What’s in a day? It depends more than ever on which day it is. Most days in themselves resemble each other, but Oct. 29, 1929; Dec. 7, 1941; Nov. 22, 1963; and Sept. 11, 2001, stand out from the rest in their Quotient of Horror, in the suddenness with which they came, sundering the present from past.
Who ever had dreamed that the market would crash? That American land would be bombed by an enemy power in a sneak attack? That another American president would be killed just like Abraham Lincoln? Or that everyday aircraft would be used to rain fire down from the skies?
Stranger than these was the idea that a president would attempt to subvert the will of the people by sending mobs to disrupt the counting of electoral votes. Yet, Jan. 6, 2021, happened, and with it came a seismic shift — an unsettling of the public terrain of this country.
On Jan. 5, outgoing President Donald Trump still had a viable political future. Today, not so much. He had lost to Joe Biden, but not by too much; he could hope to run four years later, like Grover Cleveland, who lost to Benjamin Harrison in the 1888 cycle and returned four years later, his wife Frances having said on her way out the door to a custodian: “We’ll be back.”
There will be no “coming back” for Trump and Melania, who did not attend Biden’s inauguration, no doubt much to the relief of those who were present. It’s doubtful that, except for his required presence at various legal proceedings, Trump will be back in this city again.
On Jan. 5, Vice President Mike Pence was a cipher, in the shade and grateful to be there. He could pretend not to notice Trump’s cringe-inducing moments, keeping his head down, counting the days until taking his leave and hoping to arrive at his liberation with his reputation and good name intact. Word has gotten out that people who worked for Trump in the White House are having problems finding other employment commensurate with their experience in more neutral places. But this seems not to apply to the former Vice President, whose hand on the wheel kept the car on the road in the disordered days that followed the riot. Pence has found work at the Heritage Foundation, a place that screams kosher in high-brow and high-level conservative circles, but it is a place to which most Trump-friendly people need never apply.
Another winner of sorts in conservative circles is Rep. Liz Cheney, the sole representative of the state of Wyoming, better known till last week as the offspring of Richard and Lynne, the celebrated politician and the well-known author. Then Cheney became one of 10 Republican members of the House to vote to impeach our 45th president, a declaration of conscience that may cost her her seat, but not her capacity to work for the country.
More opportunities for that will doubtless arise. Hers is one of many lives changed by that day, this time for the better. May more people like her rise up.
