What Jan. 6, 2025 Will Prove About Moral Superiority in American Politics

There will be no election-denying insurrection, as there was four years ago, when Congress meets today to certify Trump's win; that's all you need to know about which party is morally superior

It would be an understatement to say that 2025 will bring a large amount of political uncertainty to our nation, with a corrupt, fascist, racist, treasonous convicted felon returning to the White House, and all the chaos that is sure to ensue.

But one certainty is that when Congress meets to certify the presidential election results today (Monday, Jan. 6), there will be no repeat of the horrific, disgusting insurrection that tried to overthrow Joe Biden’s win four years earlier. A mob claiming that the election was stolen from Kamala Harris will not storm the Capitol, will not assault police officers, will not hunt for members of Congress, and will not call for the hanging of the vice president of the United States — all egged on by a politician who knew he had lost an election fair and square and chose to lie about it nevertheless.

Because if there’s one thing our topsy-turvy, whiplash-inducing political system has proven beyond all shadow of a doubt the past four years, it is this: Only one political party in America respects democracy and the U.S. Constitution; only one party respects the notion that every citizen should have an equal right to have their voice heard, and their vote counted. And for whatever flaws it has when it comes to policy agendas or being beholden to a fundamentally broken political system that too often manipulates voters rather than serving them, there is only one party that can claim the mantle of moral superiority: the Democratic Party.

The scene on Friday, as reported below by Huffington Post, when House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries acknowledged Trump’s victory before the new Congress said it all.

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Friday gave a standing ovation to the top Democrat in the chamber, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), when he mentioned that Republican Donald Trump had won the presidential election in November.

But they all promptly sat down and went silent when Jeffries said why he appreciated their applause: because his party isn’t the one that’s home to election deniers.

“Two months ago, the American people elected Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States of America,” Jeffries said, speaking at the dais in the House chamber.

Loud cheers and whistles filled the room, as GOP lawmakers jumped to their feet and celebrated Trump’s victory.

“Thank you for that very generous applause,” Jeffries said with a smile. “It’s OK. There are no election deniers on our side of the aisle.”

GOP lawmakers weren’t celebrating anymore. Now Democrats stood up and cheered even louder as Jeffries continued.

This must be a tough pill to swallow not only for Republicans who have long clung to patriotism and draped themselves in the American flag, and the principles it embodies, as their rallying cry. As much as they want to put their head in the sand and claim otherwise, it is now clear beyond any shadow of a doubt to all who care to pay attention that their political party is led by a traitor to all that America, and the flag they claim to love so much, is supposed to stand for — and that the party they have long belittled as insufficiently patriotic is truly the only party left that can legitimately claim to put “country before party” when it comes to matters of politics.

It must also be a tough pill to swallow for all the cynics who have washed their hands of politics, who have convinced themselves that “they’re all the same” and that no politician in America can be trusted. For as much as their frustration with our broken, special interest-controlled political system is justified, their broad brush generalizations ring hollow when one compares the events of Jan. 6, 2021 with those that will occur today.

No, they’re not all the same, not even close. Democrats are flawed (and some are even corrupt) when it comes to the messy art of politics, but as a party, they respect the will of the voters — and the right of every American to have their vote counted — even when it does not serve their interests. No one can seriously make the same claim about the MAGA-controlled Republican Party (though there are individual exceptions).

That’s important, because while respecting democracy and the principles of the U.S. Constitution might not in and of itself control the price of eggs — and may seem like abstract concepts to millions of Americans concerned with the day-to-day challenges of their individual lives — it is a necessary requirement for building trust and integrity in our system of governance and the foundations upon which meaningful change can occur that benefits all Americans and preserves their fundamental rights and freedoms.

Of course, it can be difficult to find any solace in the fact that the Democratic Party still respects these principles, and remains loyal to the U.S. Constitution, when that party was just rejected by voters in the most recent election. It doesn’t help matters when so many, including the mainstream media and the political pundit class, spread the offensive narrative that it is the Democratic Party that has gone astray and lost touch with the American people, and not the party that has trampled upon every shared value and principle that is supposed to underpin our national existence. No, regardless of what the elite media and pundits would have you believe, Democrats did not lose the 2024 election because the party has swung too far to the left (Harris actually swung decisively to the middle in her abbreviated campaign), abandoned the working class (its actual policies prove otherwise) or that it is preoccupied with “woke” politics and trying to protect trans and other marginalized groups from having their fundamental rights stripped from them when they should be preoccupied with bread-and-butter (and eggs) issues (translation: the financial well-being of primarily white, cisgender, heterosexual voters who have little else to worry about but grocery and gas prices).

No, it’s really much simpler than the arrogant pundit class would have us believe. The primary reason Democrats lost was the same reason that political parties usually lose presidential elections when they hold the White House, because too many voters are frustrated by economic conditions and need someone to blame for the price of eggs (even if there’s no magic political wand that controls the price of eggs; it’s controlled by complex economic factors largely removed from the power or wisdom of any election officials, at least in the short term). The primary reason Jimmy Carter lost in 1980 was that the man he appointed to head the Federal Reserve in 1979 (Paul Volker) wasn’t able to break the back of runaway inflation until 1983, when Ronald Reagan was president and could claim the credit when he ran again and won a in a landslide in 1984 (no one said politics is fair). Remember all those working-class white voters who abandoned the out-of-touch, too-liberal Democratic Party for Reagan and the Republicans in the 1980s? They quickly had a change of heart and swung back to the Democrats when the economy soured under Reagan’s Republican successor, because, in the end, it was all about “the economy, stupid” and George H.W. Bush was doomed by the same forces outside his direct control that doomed Carter (and now Biden/Harris).

