This Is Democracy's Dirge

[mcar]

This Is Democracy's Dirge
Retired conservative judge J. Michael Luttig's testimony before the January 6 Committee showed a mind at work, no matter how brittle its delivery was.

By Charles P. Pierce
Jun 16, 2022

Oddly, the most eloquent moment in Thursday’s hearing before the House Select Committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021 came before anyone sat down before a microphone. Prior to the opening of the hearing, retired conservative federal judge J. Michael Luttig, a man who’s at least twice come within an ace of the Supreme Court, released his opening statement to the committee. He ultimately read it in a strange, halting voice but, on paper, it is a remarkable assertion of one man’s unshakable patriotism.

A stake was driven through the heart of American democracy on January 6, 2021, and our democracy today is on a knife’s edge. America was at war on that fateful day, but not against a foreign power. She was at war against herself. We Americans were at war with each other— over our democracy. January 6 was but the next, foreseeable battle in a war that had been raging in America for years, though that day was the most consequential battle of that war even to date. In fact, January 6 was a separate war unto itself, a war for America’s democracy, a war irresponsibly instigated and prosecuted by the former president, his political party allies, and his supporters. Both wars are raging to this day.

The man knows how to grab an audience. You have to give him that.

This is democracy’s dirge, delivered in plainsong. Luttig is no ivory-tower observer; he is a product of the political conflicts of the modern conservative movement. It long has been the feeling here in the shebeen that the previous president* was the inevitable product of 40 years of conservative politics. Luttig was there for almost the entire ride. He started as a White House counsel under Ronald Reagan, and he was nominated to the bench by President George H. W. Bush. As an appeals court judge, Luttig’s opinions often were compared to those of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in their occasional side-trips to cutting sarcasm. He was a longtime mentor to Senator Tailgunner Ted Cruz. He argued in court for the execution of the man convicted of murdering his father. Luttig retired from the bench in 2006.

This was a mind at work in this statement, no matter how brittle its delivery was. And you could see its effect on the other witnesses on Tuesday. Luttig’s statement seemed to bestow increased gravitas on the recollections of the aides to vice-president Mike Pence who also testified Thursday about their time in the heart of the furnace on January 6. Rep. Pete Aguilar, Democrat of California, led former Pence chief counsel Greg Jacob through an account of those perilous few hours that demonstrated that Luttig’s use of the word “war” was not entirely metaphorical.

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a40314426/january-6-hearings-day-3-j-michael-luttig/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. It was stunning, I wonder if any of the one hundred million who saw no reason to vote

in 2020 saw it.

If not, if something isnt done to GET THEIR ATTENTION, November becomes the end.

[mcar]

2. It's all pretty scary

Me, I'll continue to work with local Democrats to do what we can.

[dwayneb]

8. You are correct

We are at the precipice, and we have the apathy of the 50% that did not bother to vote in 2016, and the 40% that did not bother to vote in 2020 to blame.

No democracy can survive the apathy of it's citizens. Personally, I think we're done. The Fascists will control Congress after 2022, and the stage is being set for a Presidential win by Trump or DeSantis in 2024.

Once in power, they will move to dismantle our election system and our rule of law, and make anyone who cares to disagree with the Party line to be "enemies of the State". McCarthy was ahead of his time.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[sheshe2]

4. His last statement, chilled me to the bone.

It will happen again, 2024.

Get out and vote, 2022 and 2024.

I would say more but...

[mcar]

5. It was chilling, she

yet people on social media - and here - whined because he spoke slowly.

[sheshe2]

7. Trending on Twitter...

They are saying he recently suffered from a stroke. I researched. Nothing. It is just the way he speaks.

[brer cat]

6. K&R