What do you do with a broken Congress?

A fence still surrounds the Capitol, and the scars of January 6 have not healed. The emotion we all heard and saw during the impeachment hearing continues to be felt on K Street and in D.C.

We all watched in horror as the doors of the Capitol were battered, offices tossed, officers stomped, gouged, beaten, and killed. We heard the barbaric cries for assassination, saw, disbelieving, nooses in the Senate chamber, symbols of hatred and slavery in the Rotunda. We learned how very close to disaster and dissolution we came. Those tangible blows to bodies and our body politic are indelible. Just as serious, however, are the blows to the intangible precepts that underlay our notion of who and what we are and how we can function as a country.

In principle, the insurrection was an attack on our democracy and on the 2020 election. In fact, it was an attack on the Senate. Senators, staff, and family members were gathered for the ceremonial celebration of a rare event in history—the peaceful transfer of democratic power. Incredibly, this secular rite was ravaged by a mob. Instead of counting electoral ballots, Senators were huddled under desks, hustled out of danger, in fear for their lives. These events, too, are indelible and with lasting effect.

Congress split by faction