I agree with Moshe Hill that it is unfortunate that athletes who represent our country do not show the proper respect and feel that they need to make a political statement. I wish that this were the biggest problem in which our stature is being diminished abroad.
A more sinister and dangerous conduct is Trump continuing to preach the big lie that the election was stolen, and that he should be the president. This has undermined the faith in democracy of many of his followers and has been used by autocrats to attack the institution of democracy.
Another blemish is the attack on our democracy by the storming of the Capitol on January 6, and its aftermath.
A bipartisan commission had worked so well in investigating 9/11. See e.g., Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The foreign terrorist attack occurred while there was a Republican president, George W. Bush. It occurred a year before elections in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. It would have been expected that the report would contain criticism of the conduct of the Republican administration. Yet there was bipartisan Congressional support and presidential support of the creation of the commission. The irony is that although the report did criticize the conduct of the Bush administration, President Bush ended up winning reelection.
The Republicans had their chance to agree to a bipartisan commission to look at the attack on the Capitol and to address, among other things, the causes, the conduct by those involved, mistakes that were made, and what could be done in the future. However, not one Republican senator and only a handful of Republican members of the House of Representatives voted for the creation of a commission. Even fewer Republicans voted for the creation of a special committee in the House of Representatives. The reason given was that it would be partisan. The problem is that these were the same people who voted against a clearly nonpartisan commission. The only reason why a select committee had to be established was due to the inability to pass legislation to set up a bipartisan commission. Then the minority leader in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, threatened loss of a seat on another committee if the representative would accept Speaker Pelosi’s offer to serve on the select committee. Despite the threat, Representative Liz Cheney accepted the Speaker’s offer. As of the date this article was written, it is unclear whether McCarthy would appoint any Republicans to the select committee.
Clearly, the Republican leadership has made a political calculation that it is better to suppress the discussion and investigation of the events of January 6. They believe that their base supports that approach, which is an indictment on the American people. The same people who without any basis claim that the attackers were FBI, Antifa, or anyone else but Trump supporters, oppose an investigation by a commission. It should not be surprising, since the results may not be what they want to hear. This way they can continue the same false narrative of January 6 just like they continue to expose the false narrative that the election was stolen.
It is unfortunate that this country has fallen to such a level.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.