Opinion | Who Owns Jan. 6?

The Dutch historian Pieter Geyl said, “History is an argument without end.” Not always.Many big historical questions are firmly settled.

No one seriously suggests that the Watergate break-in was justified, and even Marjorie Taylor Greene retracted her claim that 9/11 was an inside job.At first, the same consensus seemed to apply to Jan.6, 2021.

“Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem,” Donald Trump said the day after the riot he inspired.Mr.

Trump appeared to have crossed out the line in his statement addressed to the rioters: “You do not represent me.You do not represent our movement.” Even then, he couldn’t bring himself to say that.

But he did say that they did not represent the country, and the guilt of those who ransacked the Capitol hardly seemed ripe for revision.Of course it didn’t take long for Mr.Trump to move from condemning the rioters to celebrating them.

And with his victory in November, the narrative of the most serious threat to the American Republic since the Civil War is suddenly up for grabs.For Mr.Trump, the new struggle over Jan.

6 is a chance to rewrite not just the most irresponsible moment of his irresponsible life, but American history itself.For his critics, Jan.6 has become an excruciating anniversary — a reminder of how much constitutional muscle we lost that day, and how much more could wither in the next four years.

Back then, many of us comforted ourselves that for all the trauma, at least Mr.Trump was gone for good.

Now he’s back, his election to be certified a second time on the same date in the same chamber desecrated by his insurrectionists.With Jack Smith’s criminal prosecution dead and the investigative committees of Congress in friendly hands, Mr.Trump has an opening to erase the black mark of Jan.

6 on the MAGA movement.He has already begun to gaslight Americans over whom to blame.

Believers in the rule of law and the sovereignty of fact will have to paint over ...