The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.
Saturday marks the three-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. To be perfectly honest, we weren’t planning to write an editorial about this anniversary — not because we’ve forgotten the damage of that terrible day (we haven’t), or because we don’t think it remains relevant as its excusor-in-chief runs for president again (of course it does).
But frankly, it feels like we are thinking and writing about Jan. 6 and its fallout regularly. We don’t really need an anniversary to remind us that a sitting president weaponized lies and weaknesses in a late 1800s law in an attempt to overturn an election that he lost.
With all the hyperbole in Maine this week about Donald Trump’s place on the ballot, and assertions from some that democracy is on the line, we can’t help but remind folks of how it was actually on the line three years ago.
The violent attempt to stop the certification of an election on Jan. 6, 2021, was, objectively, an undemocratic act. American democracy is contingent on a peaceful transfer of power. When people try to use force to obstruct lawful processings, that is not protest and it is not democracy.
Unfortunately, some Republicans seem more worked up about Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ recent decision to bar, pending court review, Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot than they did about Jan. 6. Maine Republican Party leadership has said that democracy in the state is at stake with her decision. Bellows’ Dec. 28 determination is the result of petitions, including from former Republican lawmakers, seeking to disqualify Trump from the Maine ballot because, they said, he engaged in insurrection. The 14th Amendment disqualifies people from office for this reason.
Let’s unpack that a bit. By this rationale, it is undemocratic for Bellows to follow a process prescribed in state statute for handling petitions challenging Trump’s ballot eligibility. This process requires her to make a determination, which she even delayed implementing pending court challenges.
Yet, many of these same people have not applied the same rationale to the attempts by the former president to reverse the results of the 2020 election because he refuses to concede he lost. He, and some of his supporters, devised schemes of fake electors, challenged election results in court — and lost nearly every time — and then sought to stop the required congressional counting and certification of electoral ballots on Jan. 6. They stormed the U.S. Capitol, searching for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and threatening to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence, who had a constitutional duty to oversee the Jan. 6 vote count.
These efforts were clearly undemocratic and should be strongly rebuked by anyone professing love for America’s democracy.
People can certainly disagree with Bellows’ decision on Trump’s ballot access, and many have. But calling her a fascist and seeking her impeachment are undemocratic. Bellows followed a prescribed process, which included a hearing and the filing of briefs. If the Trump campaign believes her decision is wrong, it can appeal it in court, which it has done. Likewise, there were legal avenues to challenge Congress’ ratification of the 2020 presidential election results. Those avenues didn’t involve a violent mob storming the capitol and threatening to hang the vice president.
America is a nation of laws. Bellows followed them. Trump often seeks to circumvent them.
It is clear to us which one was undemocratic.
