A sigh of relief, then an odd sorrow about Jan. 6

The final hearing of the House select committee on the Jan. 6 insurrection concluded with the only acceptable ending after its nearly 18-month investigation — criminal referrals to the Justice Department accusing Donald Trump of federal crimes, including assisting or aiding an insurrection.

Even though the committee’s recommendation doesn’t mean DOJ has an obligation to indict Trump, what Attorney General Merrick Garland ultimately decides to do is our new national anxiety. But on Monday I felt relieved and satisfied that there were even small, symbolic steps toward accountability.

What I was not anticipating was an odd sense of sorrow.

Obviously I care nothing about the man who, for his own monstrous reasons, incited a deadly insurrection in an attempt to upend the outcome of the 2020 presidential election he lost. Unable to persuade a single judge — even those he nominated for their assumed fidelity to him — to consider his bogus election fraud claims, Trump incited thousands of his followers and tried to exact his will through violence.