Earlier today, the US House of Representatives voted to create a commission to lead an investigation regarding the White House riot that happened in January of this year. The bill passed with a majority of 252 voting for and 175 members voting against.
Unsurprisingly, the vote was split amongst party lines as many votes have in recent years. Only 35 Republicans voted for the bill with an effort being made by those that created the bill, Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republican John Katko, to make this a bipartisan effort that will investigate only the facts of the riot, with both parties working together in order to not polarize the issue and once again create disunity along party lines. Half of the members of the committee would be assigned by Democrat leaders while the other half would be assigned by a Republican leaders (5 members each coming to a total of 10 on the committee).
However, despite some collaboration between House Republicans and Democrats, there are still many Republicans who attempted to stall the bill and are currently in opposition of it passing the Senate, namely Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. This seems to be purely a political move by the GOP with Senator John Thule stating that creating this commission would be bad politically for the party.
The overwhelming majority of Republicans being against this legislature as well as Thule's statement illustrates that such an investigation can seriously compromise the power of the Republican party that they have only recently gained. As already illustrated with the massive difference in the popular vote during last years election, the Republican position is resting in a very precarious place and that it might be time for the party to reconsider changing some of its political standing and think of a new strategy to gain support. Despite the bill having a difficult chance at passing the Senate, requiring at least 10 Republican votes, the possibility of just a simple investigation of a quite clearly terroristic act being able to shake the party significantly is demonstrative of a shifting political environment.
My hopes lie in the fact that the bill will indeed be able to pass the Senate and thus be a unifying, nonpartisan effort to try and uncover the truth behind one of the most shocking events in our country's recent history. Perhaps through this effort some of the extreme polarization that has been built over the past four years will dissipate slightly and act as a unifying force for the United States which as of late has been quite disunited.
Link to the article: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-vote-bipartisan-commission-probe-jan-6-capitol-attack-n1267896
Questions:
What do you think the outcome will be if the bill won't pass the Senate?
How seriously would Republican influence be compromised if the legislation does indeed pass?
Is there a chance that this will dispel some of the polarization within our political structure through the bipartisan nature of the investigation?
6 comments:
I think that although it is a good idea to investigate the Jan 6th incident. I feel that this more a move for political power than for an actual investigation. After all trump has left office and the democrats failed to already impeach him. I feel like they are just beating a dead horse with this committee.
I think it's sad that there isn't bipartisan support for this bill, because the insurrection at the Capitol really seriously threatened the lives of members of both parties. An inability to reach a consensus across party lines to investigate the breach in security and act of terrorism shows just how polarized American politics are. Unfortunately, I don't find it very surprising because a lot of evidence did come out that Republican party leaders sort of enabled the attacks on the Capitol both by inciting a really violent rhetoric against Joe Biden and other Democrats, and by leaking security information that endangered members of the opposite party. If the legislation passes and the committee exposes more information like that, I'm not sure much would really change in public support for the Republican party. Donald Trump did a lot of dangerous and unethical things during his presidency and didn't lose a great deal of supporters, so I think the same would go for the Republican party as a whole.
I think that there has been an investigation going on for the past 5 months. I wonder if this is the best way to allocate tax dollars but do see advantages to opening up a case in congress. If they are able to find sufficient evidence to incriminate anyone on the Trump team it at least shows the country and world that we do not stand for violence within politics. Trump proved to the world that a president could incite violence and an insurrection and walk free out of the Oval office and I believe that that needs to be disproven. I agree with Josette on how disappointing it is to see how partisan the support is yet am not surprised after the impeachment trial in late January. I hope that this investigation brings purpose and actually hold the Trump administration accountable.
Honestly, I don't think anyone who has been following the news and current political climate can or should be surprised by the recent turn of events in relation to the refusal of the Republican party to investigate the Jan. 6th insurrection. Throughout the Trump presidency a good majority of the Republican party has been tripping over themselves attempting to justify the head of their party's actions and suspiciously resistant to investigate potential crimes against the country committed by the same person.
If the bill doesn't pass the Senate, nothing much will happen in regards to the riot but it will protect both the ex-president and his associates from being persecuted for helping to instigate it. Since both the party and the ex-president and his associates will not be held accountable for the riot, similar things can and will happen in the upcoming elections, given that Republicans have already broken past the social stigmas that come with protesting the results of an election to such a severe degree as to storm the capitol.
If the bill does pass, it will limit the power of the Republican party to some degree since a lot of their front-running members will now be held responsible for aiding an insurrection and have those crimes over their heads. However, again, the Trump administration has shown that one can do a whole lot of crimes as president and still have a dedicated supporter base, so it will not compromise the Republican party all that much.
It may just be me but I have already forgotten about the capital riot. The news has been so busy with other current events that the capital riots now are just history. In terms of an investigation, I don't understand what there is to investigate. People coordinated to meet at the capitol on January 6th and they followed through with their plans. If the bill doesn't pass through the Senate, I think the best corse of action is to continue arresting everyone who breached the capitol, if they haven't done so already. They should all be charged for a crime, and it should be easy, since there is so much video footage documenting the occasion.
I think that if the bill does pass, it would be hard to charge Donald Trump for "instigating" the riot. Its hard to justify a few tweets as the sole cause of the riots. Donald Trump could make the argument that he had no intention for violence really happen. Donald Trump has also been out of the news for a long time. I think the best thing for everyone to do is move on, and focus on the new administration. Democratic influence would do the best if they focus their energy on passing Biden's legislation and not trying to worry about what has already happened.
I think that there are a few sides to passing the bill. From the republican perspective, they may want to avoid passing it because democrats and republicans like to overextend the purpose of legislation when they pass it. For example, Biden's COVID package tried to pack in a minimum wage raise. In my opinion, that is in the wrong direction from compromise, and I think that republicans fear the case will hurt the republican party. Even if the outcome of the case doesn't directly hurt the republican party, their societal reputation could be left damaged, which I think should not be the case. Although I do not agree with some of the things the republican party stands for or against, such as their stance on climate change, I think it is important that one individual (or a few) cannot be allowed to harm the reputation of a party. From the opposite view, this is a pretty serious case that should be addressed. If the bill does pass, one benefit we may see is a system in place to prevent reoccurrences of such riots, even if Donald Trump is not convicted (which I agree with Michael about, I doubt he will be convicted). I think that the bill should be passed simply to pass legislation preventing a similar riot from reoccurring, but I hope that congress can keep this from becoming a partisan issue because I don't think much will get accomplished by doing so.
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