Remembering January 6
Not everybody is blessed with intimate reminders of the day Democracy perished, for there are only so many federal SWAT teams and solitary confinement cells. Those too ignorant to understand the gravity of the day need constant reminders. Thus, a new holiday was born. In 2022, more than 200 candlelight vigils were held to honor the heroes who stood by and posed for selfies with rioters. Congress filled the steps of the Capitol dressed in funeral garb. They had created their own holy triduum of political theater. Their lamentations are offered as sacraments: consume the narrative and wash it down with wine that tastes of Kool-Aid and costs thirty pieces of silver (adjusted for inflation: $34 trillion). Do this in remembrance of us.
Image: Win McNamee/Getty