Nothing Less Than a Miracle: The Challenge of Constitutional Transfer of Power

“To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every 4-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.”

– President Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address

On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, both houses of Congress met to perform what has historically been a routine Constitutional task: receive and count the certified electoral votes of the previous presidential election. Article 2, Section 1 of the United States Constitution spells out the simple process that has taken place peacefully every four years since George Washington was president: “The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted.” Each state’s electoral votes are certified, a process that remains a ceremonial formality at the Capitol Building for many decades. There have been several instances when presidential election results were contested or disputed, but the peaceful transition of power prevailed. We provide examples below for students to explore.

Until this week, the Electoral College count has stood, and the House and Senate have received and counted and confirmed its votes without disruption. For two months following the November 2020 election, President Trump and his supporters made multiple legal and rhetorical challenges to its outcome, all of which were dismissed by courts around the country for lack of evidence. This last week also revealed that the president attempted to interfere in the election results by pressuring state electoral officials in Georgia (as recorded phone calls showed). In the culmination of these efforts, President Trump called on thousands to gather in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, to challenge the Electoral College count. That morning, those who gathered listened to the president urge them to march on the Capitol, where the government’s legislative branch was meeting to count the electoral votes. Within hours, a violent mob broke into the Capitol Building and threatened the lives of members of the House, the Senate, and the Vice President of the United States. The attack led to the deaths of 5 people, including a Capitol Hill police officer who was attempting to defend the lives of Congress members.

After the violence, both houses of Congress returned to complete the count of the electoral votes to try to demonstrate that the constitutional process could not be ended violently. Even after these violent events, 147 Republican members of the House and 6 Republican members of the Senate still voted to overturn the democratic votes of Americans in the 2020 presidential election. In the aftermath of the attack, consequences for those who participated in and instigated and incited violence continue to unfold. In one week, a new president of the United States, Joe Biden, will be inaugurated. How, after the first violent attack on the transition of presidential power in this country’s history, do we as Americans process these events and consider the meaning of our role as citizens in a democracy that we want to endure? We’ll explore some of these questions below.

Essential Questions:

- What is the history of contentious presidential transitions in the United States and how were they handled?
- How does the Constitution help us respond to violent attempts to overturn election results?
- What is our role as citizens to protect a democratic and nonviolent transition of power in our government?
- What can we learn from this experience about how to discern false rhetoric and violence?