Was January 6th an Existential Threat to American Democracy?

Open to Debate

Education, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

By now it is clear, the Red Wave election-denying candidates had hoped to ride left most still waiting on the beach. Those who questioned the outcome of the 2020 election lost key midterm races, which seemed to calm the nerves of many of those fearful as to where the Republic itself was headed. But as the parties begin to prepare for their respective presidential runs, a bigger question looms; one that has taken its cues from President Biden himself. Shortly after the January 6th attacks on the capitol — which were prompted by unfounded messaging about the election’s illegitimacy — Biden sought to convey the severity of what had just happened. “The insurrection was an existential crisis — a test of whether our democracy could survive,” he said. Now, on the heels of the midterms, many not only openly wonder whether that democracy crisis is over, but also question if the words Biden chose were overblown in the first place. It is in that context, and as the 2024 elections come into focus, that we debate this question: Was January 6 an existential threat to American democracy? On December 15th, Andrew Keen, Internet Entrepreneur, Author, and Host of the “How to Fix Democracy” podcast, squares off against Election Strategist, Managing Partner at CAE Strategies, and Vice President of the Fair Elections Center, Rebekah Caruthers, as part of the “No Laughing Matter” series at the Comedy Cellar at the Village Underground in New York. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:39.9	Hi everybody and welcome to Intelligent Squared and hello to our audience here at the Comedy
0:44.3	Cellar in New York City where we are putting on a debate as part of our no laughing matter
0:48.3	series. The question we're taking on is was January 6th an existential threat to democracy?
0:54.6	6 months after the assault on the US Capitol in January 6th of 2021, President Biden put
1:02.3	out a statement in which he himself referred to that as a moment that posed an existential
1:06.6	threat to our democracy. In the same statement he said, our democracy prevailed. What we're
1:12.5	going to be looking at is which of those two things are those intention with one another.
1:16.7	If it was under threat and it prevailed, is that because it was strong or was it always
1:21.5	fragile and it was in near miss. That's what we're going to be debating with this question
1:25.5	was existing as January 6th an existential threat to democracy. But we would like to know
1:30.0	where you are, our audience here at the Comedy Cellar, on the question itself, how you would
1:34.3	answer it before you've heard the arguments. So I'd like to do this very unscientifically
1:39.9	using the applause meter. So to those of you who would say yes to the question was democracy
1:47.8	threatened by January 6th, existential. If you believe the answer is yes, could you please
1:53.1	applaud? And if your answer to that question would be no, we'd like to hear your applause.
2:08.3	And if you're undecided on it, could we hear your applause?
	...

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