At midnight on Jan. 6, 2021, a good 12 hours before the eruption of historic violence for which the date lives in fresh infamy, the column I submitted began like this:
BREAKING: The United States.
That’s it; that’s the lede.
OK, no one wants to be told their country is crumbling, but when Peaceful Transfer of Power Day arrives as scheduled on Jan. 6 and the mayor of the nation’s capital is requesting hundreds of National Guardsmen, maybe you’re a tad anxious that this little unofficial holiday tradition is going to hold up.
The truth is, I wrote that hoping to be dead wrong. I was hoping the worst impulses of a narcissist who’d lost the election would not rise to the level of violence against the Constitution, against democracy, against America, even against his own vice president, who finally certified Joe Biden’s victory nearly four hours after midnight had come again.