At 9:32 PM on January 5th, 2021, now-Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock released a video on Twitter to declare victory in his senate runoff against incumbent Kelly Loeffler. In the video, he emphasized the gravity of his victory: “The other day, because this is America, the 82 year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator.” Senator Warnock’s democratic triumph was declared mere hours before the attack on our Capitol, marking January 6, 2021 as a dark stain on the history of the United States.
In the early hours of the morning on January 6, 2021, swaths of MAGA-clad, unmasked, militia-like White men and women descended upon Washington, DC, waiting to hear from their supreme leader, Donald Trump. Trump came to meet the MAGAts at noon, positioned at a podium behind glass panels, and delivered a speech that closely resembled his rallies, energizing the crowd and feeding into their angry, hypermasculine energy. Inciting violence, Trump said, “You‘ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.”
At approximately 1:30 PM, as Trump’s speech was wrapping up, his mob began to move towards the Capitol, where the Senate had begun the certification of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ victory. A quarter after 2:00 PM, the Capitol was breached, causing both houses of Congress to evacuate.
The Trump insurrectionists infiltrated the House and Senate chambers and broke into various offices of congresspeople, including House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn. They trashed the halls of Congress, showing a blatant disrespect for the very pillars of our democracy-the palace of our elected officials.
The attack on the Capitol was not in defense of America, it was an attack on American democracy in the name of authoritarianism lead by Donald Trump, who, amplified by social media and a collection of conspiracy theorists, a press obliged to spreading misinformation on his behalf, and a rhetoric of fear and hate, has coalesced a cult that has subscribed to his cult of personality.
Democracy, in its truest form (a form that America continues to chase), gives a voice to the unheard; it gives a voice to all people. On the same day that domestic terrorists attempted to silence the voice of the people by delaying the certification of the 2020 election, the people, especially the voices and votes of many who have historically been disenfranchised, were heard in Georgia.
The historic feat of Reverend Raphael Warnock’s and Jon Ossoff’s victories in the Deep South showed remarkable democratic progress. Warnock and Ossoff, a Black Georgian and a Jewish Georgian, were able to win on policy that was non sacrificial to their progressive views. Warnock and Ossoff’s victories were not out of concession to a watered-down, centrist ploy, but an authentic embrace of what they believed. This unrelenting progressivism is remarkable as it provides a contrast to the history of the very state which they were elected by-Georgia, a state integral to the Confederacy, a place of harsh Jim Crow laws, and a place of a Black and Jewish lynching.
The coalition of voters who elected Reverend Warnock and Mr. Ossoff was also historic. Grassroots organizers, notably Black women such as Stacey Abrams and Latosha Brown, mobilized the Black vote by travelling to low-turnout districts, registering voters, and going door to door to energize Georgian voters. In the runoffs, voter turnout reached 88% statewide, with Black voters making up about a third of the electorate, and support for Warnock and Ossoff among Black voters landed at about 93%. In other words, Black voters, who have historically been silenced at the ballot box, not only came out to participate, but were heard in a big way.
Yet another democratic victory occurred, on the day of, or technically the day after, the Capitol insurrection-the certification of the election itself. Not only were the voices and votes of America heard by the act of the certification itself, but the fact that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden themselves were elected to the highest government position in the land is a feat in itself.
Kamala Harris, notably, is the first woman to be elected to executive office in the history of the United States. Even more notably, she is a woman of color, both Black and South-Asian. This means that Harris is a member of two populations in America, who, until relatively recently, were unable to even participate in our democratic processes. This is remarkable progress that cannot be overlooked.
Joe Biden, while male and White, two populations that have historically been uplifted by American democracy, is also a man who was raised in middle-class suburbia, far from political elites or immense wealth. In this way, Joe represents another ideal of American democracy: anyone, poor or rich, regardless of their upbringing, is able to make a name for themselves in America. Of course, Biden has benefited from immense White and male privilege, but his path to presidency reveals that where one comes from or the socioeconomic class in which one was raised does not have to be a determinant of professional success.
Democracy prevailed in a third way on January 6th in the form of nonpartisanship on the behalf of numerous Republican senators. While approximately 14 senators planned to object to election certification on the basis of election fraud that has been disproven innumerable times in court, after the attack, many reversed course and certified election results.
Their vote for certification was a rebuke of the attack on democracy, and therefore a vote in support of democracy. George Washington famously alluded to the danger of devotion to party, and that the truest form of democracy does not lie in a system run by party, but a system that works to benefit the country and is run by the people. While the last four years have been plagued by an America defined by partisanship and division, this system incited by Donald Trump suffered from a collective rejection by Republican senators who voted, not in favor of their party, but in favor of the votes of the people.
These four events-the Capitol insurrection, Raphael Warnock’s and Jon Ossoff’s victory, the certification of the electoral victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and the nonpartisanship after the attack on the Capitol-show three triumphs on the behalf of democracy, and one attack on democracy. Notably, the three victories are far more lasting than the attack; Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will stay in the Senate for six years and stand to vote on bills that can impact America forever, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ election displays the greatest aspects of democracy and stands to also make decisions that will change the nation forever, and Senate Republicans’ nonpartisanship demonstrates the strength of our democracy and raises the standard of nonpartisanship in American politics for years to come.
Compared to these three democratic successes, which will alter America forever, the Capitol insurrection was an unsuccessful coup that will forever stain America, but will also only exist as that-a stain. In this way, democracy won on January 6th. It was tested, but it won.
On January 10, 2021, former governor of California and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger released a video on Twitter, sharing his opinion on the events of January 6th. Schrwarzenegger, who played Conan in the film Conan the Barbarian, compared American democracy to Conan’s sword, “Here’s the thing about swords: the more you temper a sword, the stronger it becomes. … I’m not telling you all this because I want you to become an expert sword-maker, but our democracy is like the steel of this sword. The more it is tempered, the stronger it becomes.” Schwarzenegger acknowledged that this test to our democracy was not a defeat, but a challenge that demonstrated the immense strength of our democratic institutions, and strengthened them further.
Although the destruction at the Capitol eclipsed the headlines, the numerous democratic victories prevailed. In the face of a threat to our democratic ideals, democracy got stronger. In the face of authoritarianism and Donald Trump, democracy won. America was tested, but America won.