An old friend who recently retired from reporting for the Minneapolis Star Tribune emailed to say she’s stopped reading the news. “Can’t take it anymore,” she explained.
A day or two earlier, a family member of mine (whose political views are more conservative than the reporter’s) texted me to say, “I have found relief in distancing myself from the insanity of our national politics.”
Both paid close attention to the news during the interminable, headline-intensive, gloomy years of the last president’s administration.
A few days ago, I watched a congressional hearing in which Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., as expected, aimed harsh accusations at Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and top medical adviser to President Joe Biden. Paul accused Fauci of lying about supporting “gain-of-function” research in China, which makes a virus potentially more transmissible. This, the senator claimed, has already led to the deaths of more than 4 million people worldwide. Fauci vehemently denied Paul’s accusation, saying, “Sen. Paul, you do not know what you’re talking about, quite frankly.” When the senator appeared on Fox News soon afterward to recap his attack on Fauci, he seemed to be seeking money for his reelection campaign.
Undeterred by my conviction that Paul and others like him shout headline-seeking misinformation at congressional hearings as a political tactic or fundraising gambit, I tuned in on July 27 to the first hearing of the House select committee on the Capitol riot. It was quite a different scene.
This was an in-person gathering of politicians and police whose perspectives on events in the Capitol on Jan. 6 plainly varied. But no one called anyone present a liar. No one had to be brought there by a subpoena. None of those testifying was represented by a lawyer. One officer, Michael Fanone of the D.C. Metro Police, had “self-deployed” at the Capitol when he heard fellow officers needed help and ended up being beaten, Tasered and dragged down the Capitol steps by the rioters. He suffered a heart attack, a concussion and a traumatic brain injury.
Except for Fanone, who slammed his hand on the table and raised his voice in anger at the indifference some members of Congress have shown to his colleagues — a moment that earned a headline or two — the officers and committee members often seemed to be struggling to control their emotions. It’s impossible to know for sure, but the dominant emotion might well have been sadness.
The hearing focused on individual statements by the four police officers, who told how others helped them survive the attack on the Capitol. Their statements differed in content and style, and when committee members were given a chance to question them, there was little showboating.
If this hearing proved anything, it might be that Republicans and Democrats in our polarized country are sometimes capable of listening while focused on reality, even when they are considering a profoundly controversial subject.
Civility doesn’t generally provide big headlines. Months of negotiations by members of Congress and the Biden administration have required listening and patience while the politicians and their staffs do very demanding work. They are struggling to legislate our country out of a tough predicament that includes, among other challenges, the pandemic, climate change, widespread voter suppression, longstanding racial and economic injustice and a major political party that is apparently no longer fully committed to the peaceful transfer of power.
Compared with the daily fireworks, outrage, hostility and fabrications provided by the previous administration, this kind of work generates news — if it generates news at all — that can be downright boring.
But when civility and patience are put in the service of improving the lives of those who suffer, the news can become interesting in ways that seem unfamiliar. News revealing how government helps those who suffer has considerable power when those who hear it have been suffering.
Americans’ public imagination has been haunted by a faltering belief in government since 1981, when President Ronald Reagan told us: “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Professor Mimi Abramovitz of Hunter College summed it up in a New York Times letter to the editor last March: “Not surprisingly, according to Pew Research Center, Americans’ trust in government plummeted from 73 percent in 1958 (Eisenhower), to 54 percent in 2001 (G.W. Bush) to an all-time low of 17 percent in 2019 (Trump).”
Those Democrats who fear their party may fall off a liberal cliff in upcoming elections if their policies focus too progressively on those who suffer may be underestimating the influence of the pandemic on the public imagination.
It is easier, for instance, to identify with communities that have suffered disproportionately from COVID-19 when your family has suffered too. And it is harder each day, as we read how the delta variant spreads the pandemic into unvaccinated communities, for anyone to comprehend the motives behind Republican denial.
How long can a political party — which takes justifiable pride in a history that includes the wisdom and integrity of Abraham Lincoln — try to hold power with spurious attacks like Sen. Paul’s on Dr. Fauci, or the false claim that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is responsible for the failure of the Capitol police to put a quick end to the Jan. 6 insurrection?
I wonder if such dishonesty will catch up with Republican politicians and Fox News hosts before the next election. This potentially redemptive process seems underway, as some Republican politicians appear now to recognize the terrible consequences of politicizing efforts to end the pandemic. Even Fox News has begun to pay attention to the truth about the implications of the delta variant. And the Manhattan district attorney and the New York attorney general — who are generally seen as rivals — have announced that they are working together and “actively investigating” former President Donald Trump’s business, known as the Trump Organization, in a criminal capacity, citing potential tax, insurance and financial fraud.
Millions of us who long to see our democracy survive may be about to find the news ever more fascinating.
Bill Nichols lives in West Lebanon. He can be reached at Nichols@Denison.edu.