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(and the other security forces that finally showed
up, most from the Justice Department and local
police). Both parties have now denounced the vi-
olence and both have labeled the crowd domestic
terrorists, many even directly condemning white
supremacy—all part of the narrative that “this is
not who we are.”
But it is who we are—the violence and the noise,
the division and the extremes, the belief in con-
spiracies, the injustices of race and power and
their effects, the questionable competence of our
own government and the perilous idealization of
the military.
It would be easy to lay all of the blame at Don-
ald Trump’s doorstep, blaming too the 147 mem-
bers of Congress who voted against accepting thefull alert, agitating for its Guard—uniquely under
the control of the president because D.C. isn’t a
state—to be activated. But it was also constrained,
because ultimately a dysfunctional White House
and a reluctant Pentagon treated the mayor like a
cranky subordinate.
Why do we even have a Department of Home-
land Security? Created with fanfare in the after-
math of 9/11 as the agency that would fill all of the
domestic gaps, DHS was virtually absent. Only the
semi-autonomous Secret Service was ready, but
the rest, government officials agree, stayed im-
mobile (in contrast to their intervention around
the country against racial justice protestors and
leftist anarchists). Several Newsweek sources say
the Department had become partisan and com-electors’ ballots. And of course one can blame the
protestors, denying that they represent America
or excusing them as peaceful citizens hijacked by
a few instigators and criminals.
Though the top three officials responsible for
Congressional security (including Chief Sund)
have resigned since the storming of the Capitol,
the official reaction to the events of January 6th
is strikingly similar to 9/11. No doubt the mistakes
will be shown to be a combination of inscrutable
official strategy and the same-old-same-old smor-
gasbord of leadership and communications, and
even structural failures.
And like 9/11, we are now at war—turning
Capitol Hill and the District of Columbia into
an armed camp, over-relying on the military and
cracking down throughout the country, restrict-
ing protests of all sorts.
Instead, we should be asking tough questions.
Why is the District of Columbia not a state? The
District government was the only bright spot, de-
claring an emergency before January 6th, going onMAJOR PLAYERS
(Clockwise, from top
left) D.C. Mayor Muriel
Bowser; National Guard
forces gathered near the
Capitol on January 6th;
Vice President Mike Pence;
and the Joint Session
of Congress that met to
certify the presidential
election before it was
interrupted by rioters
on that fateful day.
the district government was the only bright spot, declaring
an emergency before january 6th, going on full alert,
agitating for its guard—uniquely under the control of the
president because d.c. isn’t a state—to be activated.