The Darkest Day for American Democracy

Why January 20th Pardons Endanger Our Country More Than Anything Else

After January 6th, 2021, it was common to call the violent insurrectionist riot in our nation’s capital the darkest day for American democracy. 140 police officers were injured and 5 died. About 600 of the rioters were accused of assaulting, resisting, or impeding police officers. It was a terrifying, appalling, and destructive day.

But the darkest day title should, I believe, now transfer to January 20th, 2025 as a result of Trump’s pardoning or commutation of every January 6th convict who engaged in an insurrection against the peaceful transfer of power.

While less dramatic than the scenes we saw on TV, Trump’s mass pardon of everyone who engaged in criminal and violent activities on January 6th is actually a greater threat to the rule of law, a peaceful republic, and the strength and integrity of our institutions.

The repercussions go far beyond the 1500+ individuals who were found guilty, by juries of their peers and through the methodical work of the Department of Justice. It was a signal to right-wing militias and those who do not believe in peaceful democratic processes that loyalty to Trump transcends the rule of law and that even egregious and violent crimes against citizens, elected officials, and police, if engaged at his behest, may be forgiven by him.

For example, Heather Cox Richardson wrote, “The leaders of two key paramilitary gangs who participated in the January 6 violence, Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Stewart Rhodes of the Oath Keepers, are not helping Trump to put the pardons behind him. Now out of prison rather than serving his 22-year sentence, Tarrio called in to conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars within hours of his release to claim that he still commands the gang and that he plans retribution for those who put him behind bars. Tess Owen of WIRED reported that the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which monitors online activity, saw a surge among Proud Boys’ channels after the pardons, as members discussed ways to advance Trump’s agenda.”

The Presidential pardon power is the least democratic, most king-like power that remains from the pre-democratic era. Trump showed he is willing to abuse that power to the maximum level in the service of building a type of loyal, paramilitary force.

Trump regularly attacks his perceived enemies, which often is followed by threats of violence or death from his most hard-core supporters against those enemies. Now those potentially violent supporters are more emboldened and believe that they will be pardoned for crimes committed on Trump’s behalf.

Trump’s extreme use of the pardon power will, I believe, begin to unleash a wave of domestic terrorism as the most unstable and violent citizens among us learn that violence in the service of Trump can and will be excused.

And that is why Trump’s pardons are a more serious long-term threat to the rule of law than January 6th. For all of January 6th’s blood, terror, and horror, the rule of law held. The violent insurrection was defeated and power passed to the rightful next holder of that power. A sizable percentage of those involved were arrested, prosecuted, and found guilty by their peers. The judicial system worked. The checks and balances held. It was a day of national shame AND it was, ultimately, a triumph of our institutions and the rule of law.

January 20th is not that. The pardon power is a weak link in our democracy, a vestige of monarchies of the past, and Trump used it to dynamite the rule of law, to greenlight domestic terrorism, and to build a dangerously empowered subculture of supporters into a more menacing force. Most of his closest allies did not expect him to pardon even the violent offenders. They had spoken out with surety that he would not and should not pardon the convicted criminals who had engaged in violence that day. And yet once he did what they thought was unthinkable, few Republican voices arose to challenge or condemn the move.

Imagine one year from now that Trump has formed the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, and others engaged in the attack on the Capital into a well-armed, paramilitary force that is not under the control of the government but answers to him alone. They may often abide by the rule of law but, at Trump’s signal, they can be mobilized against his enemies with the knowledge that he is willing to bend the Department of Justice’s independence and block their prosecution for federal crimes. Even when they do not engage in direct violence, their presence will loom as a constant threat against dissenters. That’s why the mass pardon move, more than anything we have yet seen, marks a very real transition from democracy into autocracy and the peril of full-blooded fascism. January 20th of 2025 is the day that we crossed an important threshhold.

So what do we do?

The first, and most important thing, is not to be distracted by Trump’s other executive actions in the first days, as offensive and troubling as many of them have been. We need to focus on this mass pardon as the single most dangerous thing that he has yet done. Peeling away his supporters is important to protect against further degradation of our democracy. We don’t want to be distracted by new outrages but focus on what can move the needle in the long term. The majority of Americans, including Trump supporters, do not want to empower violence and want to maintain the rule of law. This action represents a moment in which they can affirm their commitment to democracy and break with support of Trump in a substantial way, which in turn opens them to consider more dangers.

Second, we need to amplify the personal, specific stories that flow from this mass pardon in compelling, honest video form and to share those widely on social media. Many of Trump’s supporters see January 6th as a terrible day for American democracy and they need to understand that the pardoning of all of the insurrectionists is actually a more corrosive act for the future of the rule of law. But they won’t see that from abstract words. They need to witness the stories of people such as the son who reported his January 6th insurrectionist father and now lives in terror of retribution from his vengeful father, or the threat of people like the QAnon Shaman who are now celebrating his ability to buy guns, or the traumatized Capital Police officers who now live in fear for their lives from the likes of Tarrio. Personal stories move people and Trump’s single act of pardoning will spawn many horrifying stories downstream. What if people who are skilled in media production took this on as a collective project to make compelling stories about the downstream repercussions of Trump’s pardon?

Third, we need to keep presenting these stories in a personal, non-aggressive way with people we know who may now or eventually disavow Trump. Our first efforts should focus on people who are not true believers but supported him because of specific issues such as MAHA, cryptocurrency, or strictly economic concerns. Momentum needs to build with this swath of people realizing they made a real mistake in voting for Trump. As his base of support shrinks, it will mitigate his ability to do more harm. The conversions from reluctant Trump voter to Trump disavower will happen through the care, concern, and tenacity of friends who engage respectfully. As the first wave of Trump voters realize they made a mistake, that gives permission to others to consider that their vote might have been a mistake as well. The pardoning of violent offenders from January 6th is not an action most of his supporters condone and it is thus an opportunity to undermine his support, which is crucial for the road ahead.

Human psychology dictates that people seek confirming evidence and rationalize their decisions so most Trump voters will want to avoid, deny, or rationalize their way around the J6 pardons. Our job is to keep it in the foreground.

We need to be loving but strategic, courageous and focused. While his mass pardon endangers the rule of law and emboldens the most violent among us it is also an opportunity to diminish his base of support if we keep it in the forefront of public awareness.