January 6, 2021: Only moments after projected wins in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff elections guaranteed Democrats a governing trifecta (the presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives) upon Joe Biden’s January 20th inauguration, Americans across the country turned to their TVs and news feeds as supporters of then-president Donald Trump laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, the first attack on the building since the War of 1812.

Freshly invigorated after a rally at which Trump reaffirmed his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, over 2,000 of his supporters attacked the Capitol. 5 people died in connection with the siege and over 100 were injured. Several members of the federal government narrowly escaped death at the hands of the riot, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT), Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and even former Vice President Mike Pence.

The organizers of the riot had hoped to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election by preventing Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi from presiding over the January 6th verification of the electoral results. Ultimately, the attack failed; after an afternoon of evacuations and sheltering in place, Congress reconvened and certified the results in the early hours of January 7th, and Joe Biden was, indeed, inaugurated as president on January 20th, 2021.

However, many characterize the events of January 6th as a symbol of the fractured state of American democracy, which some argue has not been this divided since the Civil War. A combination of several factors led to the Capitol riot, including decreasing faith in the democratic process, an increasingly polarized political climate, and the rise of misinformation on social media.

Never before had a U.S. President refused to concede their election loss. Never before had a losing candidate’s supporters launched an attack on the Capitol, America’s symbol of democracy itself. Never before had a mob spurred on by the president chanted for the hanging of the vice president.

Many Americans thought that January 6th was one step too far, that Republicans and Democrats would surely come together to denounce the illegal, anti-patriotic riot and Trump’s role in instigating it. At first, they did.

Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer almost immediately called for Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove him from office. Then president-elect Joe Biden called the 6th “one of the darkest days” in U.S. history.

What inspired hope in many Americans, however, was the reaction of the GOP. Despite the fact that 147 of their caucus members voted to decertify the election results that morning, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said that Trump “bears responsibility” for the attack while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said “Trump provoked the deadly Capitol riot.” When all House Democrats, along with 10 House Republicans, voted to impeach Donald Trump on January 13th, 2021, many cautiously hoped that this time the 17 Republicans needed on top of the 50 Senate Democrats would vote to convict Trump. As Republican congresspeople spoke out against the president and members of Trump’s cabinet resigned and distanced themselves from the administration, Americans recognized the possibility that Trump may be the first President convicted by the Senate.

However, the majority of the GOP quickly changed their tune. Only 7 Senate Republicans voted to convict Trump on February 13th. Although he was already out of office at the time, the conviction would have forever barred Trump from the Oval Office. But due to a lack of 67 votes to convict, Trump was acquitted.

Republicans like Kevin McCarthy and Lindsay Graham, who had spoken out against Trump the day after the riot, soon returned to being some of his most ardent supporters. All but 2 House Republicans, Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), seemed to have forgotten the position of the GOP from the 7th. Instead, the Republican Party has doubled down on its efforts to spread unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, encouraging many Republican-led state legislatures to pass heavily-restrictive voting laws.

Now, America, and even the Republican Party, remains divided. Liz Cheney, daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, was removed from her position as Chair of the House Republican Caucus. Later, the Republican Party of Wyoming officially stopped recognizing her as a Republican. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney, a Republican previously so popular that he secured his party’s nomination for president in 2012, was booed at a GOP conference in deep red Utah.

Today’s GOP has seemingly refused to accept nonconformity in regard to the 2020 election. The aforementioned Republican incumbents, as well as moderate Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, face potentially difficult paths to re-election. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has announced that he will not even attempt re-election in 2022. Many in the Republican Party view Cheney and Kinzinger as traitors to their cause for accepting positions on the House’s panel to investigate the January 6th attack.

January 6th 2022: One year after the unprecedented attack that almost overturned a free and fair election, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer held a day of remembrance at the U.S. Capitol, to which all members of Congress were invited. Liz Cheney, who brought along her father Dick Cheney, was the only Republican congressperson to attend the event (Kinzinger was with his wife, who was in labor).

GOP leadership has seemingly forgotten how they previously placed responsibility on Trump for the devastating attack. They have seemingly forgotten how their lives were threatened that day too. They have seemingly forgotten the oath they took to protect the U.S. Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic. Even Mike Pence, one of the mob’s targets, now claims the severity of the riot has been exaggerated.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney himself, one of the most polarizing politicians of the 21st century’s first decade and largely credited with orchestrating the Iraq War, said that the 6th is “an important historical event. You can’t underestimate how important it is.” He added, “I’m deeply disappointed we don’t have better leadership in the Republican Party to restore the Constitution.”

If nothing else is a marker of the strangeness of today’s political climate, it is that the words of Dick Cheney now resonate with millions of Democrats, Republicans, and independents nationwide.

Only time will tell if the GOP will push off the yoke of Trump and adopt more widely-popular policies to win elections or if they will attempt to use restrictive voter bills to win the Electoral College while failing to carry the popular vote.

And only time will tell if the Democratic Party will stop them.