Jan. 6th Commission puts focus on liars, deniers in 2020 election

Posted 13 October 2022 at 8:04 am

Editor:

Today’s Jan. 6th commission TV hearing will be the time to disclose if emails or testimony show that Donald Trump knew any of his supporters were armed as he sent them to the Capitol.

It is a federal crime to interfere with a public official carrying out their official duties. So if there was ever a time to make the case to the American public, today will be it.

But the larger issue isn’t Donald Trump. It’s the multi-headed hydra that election denialism has created

“Election denialism is a form of corruption,” per NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat. “The party has now institutionalized this form of lying, this form of rejection of results. So it’s institutionalized illegal activity. These politicians are essentially conspiring to make party dogma the idea that it’s possible to reject certified results.”

This is a fancy way of saying that went a politician tells you that his opinion about who should win is what he’s going to make sure happens in his official position, that the politician is telling you he’s going to commit a crime.

It’s one thing to be an election denier, but it’s quite another for candidate to say they’re going to set aside the results no matter what.

And that’s the larger issue that we’re facing in this election. For believers in Donald Trump the hearing is extremely important. For the country, it’s the election itself and the candidates who don’t care if Donald Trump is a crook or not but really care about themselves rather than serving you.

In that regard today’s hearing and the election have one thing in common. Both are about honesty.

Conrad F. Cropsey

Albion