Osler's Razor

Venezuela expresses its concern over the acts of violence that are taking place in the city of Washington, USA; condemns political polarization and aspires that the American people can blaze a new path toward stability and social justice

That's not something I expected to see this week, or ever. Or the headline "Police re-take U.S. Capitol building." But here we are. 

It's hard to imagine the things that happened yesterday in Washington, DC. I was at work waiting for a call to start, so I watched part of the President's rambling speech, which combined long periods of boredom (lots of made-up statistics about the election, such as "250,000 more people voted in Pennsylvania than are eligible to vote") with incitement of his hopped-up fans to further action. The speech included this directive:

"And after this, we're going to walk down there, and I'll be there with you, we're going to walk down ... to the Capitol and we are going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women," Trump told the crowd. "And we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong."

Of course, Trump did not walk with them down to the Capitol (maybe he would have taken a golf cart if one had been provided) and instead went home to watch TV and fume about Mike Pence, who didn't subvert the election for him. 

Much of the crowd, however, did head to the Capitol-- and then stormed it and created violence and mayhem. One woman was shot dead and over 50 police officers were hurt.

Here is the takeaway: There was serious violence, incited by the President and intended to impede the transfer of power. We can no longer talk about an unbroken legacy of the "peaceful transfer of power"-- because there was violence this time. Yesterday. In the Capitol of the United States. As votes were being certified. 

Anyhoo... two other things happened yesterday that normally would be really significant (and still are, but just got buried in the news cycle).

First, President-elect Biden (remember him?) named Merrick Garland as his Attorney General, Lisa Monaco as the Deputy Attorney General, and Vanita Gupta as the Associate Attorney General (or #3 in the DOJ-- a fascinating job whose previous holders have included Rudy Giuliani, Frank Keating, Web Hubbell, and Tony West). For my work, Monaco and Gupta may be the more important nominees. Monaco is a former Obama-era Homeland Security Advisor who has more recently been working at NYU with Rachel Barkow, Anne Milgram, Bryan Stevenson and other good influences, while Gupta has been a leader in reform circles for years. 

Second, the Georgia senate races were called for the Democrats, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. That's huge, of course-- now the Democrats will control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. 

There is something else there, too.

Raphael Warnock, the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is someone who talks about faith all the time, whether you want him to or not. His Christian identity is right up front. In him, there is a chance to shift from Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his ilk being considered the only thing you find at the intersection of politics and Christianity-- and that will be good for us all.

# posted by Mark Osler @ 1:00 AM