Bend the Arc Statement on Jan. 6 Anniversary

Bend the Arc: Jewish Action released the following statement on Wednesday from Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc Jewish Action regarding the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol:

"One year after January 6, the smoke has still not cleared. Although the siege of our nation's Capitol incited by former President Trump, Republican officials, and right-wing pundits ended after a few hours, their attack on the foundations of democracy has only increased since then.

Mounting evidence shows these elected leaders helped plan, promote, and then excuse January 6th. They spread daily lies about our elections and our government to keep their supporters engaged and enraged, exposing Americans from election administrators to school superintendents to death threats and violence.

They're using their deliberate disinformation campaign to attack our freedom to vote, rewrite history, and introduce hundreds of bills that sabotage fair elections in dozens of states across the country to overturn the will of the voters, alongside their escalated use of racial gerrymandering to dilute the power of Black and brown voters.

We applaud the efforts of the Department of Justice and Select Committee to hold the participants and organizers of the January 6 attack accountable. But one year later, the fact that no politicians, funders, or planners of the attempted coup have faced accountability is chilling to the bone. Every single person responsible -- from the former president to the senators, House members, and state legislators who fed, fueled, and fomented these attacks -- must be held accountable.

We can't change what happened one year ago, but we have the power to change what happens three years from now. Our time for action is running out.

We call on our Jewish community to urgently rise with righteous fury to protect the dream of multiracial democracy in this country -- the yet-unfulfilled promise of a just and equitable society where all of our rights are respected and freedoms are protected. We know deep down that a country where truth has been inverted, where conspiracies form the basis of governance, and where a growing portion of the population believes they are called to resort to violence is not a safe society for our diverse Jewish community. We can not be silent, nor should we despair; we must act in solidarity with everyone threatened.

President Biden and Democrats in the Senate have the pressing moral responsibility, and the power, to uphold the principles of democracy and protect our elections from sabotage. The first and most urgent order of business is for the Senate to pass The Freedom to Vote Act, which would reverse many of the anti-voter laws passed this year, The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act which would restore the ability of the Justice Department to review discriminatory changes to voting rules, The Protecting Our Democracy Act, which would prevent future presidents from abusing their power for personal gain or obstructing the transition of power, and The Washington, D.C. Admission Act, which would grant the more than 700,000 residents of our nation's capital a meaningful voice and a vote in Congress, and would also allow D.C. to control its National Guard, which can be called upon immediately to protect our Capitol and other critical sites.

When we understand the right's political strategy of division and fear for what it is -- using every tool at their disposal to make this country only for themselves and people who look like them, as they have for generations -- we can shut down their machinery of hate and build a democracy in which freedom and safety are for all of us, across lines of race and religion, no exceptions."