SPECIAL EDITION ISSUE: Published January 25th 2021
A Timeline of Capital Events
By Nola Minogue ’21
January 6th 2021.
A day which we all wish wouldn’t live in infamy. The day’s events began at 10 am, with
the assembling of members of the far right group Proud Boys on the Capitol lawn- you know, the group Trump told to “stand back and stand by” during the first debate.
Trump spoke to his supporters two hours later at a rally near the White House, along with Donald Trump Jr and Rudy Giuliani. In your typical English class plot analysis this is what we call the inciting incident.
Around 12:30 pm, the crowd began marching from the rally to the Capitol building, after a promise that Trump would join them.
At 12:53 pm, the mob breached the first barricades outside the Capitol, just as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi began the joint session of Congress to certify the presidential vote.
1:15 pm brought more clashes between Capitol police and rioters. By the end of the hour, the mob breached the last two barriers surrounding the building and had full access to the Capitol’s doors. Ten minutes later, the first of the rioters had entered the building.
Carry on reading for this week’s Special Edition of the BHS Ledger.
Black Georgia Voters Help Flip the Senate
By Mia Occhino ’23
Democrats have gained control of the United States Senate after four seats were flipped in the Senate election. Now that Republicans and Democrats each hold 50 seats in the Senate, the tie will be broken by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
The story behind the Senate flip comes from Georgia, where President-elect Joe Biden became the first Democratic candidate to win the state since 1992, and Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have been the first Democratic senators elected in Georgia since 2000. The results were not close enough for a recount of the votes in the state; Warnock and Ossoff’s respective opponents, Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, previously challenged the results and called for recounts but have both since conceded.
So how did Democrats flip Georgia blue and allow Warnock and Ossoff to emerge victorious with these long-shot seats? Much of the shift should be credited to Black voters, who showed up to the polls at record numbers in the state. The deciding force in both Ossoff and Warnock’s victories came from surges of votes in heavily Black counties, both rural and urban. Warnock received approximately 92% of Black votes against Loeffler, and Ossoff also received 92% of Black votes over Perdue.
Black grassroots organizations ran campaigns to reach Georgia residents and register voters in areas of previously lower turnout. Powered by Black women such as LaTosha Brown, the founder of the organization Black Voters Matter, and Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, these volunteers and organizers helped register hundreds of thousands of voters, including many Black voters who likely would not have voted in the runoffs or even missed voting altogether in November’s general elections. According to The Guardian, “more than 100,000 Georgians who didn’t vote in the presidential requested a mail-in ballot for the runoff.”
Democrats hope to replicate this victory during the 2022 midterm elections, specifically in North Carolina, another Sunbelt state where a Senate seat will be open. They failed to flip the state blue in the 2020 cycle, but there may be an opportunity if another candidate can drive Black voters to the polls in the same way. The blue victory in Georgia could set the stage for Democrats’ potential gains in future southern state elections, and has demonstrated the weight of Black votes as a deciding demographic.
White Supremacy and Insurrection in American Culture
By Adelaide Maloney ’22
After insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, the nation was left in shock. It seemed impossible that such an act of terrorism would be performed not only within the US, but by American citizens. Such actions are believed to be unrepresentative of the American people, but the reality of the situation is that American culture and complacency directly led to this horrific crime.
For centuries, the American nation has ignored harmful ideologies such as white supremacy and allowed them to take root within the nation. Starting with the very founding of the colonies, and the institution of slavery, casual racism has been prevalent within the country. Even in the north, often regarded as more egalitarian, slavery- rooted racism exists; the first woman persecuted in the Salem Witch Trials was enslaved. Though slavery was widely made illegal in 1863, the racist society it began is still prevalent.
No substantial action has been taken against organizations such as the KKK. Not only does
it still exist, but the leaders of the KKK are generally quite wealthy. Civil rights protests
have been disrupted and attacked by police for decades. Those are only two overt ways in which American society is actively hostile towards
its own people, due to the color of their skin. Many more implicit and disguised forms of discrimination exist too, and these have still been prevalent despite growing scorn of outright white supremacy.
The building blocks were there for this insurrection within this racism. Especially among rural, less educated white Americans. People who live in areas without racial diversity, and where that overt racism is still quite prevalent. These are people who believe themselves more entitled to work or housing than racial minorities, and who will scapegoat those minorities if those things are ever taken away.
Since his first presidential campaign, Donald Trump has served the biases of racists. He blamed Mexican immigrants for the loss of blue-collar work in the nation, and he worked to criminalize Mexican people solely because they weren’t white Americans. This pattern has been repeated throughout his presidency. In his condemnation of the Black Lives Matter movement, he disparaged an entire demographic of Americans. Trump’s racism was taken to heart by millions of Americans.
Active white supremacy within the Trump base began to build during the election, when protests against counting votes ran rampant among Republicans. Votes being counted, which decided the election, were largely from areas where the majority of the population was black. Eventually this culminated with claims that the election, and therefore those black people’s votes, and the subsequent storming of the Capitol.
Where Do We Go From Here?
By Leah Katz ’21
Following the insurrection, Senators were determined to get back into the chamber, as soon
as it was safe, to confirm Joe Biden as the President Elect. Throughout the night, as terrorists were still being cleared from the Capitol, many Republican Senators who originally objected to the results of the election began changing their position. Since they ignored, and often supported, all false claims and calls to violent action from their fellow Republicans, it took this immediate danger to their own lives
for them to recognize that the results of the 2020 Election were secure and accurate.
The hypocrisy and selfishness of the Republican Party rang clearer than the cries of “stop the steal” from the crowds of extremists.
The attack on democracy has drawn the line for many previous Trump supporters, with some executives even resigning from their positions. The now Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has finally begun socially-distancing himself from the administration, in yet another shocking development in this just-as-crazy new year. Of course, we must remember that none of these former Trump-supporting officials are heroes. It still took an uprising in the literal building of democracy to convince these people of the danger of the president.
Led by Democrat Ilhan Omar, articles of impeachment were immediately drawn up that night as senators and representatives were in lockdown, and were presented to the House of Representatives on January 11th. Exactly one week after the insurrection, the House voted to impeach Trump on the charge of incitement of insurrection, marking the first time a president has been impeached twice.
This vote also made history when a total of 10 Republican representatives voted against their own party, in favor of impeachment. Many Democrats also called for invoking the 25th Amendment, which states that the Vice President, with the support of a majority of executive officers may claim the President to be unfit for office. He would then be removed and the Vice President would take over as Acting President.
Leaders in both parties supported this action, but Pence stated he would not be moving forward with it.
The next step in this second impeachment would be to hold a Senate Trial, though this has been held off until Joe Biden takes office. This will be the first task for the new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, though it is unclear what the result will be. There is no precedent or Constitutional Law for impeaching a president who has left office, and it might take lesser priority once Biden begins enacting his plans for his first 100 days.
Impeached or not, these people will not go away with Trump on Inauguration Day, which he did not attend. This country has seen a dramatic and dangerous rise in extremist organizations, and Trump handed them the soapbox, often too literally.
The future of the impeachment trial is uncertain, and it’s likely Trump could run again in four years. Regardless, the terrorists and white supremacists who raided the Capitol
will continue to believe that their rights were taken away and will remain angry at so many leaders and civilians alike. What the nation witnessed on January 6th 2021 was a culmination of decades of growing extremism and hate that cannot be ignored.
