Why Are Capitol Tour Guides Being Told to Avoid Referring to Jan. 6? Follow the Money Right to the Sedition Caucus.
Ignoring inconvenient history seems to be a very lucrative American pastime.
Two years ago, January 6, 2021, Donald Trump, then-sitting President of the United States, incited an insurrection against our government.
His goal was to prevent the certification of the results of the 2020 election Joe Biden won by every measure.
The attempted coup, thankfully, as we know, failed.
But what is another term for an attempted coup?
The new republican majority in the House of Representatives has already made it clear it is hell-bent on making sure that practice comes to fruition next time, maybe next year.
But it can’t do it alone.
The so-called “sedition caucus” needs help from average working Americans.
But how does it secure that help without looking right into a screen or tweeting something as blatant as, “Come help us overthrow democracy”?
While that might work for some, we’ll just do what what we’ve always done when it’s in the wealthy hegemony’s best interest to keep the public ignorant.
We do it with the history of slavery in America.
We do it with voting.
We do it with language.
Some are even doing it with books now.
We suppress the information.
U.S. Capitol tours resumed this summer, allowing tourists an opportunity to stand in the building where the historic disgrace, degradation, and desecration occurred.
It’s a perfect opportunity to educate people on that dark day so it doesn’t happen again because, as we know, knowledge is power.
But Capitol tour guides aren’t allowed to include it in their presentations.
The Architect of the Capitol — the federal agency overseeing the Capitol Complex — explained tour guides have been instructed not to discuss “current events.”
In a statement to Spectrum News, the Architect of the Capitol explained:
There was no special decision about Jan. 6. It is simply that the tour focuses on the history of Congress and the art and architecture of the Capitol.
Kyra Stokes, a visitor from Virginia, told Spectrum News:
There was one question asked about when it got rioted, and he [the tour guide] said they just weren’t allowed to speak on it. I wanted to know more about it still.
Kentucky resident Colleen Egan added:
We did notice that there was a lack of current events, like you could notice things that you saw on the news.
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Bryan Steil, who sits on the House Administration Committee, brushed off the concern:
The history of the United States Capitol is so rich and so deep that I think the real key is to stay focused in the history of the United States government and how the United States Capitol is really the people’s house. If an individual has a question, I don’t think we need to hide any history that occurred in the United States of America, good or bad. But I think the key is to not use a history tour of the United States Capitol as a mechanism to try to shove forward some type of propaganda.
Former Mississippi Republican congress member Gregg Harper, chair of the House Administration Committee from 2017 to 2019, concurred, perhaps a little too overtly:
Who’s going to write the [Jan. 6] narrative, and how are you going to do that in a way that’s not politicized? I think that it’s appropriate to say, ‘Hey, don’t discuss current events,’ but if a guide gets asked a specific question or a question about anything, most guides, I’ve found, will try their best to answer that question.
Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), present in the Capitol when it was assaulted and served as an impeachment manager when Trump was impeached for inciting the assault, isn’t tolerating the gag order.
“A reminder is critical,” she asserted.
I hope that the administration of the Capitol recognizes that it is a critical moment in our nation’s history, and it has to be not politically remembered, but historically remembered. It was an attempted overthrow of our government by Americans incited by a president. And at some point, we will get comfortable saying that.
Another Democrat whose memory of that fateful day is acute is Maryland Rep. and January 6 Commission member Jamie Raskin. His indignation over omitting mention of the insurrection is evident when he asserted:
The idea of censoring it or hiding it just makes no sense to me. I would link this impulse to quickly cover everything in a blanket to these memory laws that are breaking out around the country, stifling the teaching of the Civil War or Jim Crow or discrimination against gay people. It’s kind of like, ‘Don’t say Jan. 6,’ and that suppression of memory is the very opposite of neutral and objective.
While reasons for republicans wanting to avoid discussing the darkest day in recent American history for which their president was responsible may seem to be to avoid embarrassment and/or responsibility, the core reason may be even more infuriating.
As with most things, follow the money.
147 members of Congress still voted against certifying election results even after the four-hour destruction ended when Trump finally tweeted to his supporters, “Go home. We love you.”
In the ensuing days, at least 231 corporations and industry groups reversed or considered re-evaluating their political largess to these Sedition Caucus members.
However, two years later, six of these corporations are still shoveling money to them.
Here is a list of the top-10 corporate political action committee (PAC) donors since January 6th:
Koch Industries=$1,374,500
Boeing=$936,500
Valero Energy=$827,500
Home Depot=$790,000
AT&T=$786,900
American Crystal Sugar=$745,000
United Parcel Services (UPS)=$713,500
L3Harris Technologies Inc.=$663,000
Lockheed Martin=$652,500
General Dynamics=$589,000
Amazon=$46,500
Image credit: CREW
1,345 corporate and industry group PACs have given a total amount of $50.5 million directly to Sedition Caucus members’ campaigns or leadership PACs.
Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund states in his new book, Courage Under Fire: Under Siege and Outnumbered 58 to 1 on January 6, warns he is concerned something akin to January 6 could happen again.
A way to ensure that is to keep mum about it, because if few people talk about it, it must not be that big a deal. It becomes easy to paint those worried about its repeat as “biased on the left,” “hysterical,” or “liars.”
Ditto investigations like the ones the republican majority are trying to shut down.
Ignoring inconvenient history seems to be a very lucrative American pastime.
We celebrated another Martin Luther King Day this week, and it’s fitting we mention one of his most poignant quotes:
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.