Guy Fawkes Day: Remember, Remember

Recently, I watched an episode of the excellent Netflix series The Crown. The show centered on the annual British celebration of Guy Fawkes Day. For those who aren’t familiar with English history, on November 5, 1605, Protestant King James I sat on the throne of England. Since taking the throne two years earlier, he had continued the anti-Catholic policies of his predecessor, Elizabeth I, frightening many Catholics who feared persecution or exile. A group of Catholics, including a man named Guy Fawkes, collected 36 barrels of gunpowder and stored them under the House of Lords. With enough explosives to destroy the building and kill everyone in it, the plan was to kill all of the political leaders of the nation along with King James and his nearest relatives, who would also be present, and replace James with a Catholic king of their own choosing. Near Midnight, on November 4^th, hours before the annual opening of Parliament, the plot was uncovered, and Fawkes was arrested with those 36 barrels and a pocketful of matches. His co-conspirators were quickly rounded up or shot in the attempt to arrest them. The plotters were tried in January 1606 and executed, several by being hanged, drawn, and quartered, a grisly punishment reserved for those convicted of treason against the nation.

Ever since the original Gunpowder Plot was uncovered and stopped, the United Kingdom has commemorated the saving of the nation with a celebration now called Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night. Each year, on November 5^th, England celebrates with fireworks, bonfires, the burning of Guy Fawkes in effigy, and other craziness. When teaching European History, I would take my classes outside on that date, burn a paper effigy of Fawkes, drink a toast with grape juice (rather than the port wine that is the custom), and one girl would read the famous poem:

            “Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason, and plot!

            I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.”

Flash forward 416 years, and we in the US experienced our own Gunpowder Plot. Built around the lie that the losing presidential candidate had actually won the 2020 election, well-armed plotters from around the country, called to action by the Loser himself, gathered in Washington on the day the government was scheduled to open for the year. Their goal was to kill or overpower anyone who tried to stop them, overthrow our government, and install illegally the man who had lost in November—in essence, to blow up our government and bring an end to democracy. As we know, England pursued the perpetrators of the treasonous plot aggressively and ended the conspiracy quickly. Two years after the January 6^th plot where do we stand? Do we celebrate the day we stopped those who would blow up our government?

No. Instead, the leader of that treasonous conspiracy on January 6, 2021 not only still walks free, but he has declared himself a candidate for the next presidential election. He wants us to give him another chance to establish himself as dictator. Several of his fellow plotters have been tried and/or convicted for their failure to tell the truth about their involvement or to cooperate with investigators, and hundreds of others who stormed the Capital on that infamous day have been sent to prison. But, as of this date, nothing has been done to really deter similar attacks on our democracy in the future. And the legacy of this failure has been painfully obvious in recent days.

The man-who-would-be-king promised a “Red Wave” of Republican victories in 2022 midterm elections, spearheaded by his hand-picked candidates for office. This wave never occurred, as the voters across the country rejected many of those candidates who espoused bizarre conspiracy theories or had no qualifications other than a celebrity name. Enough of the lunatic fringe won, however, to allow the GOP to take control of the House of Representative by a narrow margin. This slim control could never have occurred without the new congressional districts recently gerrymandered by Republican-controlled state governments, but the GOP now controls the House. Or do they?

As we have seen over the past few days, the Republican majority has demonstrated complete ineptitude in selecting a Speaker of the House—the man who is third in line for the presidency. To call it a shit-show would be overly generous, as the word “show” implies a degree of planning and organization that has been sorely lacking in the Republican leadership. And make no mistake, this is another legacy of the Loser. Many of the GOP members in the House are those who owe their positions to the MAGA movement or the Q-Anon insanity. Many others supported or enabled the former president by being too cowardly to vote to remove him from office for the criminal activities that were exposed in each of his two impeachment trials. Even Kevin McCarthy, the man who has so dramatically mishandled his attempts to become Speaker, at first condemned the Loser’s January 6^th actions and called for his removal, but, after a call from the president, he reversed his stance so quickly that it left Washington heads spinning. Now the Grand Old Party has gotten what it wanted, power and control, but has proven that the entire party is incapable of leadership.

In the 1200s, Genghis Khan and the Mongols rampaged over most of Asia, establishing the largest empire the world has ever seen, an area that stretched from Central Europe to the Pacific Ocean. The reason we don’t hear much about them today, however, is that they never built anything; they stole or destroyed everything in their path, but left no monuments or cultural contributions that advanced the human race in any meaningful way. This history lesson points to another legacy of the disgraced former president. He built only 40 miles of his promised 2000-mile-long wall, but destroyed much more along the way. He also created a new generation of Republican politicians who emerged in his own image. Among many in the House at the moment, people such as Lauren Boebert, Matthew Gaetz (the pedophile and sex-trafficker), and Marjorie Taylor Green entered politics not because they have great plans to build something or help people. Instead, they are driven by ego, self-promotion, and gaining power simply for the sake of having power. Their actions of the past few days demonstrate that they have much more in common with the Mongols and Guy Fawkes than the Founding Fathers they so often quote. They know how to blow things up, but not how to build things or govern.

One of my favorite Emerson quotes, in a slightly paraphrased form, is “Don’t trust children with sharp tools, and don’t trust men with power until they have learned to temper it with compassion and wisdom.”

Happy January 6^th Day.

I, too, see no reason that treason should ever be forgot.