{"id":46482,"date":"2022-01-09T17:03:21","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T01:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=46482"},"modified":"2022-01-09T17:03:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T01:03:21","slug":"everyday-erinyes-300","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2022\/01\/09\/everyday-erinyes-300\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #300"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

Walter Shaub writes a newsletter for the Project on Government Oversight, called “The Bridge<\/strong><\/em>.” It is only published in emails – there is no link I can give you so you can find it and read it. If I want to share it in full, I have no choice except to reprint it in full. However, I have always thought, and now courts have held, that if you put something into an email it is fair gme to reprint.<\/p>\n

Shaub is a specialist in ethics, and that is the focus of The Bridge<\/strong><\/em>. This week’s issue (like just about everything else on the ‘net this week) is related to last year’s insurrection, and he has thughts. Thoughts which I consider worth sharing.
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\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today is the anniversary of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Others will offer analyses of ongoing investigations into the attack. I want to reflect on its significance.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n

A DAY THAT HAS NOT LIVED IN INFAMY<\/span><\/h2>\n

Former president Donald Trump tried to overthrow American democracy from inside the government. Members of Congress and the vice president fled from a mob. People died. More were injured. The casualties include\u00a0more than 140 police officers<\/a>\u00a0who defended the Capitol against an overwhelming onslaught. The republic was threatened.<\/p>\n

You wouldn\u2019t know it, though.<\/p>\n

Insurrection sympathizers have\u00a0celebrated<\/a>\u00a0their plot like the storming of the Bastille. Others\u00a0have labeled it \u201cAmerica\u2019s failed insurrection<\/a>,\u201d as though a verdict of failure were possible yet. The Department of Justice boasts that it has arrested 725 people, but they are low-level insurrectionists; the vast majority are charged with mere property crimes or obstruction of the investigation. There\u2019s no public indication that DOJ is pursuing those who incited the attack. Even the name DOJ has given its prosecutorial effort downplays the significance of the insurrection: \u201cCapitol Breach Cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capitol breach cases? The full name of the 9\/11 Commission\"\" was \u201cThe National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.\u201d By DOJ\u2019s logic, it could\u2019ve been called the \u201cUnauthorized Flight Diversion Commission.\u201d What happened on January 6 was a terrorist attack. Terrorists warrant more than bureaucratic language and slaps on the wrist.<\/p>\n

Congress has shown more courage, but its powers are as limited as its capacity for rapid response. Congress took half a year to establish a committee to investigate the attack. News reports suggest the committee has\u00a0uncovered a trove of information<\/a>\u00a0from hundreds of cooperating witnesses. But its initial report isn\u2019t expected until this summer. Complicating the effort, some key witnesses have\u00a0openly defied the committee<\/a>\u00a0and seem determined to stall in the hope of a leadership change in Congress next year.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason accountability has been elusive: the movement behind the attack on the republic remains powerful. Just hours after the attack,\u00a0147 members of Congress<\/a>\u00a0voted to overturn the election because they didn\u2019t like the result. Those who incited a mob to storm the Capitol lost a battle, not the war on democracy.\u00a0The threat today is as real as it was then.<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
\n

Seven Days in May<\/em><\/p>\n

The persistence of the threat isn\u2019t a cause for despair; it\u2019s a call to action. Democracy has always been fragile, and threats to freedom are not new. The 1964 film\u00a0Seven Days in May<\/em><\/a>\u00a0offers an instructive reminder of that. This black and white thriller was always a favorite of mine for its artful portrayal of the republic\u2019s vulnerability and the need for vigilance. The film has never felt more relevant than it does now.<\/p>\n

\"\"In the film, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James Mattoon Scott, plots with other Pentagon leaders and at least one member of Congress to overthrow the government. The film opens with a protest outside the White House, where the treacherous general\u2019s followers converge with followers of the president. Violence erupts.<\/p>\n

Later, when General Scott delivers an inappropriately political speech at Madison Square Garden, it becomes clear that he has been priming the public for a change in leadership. His plot is conceived with military precision, and it fails only due to the intervention of a faithful marine, played by Kirk Douglas, who lives up to the Marine Corps\u2019 motto:\u00a0Semper Fidelis.<\/em><\/p>\n

This depiction of democracy narrowly escaping destruction served as a warning about how those with authoritarian ambitions can misuse the government\u2019s own machinery against itself. The fictional General Scott is said to be based partly on two real-life figures. One was the notorious General Edwin Walker, who resigned after being stripped of his command for extremist political activities and was later charged with insurrection for participating in a deadly riot to block Mississippi University\u2019s integration. The other was General Curtis LeMay, who objected bitterly to President John F. Kennedy\u2019s refusal to invade Cuba.<\/p>\n

President Kennedy received an advance copy of the book on which the film was based and found it believable.\u00a0The military\u2019s top brass had earned his distrust<\/a>\u00a0by advocating for the tactical use of nuclear weapons and proposing terrorist attacks in Florida to generate support for invading Cuba. Kennedy urged Hollywood to make the book into a movie as a warning about the republic\u2019s fragility.<\/p>\n

The particulars of the film\u2019s storyline differ from the events of January 6, but the particulars don\u2019t matter; this is the story of a threat from within the government. In both cases, an attack incited by a demagogue follows a protest outside the White House. The film ends when the plot is foiled. We\u2019re past that point with our insurrection, but\u00a0Seven Days in May<\/em>\u00a0can still serve as a warning about what happens next. In the film, most (not all) of the conspirators are forced out of government, but political circumstances save them from more serious accountability for their treachery. In the absence of accountability, the viewer can\u2019t escape feeling that the republic remains vulnerable. It could happen again.<\/p>\n

The same is true now. President Trump and some of his allies are out of government, but they haven\u2019t faced further accountability. Trump\u2019s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, joined him in pressuring\u00a0DOJ officials<\/a>\u00a0and Georgia state\u00a0election officials<\/a>\u00a0to help overturn the election results. Trump used his public platform to incite the attack. His Pentagon appointees did not come to the aid of the hopelessly outnumbered police for hours. Trump and his supporters continue to lie about voter fraud and sow doubts about our election systems. It could happen again.<\/p>\n

In the year since the attack on the Capitol,\u00a0the danger to the republic has only grown<\/a>. The movement has shifted tactics, focusing now on\u00a0voter suppression<\/a>\u00a0and keeping its adherents primed for future action with\u00a0lies about voter fraud<\/a>. We should be pressing our leaders to hold those responsible for the insurrection accountable. We should be pressing them to pass voting rights legislation. We should be active participants in the work of democracy. We must be. The fate of the republic depends on it.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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\nAlecto<\/span><\/strong>, Megaera<\/strong><\/span>, and Tisiphone<\/span><\/strong>, The 1994 TV movie “The Enemy Within<\/strong><\/em>” was more or less billed as an updated remake of “Seven Days in May<\/strong><\/em>.” I don’t know how accurate that is, nor how good it is (it couldn’t have JFK’s seal of approval, for one thing), but it is available to stream, whereas I believe “Seven Days in May<\/strong><\/em>” would be DVD or BluRay (or of course one could read the book.) I’ve always maintaind that what people learn through storytelling is better learned and more deeply internalized than anything learned through any other method. So any of those possibilities may well be worth a shot.<\/p>\n

The Furies and I will be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":46416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,5],"tags":[3789,3729,4268],"class_list":["post-46482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plus","category-politics","tag-ethics","tag-furies","tag-insurrection","category-141-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}