Democracy Matters - Episode 51: Insurrection and Sedition Explained
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SUMMARY: In this episode of Democracy Matters, James Madison University History and Political Science faculty experts explain the ongoing insurrection, and help us understand the events of January 6, 2021, the complicity of the president of the United States, and efforts to undermine American elections, and democratic norms and institutions.
Sedition: conspiring to overthrow the government by force.
Insurrection: a violent uprising against an authority or government.
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021 hundreds of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump besieged the United States Capitol in a violent attempt to overturn the results of the free and fair election. Instigated by a sitting president on a co-equal branch of government and perpetrated by a mob and White nationalists intent on upholding White supremacy, the insurrection immediately followed a rally at which Donald Trump urged supporters to march to the Capitol as he repeated his false claims of voter fraud and called on Vice President Mike Pence, who would preside over a joint session of Congress certifying President-elect Joe Biden and Vice Presdient-elect Kamala Harris’ Electoral College victory, to step in and reject the election results.
Scaling walls, overcoming Capitol police, rushing doors, breaking windows, and charging through the halls of Congress, insurrectionists sat in the Senate president’s seat, put their feet up on the House speaker’s desk, ransacked congressional offices, and defaced statues. Many questions still remain about this assault on American democracy already in peril and its implications.
In this episode of Democracy Matters, James Madison University History and Political Science faculty experts explain the ongoing insurrection, and help us understand the events of January 6, 2021, the complicity of the president of the United States, and efforts to undermine American elections, and democratic norms and institutions.
JMU Faculty experts in this episode:
- Dr. Melinda Adams, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Letters, Political Science
- Dr. Rebecca Brannon, History
- Dr. Tim LaPira, Political Science
- Grace Wilson, MLIS, JMU Libraries
Resources
- Teaching Around Elections
- Open Letter from over 2,000 Political Scientists Calling for Removal of President
- Brookings Institution, Around the halls: How leaders and publics around the world are reacting to events at the Capitol
- Foreign Policy, ‘This Is Not Who We Are’ Is a Great American Myth
- Almost a Quarter Influential Republican Deny Biden’s Victory Survey Says
- ‘Far Worse Than Nixon’
- It’s Official, The Election Was Secure
