New York: The hearings of the House select committee on the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol presented a careful, convincing and disturbing account of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. They provided an abundance of detail about what we’ve long known: that Trump and his allies engaged in an assault not only on Congress but also on democracy itself.

The work done by the committee over the past 18 months may be even more important than its report. The months of scouring investigation and the carefully staged hearings, in which the evidence of Trump’s malfeasance was presented to the public, were critical elements in the nation’s full understanding of the attack. Through the work of these hearings, Congress showed that the best possible answer to political violence lay in the tools that were right at hand: the rule of law, checks and balances, testimony given under oath and the careful process of bureaucracy.

Like a slow-motion replay, the committee’s work also gave Americans a second chance to comprehend the enormity of what transpired on that day. It seems plausible, as some members of the panel have asserted, that the hearings made protecting democracy a significant issue in the midterm elections and helped persuade voters to reject some election deniers who ran for state offices. The sustained attention on Trump’s conduct in his final days in office is also valuable as he mounts a renewed campaign for the presidency. And the hearings focused the attention of the public and policymakers on the extremist groups that participated in the attack and that pose a threat of renewed violence.

Congressional hearings are often filled with the distraction of partisan squabbling, grandstanding and detours into tangential subjects. The January 6 committee was different, and the American people were better off for it. Trump and others refused to answer subpoenas from the committee, which would have given them an opportunity to answer questions and make their case. Their refusal is unfortunate; they deserve the chance to defend themselves and present their account of the facts, and Americans deserve the chance to hear from them. They’re still due that chance, and Trump may still have his say in a court of law.

The seven Democrats and two Republicans who served on the committee captured the attention of Americans who may not have been sufficiently informed or alarmed about Trump’s role in the events to take notice. The two Republicans, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, deserve particular credit for defying their party to participate. Their presence and the damning testimony delivered by Trump’s aides and allies conveyed the message that some things are necessarily more important than loyalty to a political party.

Americans have also learned, thanks to these hearings, exactly how close this country came to even greater tragedies. Rioters came within 12 metres of Vice President Mike Pence. A Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, in late December 2020 sought to send a letter – based on lies – to officials in Georgia and potentially several other key states that warned of election irregularities and called for a special legislative session to select alternate slates of presidential electors.

The lesson, in part, is that our democracy is inescapably fragile. It requires Americans and those who serve them as elected officials and in law enforcement to act in good faith. The committee rightly spent many hours of its work documenting the actions of all those local, state and federal officials who defied Trump’s demands and acted in many different ways to protect democracy.

The dangers remain clear and present, so this work is not complete. House Republicans will be in the majority come January, including many who sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory and some who encouraged the rioters.