A year ago today , Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy were fleeing for their biography as a tearing mob pullulate the halls of the U.S. Capitol . With their personal rubber at risk , the two most powerful Republicans on Capitol Hill at last support up to Donald Trump . In a heated phone call , McCarthy , the House nonage leader , unprofitably beg the president tocall off the crime syndicate . Senate Majority Leader McConnell later called the rioters “ terrorists ” and said Trump was “ morally responsible for ” for the fierceness .
But McConnell and McCarthy soon slink back to enabling Trump ’s assaults on democracy . They were tranquil while Trump assert the 2020 election was slip and that anyone who take issue must be purged from public office . They stayed mute as Trump supporters threatened vehemence against election officials and Republican - dominate state law-makers rewrote laws and procedures to prevent middling voting .
McConnell and McCarthy have barefacedly put party ahead of body politic and ambition ahead of tariff , setting up alarming forking for the future . scientist havesaid for yearsthat humanity faces a mood hand brake and only speedy , far - reaching action can bear on a livable planet . On the first day of remembrance of the January 6 attack , it ’s unmortgaged the U.S. also faces a republic emergency as well . Only rapid , far - reaching legal action can preserve a government that is of , by , and for the people .
Photo: Samuel Corum (Getty Images)
The democracy exigency is intimately linked to the climate crisis . Each is grounded in a big lie — that climate science is a hoax , that Trump won in 2020 — crusade by the same rightwing politicians and propaganda “ news ” outlets and embrace with cult - like devotedness by Trump ’s followers . Left untreated , each threatens tragedy . If Trump ’s force do change enough electoral rules and personnel to warrant victory in 2022 and beyond , there is zero opportunity the U.S. administration will take the strong climate action needed to avert globose disaster .
Defusing the orbicular climate emergency therefore depends on protect commonwealth . To be trusted , the U.S. is not the only country where anti - democratic trends hamper mood progress . Most of the worst laggards at November ’s COP26 climate summit were countries where authoritarianism is either entrenched or on the rise : China , Russia , Saudi Arabia , Brazil , India , the U.S. But the collapse of U.S. republic would transport peculiarly detrimental climate consequences . Slashing world emissions in half by 2030 , as science says is imperative , would be unimaginable if the world ’s biggest saving and conduce historical carbon emitter refuses to serve .
How to defuse the democracy emergency is too openhanded a dubiousness to answer shortly . President Biden and the Democrats sure must do more ; the Senate Majority Leader , Chuck Schumer , haspromised a voteby January 17 on reforming the filibusterer to pass honest vote law of nature . A circulate civil society is also life-sustaining . With Trump ’s follower trying to install partisan on ballot board across the land , the Atlantic’sBarton Gellman notesthat majority rule activists can likewise turn at the local and country levels to block such skullduggery and ensure fairish elections .
A free press is foundational to democracy , and news media must also rise to the occasion with outspoken reportage . Monika Bauerlein , chief executive of Mother Jones , exhort the mediato treat “ the war on democracy ” as the “ freehanded story ” of 2022 . The Washington Post columnistJennifer Rubin sayspolitical reporters should “ stop … hide that only one party is launching a campaign to suppress votes ” and “ demand that Republican [ officials ] defend their participation in the liberal Trygve Halvden Lie of a steal election”—and if Republicans attempt to dodge , keep involve the query .
Aside from Trump himself , no one deserves such journalistic grilling more than McConnell and McCarthy . As the senior Republicans in Congress , they have the stature to fight Trump ’s campaign for one - party rule . similitude profiles in cowardliness , they have instead betrayed their curse to defend the constitution against all enemy , strange and domestic .
McConnell and McCarthy want the world to forget that a year ago today Trump ’s mob was trace them down , leading each man to stand up , briefly , for democracy . But the globe must not forget . The mechanical press in exceptional must not allow McConnell , McCarthy , and most other Republicans to becloud that they are activate the gravest scourge to American majority rule since the civil state of war — and , by so doing , encouraging a god-awful clime future .
Mark Hertsgaard is Covering Climate Now ’s executive director and cobalt - father and the environment correspondent of The Nation .
This story originally appear inthe Guardianand is part of Covering Climate Now , a global journalism coaction strengthening coverage of the climate story .
BidenChuck SchumerDonald TrumpKevin McCarthyMitch McConnellPoliticsTrumpism
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