importantly all the Resistance libs who have gone back to brunch post-Trump) from any policy that might help the people post-pandemic. Democrats will say we can’t have Medicare for All, a $15/hr minimum wage, or higher taxes on corporations because it’ll scare the one or two Republicans who might be inclined to vote for a moderate Republican like Joe Biden and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
There is one reason a J6th commission might provide new information, and it’s a question most have ignored besides a few media articles on the subject: how did the insurrectionists (both violent & nonviolent) come to be in Washington, D.C. on January 6th, 2021? I don’t mean how did they physically travel there. What happened in these people’s lives that led to them unquestionably following the dictates of a conman like Trump? What happened to these people that they choose to believe in Stop the Steal delusions, QAnon absurdities, and neo-fascism as the only true political position?
<—Read Part Two “Deep-State Fetishizes New Domestic Terrorism Laws.”
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