Picking up the pieces of a fractured country

On Sunday, Jan. 3, in the dawning hours of a new Congress, Rep. Don Young delivered the oath of office to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. That oath begins, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic ...”

Three days later, those enemies showed up. And already, Jan. 3 seems a lifetime ago.

A rioting mob, seeking to take whatever measures it could to stop the constitutional process of certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, overran the U.S. Capitol and forced America’s legislative branch into hiding for several hours. After multiple deaths and widespread destruction, order was restored and the election’s certification proceeded, finishing around 4 a.m. Thursday in an important statement that our democracy cannot be cowed or subjugated by force.

But the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol raises very troubling questions: What happens now? How, having come so close to the destruction of our democracy, can we ensure such an event won’t happen again? And how can we move our country forward to ensure that this, and not some yet-to-occur tragedy in the near future, is as low as it gets for the American republic’s prospects?

The first, most obvious answer is accountability: We must identify all those who committed crimes on and around the Capitol grounds Jan. 6 responsible for their actions, and we must levy strong punishment for their actions. A lack of accountability would embolden those who seek to replicate Wednesday’s travesty for illegitimate political and terroristic ends. Our congressional delegation has been wise to push for this remedy, and to urge that accountability go all the way to the top, including President Donald Trump and lawmakers who urged supporters to fight the election’s certification because of baseless claims about widespread fraud — claims some of them are still repeating.

As a practical security measure, the failure of the Capitol Police to secure the seat of America’s government, as well as the behavior of some officers seen fraternizing with rioters who entered the building, must also be investigated, and errors corrected to provide better protection for our elected representatives.

And when these reckonings have taken place, our country has a greater one with which to contend: How can we move forward as one nation when the fissures of mistrust, partisanship, animosity and even racism run so deep? Indeed, the animus on display in Washington — both inside and outside the chambers of Congress — is reflective of the broader fissures in American society at large. And we must find a way to begin to heal it.

There is no easy answer. The issues that have gone unaddressed for decades and even centuries cannot be quickly dispatched. Even if all parties came to the table in good faith, problems that have gone on for decades will not be solved overnight. The work will be hard, it will require earnest, painful conversation and it will take engagement by all of us, or we may end up in a place worse than where we are today.

In times of crisis, we would do well to lean on the wisdom of our elders. Serendipitously, last week it was Don Young who took a first step toward bridging that divide: “I’ve been in this House longer than anybody else,” Young said to Pelosi. “I’ve served with you longer than anybody else that served with you. I love this institution. I will be honest, I do not like what I see. It’s time we hold hands and talk to one another.”

Prescient words, it turned out.

Does Young’s sentiment sound trite? Maybe, in light of the violence Wednesday. But the Dean of the House is right: If we can’t listen to one another, whether in the Capitol or our own neighborhoods, we are doomed to retreat further into our warring camps until no hope of healing the partisan gulf remains. The responsibility to avoid that fate lies with each of us.

Lest this be mistaken for a call to forgive and forget all of the trespasses of those who deserve no such accommodation, it is not. It is a recognition — a hope — that the vast majority of Americans watching the riots at the Capitol on Wednesday were rightfully horrified, whether their politics lean to the left or the right. It is a hope that we have the will to continue working toward a more perfect union. And, as Rep. Young told Speaker Pelosi on Jan. 3, “When you do have a problem or if there’s something so contentious, let’s sit down and have a drink. And solve those problems for the good of this nation, for this institution, and, as you said, for the future children of this great nation.”