This LTE was written in response to: BC Alum and U.S. Senator Ed Markey’s Inauguration Absence Was Undemocratic
Nick Voll’s recent op-ed, “BC Alum and U.S. Senator Ed Markey’s Inauguration Absence Was Undemocratic,” makes a number of disingenuous comparisons that merit correction.
Mr. Voll begins by acknowledging the January 6th riots as “attacks, which directly threatened the lives of several Capitol police officers and members of Congress.” He cites the “left-leaning” arguments that Donald Trump “questioned” the fair election (a generous term for the concerted campaign of proven falsehoods to undermine it) and leveraged his political office for personal gain.
He then ignores these facts entirely.
Mr. Voll goes on to insinuate that missing the inauguration of the President is equally as detrimental to democracy as mobilizing a mob to assault police officers and attempt to stop that President’s inauguration entirely. The worst Mr. Voll can say of Ed Markey’s actions, in opposition to Donald Trump’s concerted campaign of lies inspiring the riot, refusal to attempt to disperse the rioters, and even his recent pardon of the very violent offenders involved in those riots, is that Senator Ed Markey and other Democrats, in a supposedly disgusting display of reprehensible hypocrisy, “stamped their feet.”
In fact, they didn’t even do that— they just stayed home.
Mr. Voll would prefer that Democrats work to repair the wounds President Trump inflicts on democracy by standing behind him in full-throated support when he escapes accountability and regains the political office to inflict those wounds further.
The ‘both-sides-ism’ present in Mr. Voll’s article is insultingly reductive to the facts of the political situation and to the intelligence of the American citizen whose duty it is to analyze that situation and participate accordingly.
Senator Ed Markey silently recusing himself from an event that will certainly proceed entirely unaffected by his absence is not “fighting fire with fire” (as Mr. Voll says) against real, actual physical violence resulting in the invasion of Congress and multiple deaths.
Understanding the distinction between peaceful and violent protest is essential to the maintenance and betterment of our democracy. Mr. Voll’s op-ed attempts to blur this line, and it is symbolic of a larger movement of Donald Trump’s conservative base to do the same. When you simplify the facts of Ed Markey’s absence and January 6th to vague symbolic gestures, it is easier to engage in the fallacious ‘both-sides-ism’ which ignores these events’ wildly different material consequences.
Finally, Mr. Voll omits the fact that Senator Markey’s absence at the inauguration meant he could instead be present in his district for the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. In fact, it is precisely Dr. King’s legacy that reminds us dissent in the face of an unjust power is not a detriment to our democracy, but rather the very backbone of its integrity.
Dr. King lived by this doctrine of peaceful protest. He was murdered by those who embraced its violent counterpart.
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