I’m also not convinced that his actions on January 6, however heinous, are enough to erase Trump’s policy legacy—getting rid of NAFTA, the First Step Act, taking on NATO and China, and Operation Warp Speed. But I know I’m not alone in thinking he is not suited to carry it further.

I still believe that the Democrats are hoping these proceedings save them from having to compete with Trump on the campaign trail. And I still feel sickened by the fact that many of these politicians tweeting endlessly about that day are not lifting a finger to help their own constituents, who are living daily with the kind of chaos and violence they supposedly abhor.

And yet, I’ve come to believe that the question of what exactly happened on January 6 matters. It matters because there is a lot of talk flying around about the weakness of our democracy. Most people making that argument point to the violence of January 6 as Exhibit A. But the picture that’s emerging from these hearings is quite the opposite: Institutions, staffed by patriotic Americans, held against a massive onslaught from without and perhaps a greater one from within.