That’s not to say that Democrats should escape real soul-searching about their own mistakes and shortcomings (yes, there were other issues that mattered, such as immigration and the border, that Democrats failed to adequately explain or address to the satisfaction of too many voters). The country experienced amazing job and overall economic growth during Joe Biden’s presidency, but the image too many voters came away with was of a weak, aging president and floundering party that couldn’t fix the sticker shock of rising prices quickly enough or articulate coherent policies about the border, Gaza and other issues. How and why that image took root and did such political damage to Biden and his party is something well worth contemplating.

But if history has long proven one thing about American politics, it is this: the qualities and positions of individual politicians and political parties matter far less than who happens to be in charge when Americans as a whole decide they are unhappy with their own economic conditions or tired of the status quo. Conversely, when Americans are generally upbeat about their own fortunes, and that of the nation, they will invariably reward the party in charge, regardless of how much credit that party, or its leader, actually deserves for the state of affairs — or how flawed and corrupt that party and its leader may be. At least this is the way it works in the seven swing states that currently decide presidential elections (in the other 43 states, one party or the other commands such blind loyalty that it is usually destined to win no matter how badly its leaders fail).

No, right did not win on Nov. 5, because the myth that presidents can control the price of eggs outweighed the truth that Trump is a traitor who tried to destroy the one thing presidents do have immense control over — upholding the principles and freedoms imbued in the U.S. Constitution. That’s something that should make us all sad and concerned. But it does not need to result in despair and hopelessness, because our history has also proved that setbacks and failures can ultimately lead to triumph — if the losers learn the right lessons from them and commit themselves ever more passionately to a just cause.

The effort to exterminate the evil of slavery from the North American continent suffered one defeat after another over the course of decades, until it finally prevailed.

The effort to exterminate Jim Crow segregation and racial terror from the American South suffered one defeat after another for a century, until it finally prevailed.

The effort to grant fundamental rights (including the right to marry) to the LGBTQ+ community suffered one defeat after another, until it finally prevailed.

There are many, many other examples of right ultimately triumphing over corrupt might, both in our nation’s history and the history of the world. They only happened because those who believed in a fairer, more just, more free world did not throw in the towel when setbacks inevitably occurred on the path to realizing those dreams.

Time will tell what choice those of us who are reeling from the setback of Nov. 5 will make, whether we will display the same resilience, commitment and passion to the cause of democracy, and the shared values of decency and respect for individual rights, that previous generations showed in their struggles.

But for now, we can and should take one measure of solace in the events that occur today at the U.S. Capitol, however disgusted we may be by the choice of our fellow citizens on Nov. 5. The party that will respect the will of the voters will emerge morally superior to the one that tried to destroy U.S. democracy four years ago. And that moral superiority will provide a strength of will and purpose that no amount of money by America’s new class of oligarchs can buy, no amount of media disinformation and right-wing propaganda spread by the likes of Fox News can extinguish, no amount of cynicism and flawed political punditry can obscure.

I don’t know what the future will hold, but I do believe that those Americans and institutions that can rightfully claim the moral high ground are in a much better position to ultimately prevail in long struggles for justice.

Let the Republican Party and MAGA movement celebrate their big win today. The fact that their bitter opponents will respect that win, and not sink to the levels of depravity, deceit and violence they did four years ago, makes it all the more likely that MAGA is destined to lose the long battle ahead, and ultimately be relegated to the dustbin of history alongside Jim Crow, McCarthyism and other experiments in political corruption and human subjugation.

They just don’t know it yet.

P.S. U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a Marine veteran who was a member of the House of Representatives on Jan. 6, 2021, posted this recollection last night of the events of that day. His words speak for themselves about that horrific day and the ongoing battle to preserve our democracy:

Four years ago this evening, I was looking forward to certifying the results of a fair, free election.

But as I stood on the floor of the House of Representatives on January 6th, 2021, I had to be ready to fight. A lot of people have asked me what that day was like, so I’ll share some of my thoughts with you here.

First, as a Marine Corps veteran, I never imagined having to use my training to protect myself and my colleagues on the House floor.

I never imagined teaching my House colleagues how to put on a gas mask and regulate their breathing.

I never imagined I’d be helping frightened colleagues move to safety as insurrectionists started streaming into the Capitol.

I never imagined I’d stay behind after the Capitol security came in to do one more sweep for colleagues who might have frozen and gone to cocoon somewhere hard to find.

I never imagined I would ever have to teach my staff how to knock on the door of our office a certain way to signal it was them and not some attacker — something we did in the Marine Corps when surrounded by insurgents and you didn’t know who was good and who was bad.

And I never imagined I’d have to text members of the House and urge them not to get on buses ready to evacuate us from the Capitol because if we left we’d lose the building to the coup.

The truth is, I was ready to fight that day to protect our democracy.

Reflecting on that day, I’m proud that my party has done what we could to further protect and strengthen our democracy after January 6th. But that fight will have to continue.

And as someone who joined the United States Marine Corps to defend this country and protect our democracy, you can count on me to be on the front lines of that battle.

Thanks for reading,

Ruben Gallego