OPINION | DOUG SZENHER: An altar defiled

President not only one at fault

Politics began to interest me during the 1960 presidential campaign. I was in the fourth grade during the first half of the year when the various candidates were contesting the state primaries for their party nominations. During that summer, and after school resumed, I watched television coverage of the conventions, followed by the spirited campaign between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon, including their historic debates.

Sometime after the election, by now in the fifth grade, I checked out a novel about politics from the school library. It was Allan Drury's "Advise and Consent." I was hooked for good after reading it. I've been a political (and history) junkie ever since.

Nearly 60 years later, I still rarely miss a chance to watch the movie version of the book when it's on TV. It was--and still is--stunning to me how well the members of the all-star cast meshed with the mental images of the characters they portrayed that I'd formed from reading the book.

However, Charles Laughton was shafted by the Oscar voters: He deserved at least a nomination--if not the actual award--for best supporting actor as Seabright "Seab" Cooley, the crusty but unscrupulous scheming, manipulative, and vindictive--but, ultimately, at least partially, redeemed--senior senator from South Carolina. (Sound familiar? Except for that last part ...)

I regularly watched JFK's almost weekly televised news conferences, as well as the "Ev and Charlie Show," the Republican response from the Senate and House Minority Leaders, Everett Dirksen and Charles Halleck. It was a time when Democrats and Republicans could engage in robust debate of their policy differences without demonizing each other; and especially without inspiring their supporters to threaten physical violence against members of the opposing party. It was also a time when, in response to serious situations, the political parties could put those differences aside, work out compromises, and pass the necessary legislation that benefited the common good and protected the interests of the United States and its allies.

There probably are citizens of this country 10 years or more younger than I am who find themselves utterly incredulous of those last two sentences. If I didn't have a good memory, I might not even believe my own words.

On Jan. 6 of this year, there was an attempt to overthrow not just the result of last November's free, fair, and properly validated presidential election, but also the very form of government of this country. One established by our Constitution and sustained for two centuries despite numerous threats, including pandemics, economic catastrophes, foreign and domestic terrorist attacks, a civil war and two world wars.

In the wake of that action, which was both tragic and atrocious, David Brooks, New York Times political columnist, wrote a very personal and emotional column about his reaction to the horrific images we all saw during the attempted coup that day.

He used the words "awe and reverence" to describe his feelings the first time he ever set foot inside the Capitol Building as a 14-year-old boy. He said he still feels that way, 45 years later, despite the fact that he now lives near the Capitol, and has been in and out of it thousands of times over the course of his journalism career.

I was not privileged to see the inside of the Capitol in person until my mid-30s, and have only been there one time since then, but "awe and reverence" are as good a pair of words as any for my reaction both times I visited. I hope Mr. Brooks won't mind if I borrow them now. I don't know whether he cried when he wrote his column. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried when I read it.

In the lead-up to the assault on--to again appropriate Mr. Brooks' words--"the altar of our democracy, the sacred gathering spot of those who served, strove, and died building this nation," more than 100 members of the Senate and House, like the fictional Seab Cooley, engaged in unscrupulous, scheming, manipulative, and vindictive behavior.

Actions which contributed greatly to the toxic atmosphere preceding that attack, which, at this writing, has directly claimed five lives, including a Capitol Police officer killed fending off the rioters, and may have been a factor in the reported suicide of another officer days later.

Incredibly, even after the Capitol had been cleared of terrorists and Congress resumed its constitutionally mandated task of certifying the Electoral College ballots, most of those 100-plus officials still had not seen the light clearly enough to follow Senator Cooley's example of trying to redeem themselves and atone for their actions. Virtually all of them continue to show no remorse.

Much has already been written about the role of the president of the United States in fomenting this insurrection. I do not mean to minimize his responsibility in the least by focusing on what certain members of Congress did to aid and abet the situation.

God help the elected officials who actively or passively encouraged this tragedy, and those who subscribe to their mindset and keep voting for them. And God help the rest of us if their views cannot be changed.

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Doug Szenher lives in Little Rock.

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