voting, that was met with violence. even now, since january 6, the threats on the violent threats on officials in our country, for federal judges has gone up three-fold, for members of congress, threats gone up two-fold. for independent election officials, reuters documents hundreds and hundreds of violent threats. take a guy like al shmidt republican from pennsylvania who dared to say the election was just and fair, threatened, his children, threatened to murderer them, so we have to understand we are actually a unique, amazing country, but we see across the planet from europe to south america, authoritarian forces pushing back on democracy, undermining democracy, and democracy on the retreat from hungary to turkey, the demagogic forces we saw pushish back on democracy. so the positive, rachel, is
from now on the second anniversary of the january 6 attack that we cannot have now? what sort of progress do you think we can make as a country? in the year ahead, given what has happened to us in the year behind. let me first just really push the point that if we just see this as an isolated incident, one day we mark every year and forget this is a stream of our nation s history, where violence forces seeking to stop democracy with authoritarian events have been a long part of our country s history. in fact, every step we ve tried to take forward has been met with violence. remember, we talk about the suffragettes and their marches but they were beaten and tortured. we talk about the efforts for voting rights, john lewis, you can go through the number of people that were beaten and those early elected officials, the first senator in the united states senate that was black was during reconstruction when whites had unfettered access to
may have ended the last year, but the crisis of violence and the threats to our democracy are persisting and we are not immune to what is happening around this planet in other areas where democracies are being worn down or eroding and democratic principles and ideals are falling to demagogery and leaders who have authoritarian aims. senator cory booker from the great state of new jersey, senator, thanks for being with us tonight. i know it s been an intense and emotional day today, it means a lot to me that you were here tonight, thanks. thank you very much, rachel. all right, we ll be right back, stay with us. we ll be rigt back, stay with us does it worry me? absolutely. sensodyne sensitivity & gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there s no question it s something that i would recommend. limu emu and doug. and it s easy to customize your insurance
or without any fig leaf of democratic process in order to sort of effectuate that revenge. that s a chilling prospect. i wonder if you can explain that in terms of why you think that risk is real. sure. let me spell out the thought you had which i very much agree with. we know the history of authoritarianism one is that lies lead to violence and violence lead to more lies. we re caught in that now. now that that violence has taken place, people have to lie about it in turn. that s a downward spiral. another thing we know from the history of the big lie it s about just what you said, the big lie is about flipping the victim and the perpetrator. it s about turning the perpetrator into the victim. in fact, it was mr. trump who conspired to overturn our democratic procedures, but the big lie allows him to flip victimhood and effect revenge for something he did himself.
clear. every dark chapter of our history was as the great historian you had on, an ignition point. called the violence, repent not for the actions of the bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people. the hope i have, the story i have, is this thread continues, and you see it in voter suppression, people trying to gerrymandering, trying to under mine free and fair democrcy, i hope people see this is not just pointing fingers at contempt of otherizing people, at them, no, this is not about finding blame. it s about us as americans taking this moment, this day, and not just commemorating it but recognizing it and accepting responsible that we have to make the change.