Jan. 6 hearings: National civics lesson

Jason Van Tatenhove, who served as national spokesman for the Oath Keepers and as a close aide to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, testifies during the seventh hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on July 12, 2022, in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The House Jan. 6 committee hearings are an act of public teaching: a civics lesson on a grand stage.

That was especially true of last Tuesday's hearing, with its truth-telling about race, violence, American history, power, psychology, and the escalating existential threat to the country represented by Donald Trump, the Republican-fascist movement and the larger white right.