A coalition of progressive groups is joining the call from Democratic lawmakers and progressives for immediate and harsh consequences for those behind the Capitol riot on January 6.
Led by The Frontline, a project of Tides Advocacy that counts the Working Families Party, United We Dream, and the Movement for Black Lives as members, the demand for action was placed in a full page ad in the New York Times Monday and projected on Trump Hotel in Washington Sunday night. Over 200 progressive groups signed onto the call.
The group is calling on lawmakers to impeach President Donald Trump for his role in inciting the riot and to expel members of Congress whose actions on January 6 added to the conditions directly preceding the storming of the Capitol.
"More than words, we need action from our leaders," said The Frontline's Nelini Stamp, director of strategy and partnerships for the Working Families Party. "We are calling on Congress to impeach Donald Trump, investigate this attack on the democratic process, and remove members of Congress who peddled lies and instigated a riot to toss out the votes of millions of Americans to maintain their own power.”
Ups and downs
The election results in Georgia, where Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff took the state's two Senate seats and flipped control of the upper chamber to Democrats, provided a brief moment that showed the promise of a multiracial democracy. It was followed by the riots.
"Last week, after a multiracial coalition achieved record-breaking participation in the Georgia runoffs, our nation witnessed a white-supremacist-led, seditionist attack not just on the Capitol building, but on the growing electoral power of Black and Brown people in our democracy," said Stamp.
With a mission statement declaring the best way to protect American democracy is the removal of Trump and his enablers from office, the coalition behind The Frontline's impeachment push hopes to see Democrats in Congress take decisive action on holding the GOP accountable.
Addressing the causes of the president's far-right movement will take more than that, though.
A growing sense of danger
Stamp and Justice Democrats spokesperson Waleed Shahid on Monday published an opinion piece at Crooked Media arguing for democracy reform as a way to push back on Trumpism. The article argues that, "If Democrats don’t enact significant democratic reforms, multiracial democracy in America will remain under existential threat."
Noting the pervasiveness of anti-democratic laws around the U.S. and the tension between them and the rise of the multiracial working-class coalition that hopes to open the country up to a more representative democracy, the two write that Democrats need to think bigger than just the next election.
"Many Democrats believe that their sole task is to defeat Republicans, and that change will follow naturally," Shahid and Stamp write. "But the structural incentives that led Republicans to embrace Trump in the first place remain in place, even as they lost the Senate and the presidency, and likely even as they’ve been tarred with complicity in an armed insurrection."
A test of the project
The Frontline was launched on September 21, 2020, a project of the Working Families Party and the Movement for Black Lives. As Blue Tent reported, the coalition's mission is to continue the wave of social justice activism that erupted over the summer in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers on May 25.
"We envision a Black-led, multi-racial front that has a vision to defeat Trumpism and neoliberalism and all systems of oppression," Frontline volunteer Cindy Wiesner told Blue Tent in a statement in November, "and build toward a radical governance rooted in justice and dignity."
In order to do that, said Movement for Black Lives Electoral Justice Project activist Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, the group needs to both take a firm line on Trump and Trumpism—while not letting the incoming administration off the hook.
“We are committed not to fighting for a savior on Pennsylvania Avenue, but to fighting for our next target,” Henderson said.
Monday's call for impeachment and expulsion was a step toward a more active role in the post-election political landscape for the group. With an eye to making waves in how 2021 plays out in the American government, The Frontline is already letting Washington know it's on notice.
