The Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a disgrace and a travesty Americans should remember and learn from. But Democrats, rather than try to discern the underlying cultural problems, are turning their inquiry into a partisan show.
Democrats pretend they care about political violence and efforts to undermine our democracy. Really, they care about making Republicans look bad.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a bill this week that would establish a Democratic-controlled select House committee to investigate the Capitol riot after Republicans blocked an earlier proposal that would have created a bipartisan, bicameral commission.
Republicans voted against the first commission because it was bound to become a politicized headache that would get in the way of the facts. One only needs to glance at comments Democrats have made about Jan. 6 to understand Republicans were right: Democrats absurdly equated the Capitol riot to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and claimed Jan. 6 was the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,” to quote President Joe Biden.
Both of these claims were ridiculous, as Democrats (and any persons remotely familiar with U.S. history) well knew. But they exaggerated the riot anyway to create a political cudgel to hammer Republicans any time they pleased. It’s for this same reason Pelosi wants a Democratic Jan. 6 committee: She hopes it will produce electoral fodder her candidates can use against Republicans — some of whom were involved in the events of that day, but many of whom were not — in 2022, 2024, and beyond.
And don’t believe their inquiry is born from a real concern over political violence. They were slow to denounce the leftist violence that overtook many of America’s cities last summer, even as businesses were destroyed, police stations attacked, and innocent bystanders caught in the middle. Some leftists even defended these riots or dismissed them as “mostly peaceful protests.”
So, why should we believe they care about political violence now?
Pelosi’s Democratic committee is a political opportunity — nothing more. This is unfortunate because the growing prevalence of political violence in this country desperately needs serious attention. In the last year alone, leftist rioters gleefully destroyed entire sections of America’s cities. A radical right-wing group plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Enraged Trump supporters stormed the nation’s Capitol.
All this comes a few years after a man came to Washington to gun down the Republicans’ congressional baseball team, and another showed up at the Family Research Council to kill social conservatives.
Political violence is aimed at silencing dissent. If we tolerate it, we lose our democracy.
Perhaps if Democrats had shown a vested interest in investigating each of these events, their requests for an independent commission would have been taken seriously. Instead, they made it clear their only goal is to use a violent tragedy to their own advantage.
Pelosi’s Democratic committee is just further proof of that.
