RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Opinion) I finally admitted it to my parents.
On those winter days in 1951, I had faked illness so I could stay home from school and breathlessly watch the small screen of the family television as a parade of real-life gangsters was marched before the congressional hearings of Senator Estes Kefauver.
Seeing them in person and hearing the testimony from the likes of straw-hatted “Greasy Thumb” Guzik, reputed to be Al Capone’s bagman for bribery as well as his adviser and treasurer, and mink clad Virginia Hill, the mob’s moll as well as mobster Bugsy Siegel’s girlfriend had to beat by a mile anything they were teaching at junior high school.
In fact, you could reasonably argue that as educational social studies, nothing could have been better.
I’m reminded of this as I await with great anticipation the televised hearings of the US House of Representative’s January 6th Select Committee which begin June 9th.
While unlikely to spotlight such bizarre characters as sartorially elegant gambling boss, Frank Costello, the hearings – to be broadcast in prime time on almost all channels except Fox – are likely to attract a massive audience, far larger than the estimated 30 million viewers of the Kefauver hearings.
There is no question that the seriousness of this outranks any previous congressional efforts at public transparency. Certainly, the 1973 Watergate hearings which ultimately brought down Richard Nixon, and before them, the Senate’s Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954 which ended McCarthy’s tyrannical pursuit of ‘un-Americans’ were of national importance.
But this must be of much greater import. The issue being investigated by the committee lies at the foundation of the idea and essence of American democracy, whether the will of the electorate can be undermined by the mob, and whether the American electoral system can effectively fight back against an attempted coup.
Was the January attack on the US Capitol an organized effort to overthrow the election of Joe Biden and keep Donald Trump in the White House or not? Who is responsible for the attack on the Capitol and the deaths and injuries that resulted?
After inciting the mob to march to congress, what did President Trump do to prevent or at least put an end to the violence? And not incidentally, what can be done to assure that future elections are fair and secure and their tallies honest?
One is reminded of the cogent line in Tom Stoppard’s play ‘Jumpers’; “Democracy is not in the voting. It is in the counting.”
How much clarity these six anticipated televised hearings will bring to these critical issues is anyone’s guess. The congressional team, working tirelessly for more than a year, interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and others, and reviewing over 140,000 documents, has endeavored to get to the bottom of who did what knew what, and when?
It hasn’t been easy, nor have they managed to interview some key players who have argued that the Committee has no legitimacy.
President Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows; Kevin McCarthy, minority leader of the House of Representatives; the boisterous congressman Jim Jordan and others have ignored subpoenas, calling the investigation a political witch hunt. Even right-wing Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is involved.
What are we likely to witness?
If rumors are to be believed, the presenters are planning to use all forms of modern video production to put forth more of a prosecution case than an inquiry.
The two Republican and seven Democratic Representatives on the Committee appear to be adamant in wanting the American public to see for themselves how close the republic’s majority came to being undermined by a tiny but determined minority.
The exciting Kefauver hearings didn’t end organized crime any more than the sinister McCarthy hearings ended politically motivated witch hunts. It’s doubtful that this valuable upcoming look into the workings of the January 6th insurrection will engage the most right-wing conservative adherents.
But for everyone with a sufficiently open mind to watch this coming spectacle, there is a good chance we will come away with an improved understanding of the perils of our times. That’s no bad thing.