Countdowns have begun… to commemorations of January 6th. Pardon one? Pardon all? Pardon none?
We’re now inside of a week until Christmas day.
For you Christmas clock – or calendar – watchers you’d best quit procrastinating and make your way to the store, or the computer, to purchase what you’ve been putting off until now.
But calendar spectators may also be observing the passage of the days for another, less heartwarming reason. We’re now about two and a half weeks until January 6th, which next year, falls on a Monday. Though no political leader has yet declared that January sixth now shares notoriety with December 7th or September 11th as a “date which will live in infamy”, there’s little doubt most Americans reflexively recognize it and reflect back to what happened four years ago.
Not only that, but here’s predicting the near dead duck (not lame duck!) Biden administration remnants will devote much time and attention to how the anniversary should be observed, somewhere in between calling for silence for the horribly torn nation to striking a celebratory tone for successfully siccing the Justice Department on every participant to pay with their freedom, livelihood, self-respect, fortune, home, marriage, etc. -- punishment for the “crime” of disbelieving the legitimacy of the 2020 vote count and then showing up on the Capitol grounds to “let their voices be heard.”
At any rate, in one of his final official acts as president, senile Joe Biden will most likely take whatever stimulants he needs to make himself coherent for an hour or two and then deliver a nationwide address – perhaps from the Oval Office – to decry and denounce, for a final time, the occurrences of January 6, 2021.
As for the rest of the country, many people are engaged in a debate over whether to pull a senile Joe Biden (for his son, Hunter) and ask Trump to pardon the lot of the January 6 “prisoners” who were literally and figuratively rounded up by Merrick Garland’s goons and charged with a variety of criminal no-no’s for utilizing their First Amendment rights to speak, petition and assemble.
President elect Trump has said he will pardon many if not all of the J6ers (as they’re now called) on his first day in office. Should he? In a commentary titled “J6 Pardons: Trump Must Not Go Wobbly”, the always thought-provoking David Catron wrote at The American Spectator earlier this week:
“…These people are not insurrectionists — not one has been charged with that crime — nor are they criminals. None carried firearms into the Capitol and the only one who died that day was Ashli Babbitt, a veteran shot by a capitol police officer to whom she presented no serious threat. A majority of the J6 prisoners are guilty of little more than trespassing and disorderly conduct.
“Moreover, it’s obvious that millions of Americans agree with this assessment. Trump has long made it clear that he intended to pardon many if not all of the J6 prisoners, and 77.3 million voters cast ballots for him last month. The Democrats, the corporate media, and some weak-kneed Republicans insist that it would be a mistake for him to pardon these people. They’re wrong. Jan. 6, 2021 was hardly America’s finest hour, of course...”
Therein lies the dilemma. There is no clear answer to the pardon conundrum. Trump has said he’ll consider each case individually, but time is of the essence. Every day of delay impacts lives.
It would make sense to come to a general policy before delving down to the nitty gritty. As Catron argued, all of the J6ers should receive a pardon. Kurt Schlichter and others have argued similarly. They provide various rationales for advocating to include everyone. Here are mine:
First and foremost, it’s the right thing to do. And they deserve it. If it’s a fundamental, God-given right to speak out against the government, what the participants in the protest did on that day (almost) four years ago was at the top of the list in terms of allowable actions. It doesn’t get more “American” than that – to find the most visible and consequential place possible and go there to “make themselves heard”.
The fact the purveyors of “dignified” government freaked out when it was all over doesn’t justify what the Biden revenge-seekers did in response. People were right to be angry at how the protest got out of hand. It didn’t look good for our side to behave the way some of those Trump backers did. Yet let the punishment fit the offense. Some measure of monetary restitution should have been made for the minimal physical damage; then forgive and move on.
Most of the participants left the place how they found it. Others, goaded by police excess, went overboard. The law exists for a reason.
But four years later, nothing good would come from leaving the matter unresolved, and those who’ve been serving time have paid their debt to society. Let ‘em go, and cleanse their records. An official apology would be a bonus.
Second, the nation has moved past January 6, 2021. Issuing full pardons to every participant will allow for everyone in the country to have a new start, whether they desire one or not.
There’s simply no need to keep bringing this up. I learned recently that the ugly knee-bashing incident involving Nancy Kerrigan and some idiot colleagues of Tonya Harding thirty years ago took place on January 6, 1994. What is it about that date?
Aren’t anniversaries supposed to be a good thing? Putting a blanket end to the legal leftovers from J6 2021 will expunge the stain that now lingers on that date, begging for a collective emotional stain remover.
Third, Ashli Babbit deserves to rest in peace. Protester Ashli Babbitt was killed for no reason by a capitol police officer for jumping through a broken window. Video and subsequent analysis showed she went through the opening so she could prevent others from doing the same.
Babbit’s fellow protesters were luckier than she was. But the taint that remains will forever be there unless Trump acts to pardon the entirety of the protester group. Singling out those who may have acted violently (there are two sides to every story) dishonors the sacrifice Ashli Babbitt made. Her memory and legacy deserve to endure with an act of clemency and forgiveness, not to simply perpetuate the vindictive score-settling that’s taken place under the auspices of the Biden Justice Department.
Lastly, any political repercussions Trump would possibly feel from granting every J6er a full pardon will only be temporary and won’t last long.
Some people will definitely be angered by Trump being lenient with all of the J6ers, including the purportedly violent ones. Some of those definitely appeared to go overboard that day. But again, they’ve already paid for their actions. They’ve done their time. No one is going “free”. But justice hasn’t been done -- yet.
At the same juncture, American voters have short memories. Senile Joe Biden’s pardon of his son for the middle-aged lad’s crimes was comparatively more egregious. Yet when it comes to harboring a grudge for something that boils down to a difference of opinion (should Trump pardon them all or not?), it’ll have no staying power.
Americans will be concentrating on Trump’s policy prescriptions and whether the country is recovering from its funk imposed by senile Joe Biden and the rest of the Democrats, not an innocuous detail like a one-time mass pardon regarding something that took place years ago.
David Catron is right – Trump mustn’t go wobbly on the J6ers. Pardoning all of them is the best way to put that tragic day behind us. Maybe, then, by next year, Americans won’t even think of January 6 as a date that needs to be singled out.
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