Recliner
After three days of joy in the sun, coaching pole vault at a track camp; I was home all day Thursday in the recliner. My legs needed a rest, and my face escape from the sun. But my mind was completely engulfed. It was day three of the January 6th hearings, and I watched gavel to gavel.
My friends in the left-leaning media were unhappy. “They spent hours in the weeds of legal argument,” they said, “and wasted the time and attention of the American people”. As a history teacher and a student of the Constitution, I didn’t feel like the Committee wasted my time.
They made it very clear: the Eastman plan (or as Navarro called it, the “Green Bay Sweep”) was clearly unconstitutional. The lawyers in the White House Counsel’s office said it, the Vice President’s lawyers saw it, one of the leading conservative Republican judges in the nation said it (Judge Luttig is to conservatives as Lawrence Tribe is to liberals). Even the author of the plan, John Eastman said it (it would fail 9-0 in the Supreme Court). And they said it all well before January 6th.
But it really doesn’t matter what I thought of the hearing, because the hearing of Thursday, June 16th, wasn’t really for me. It was for a different audience.
Courageous Republicans
Yesterday’s hearing was for those Republicans who have been uncomfortable with the abrogation of Constitutional responsibility by Donald Trump from the day of the election, and even before. It was for those Republicans who know, deep in their hearts, that the election wasn’t stolen, and that the Trump campaign actions were wrong. It called on those Republicans to have the courage of the Vice President’s Chief of Staff Marc Short, or conservative Judge Michael Luttig, or White House counsel Pat Cipillone. They stood up against the Trump team and their illegal scheme to subvert the election.
And most importantly, the Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, showed the political, moral, and personal courage to stand up not only to the President, but to the mob who was literally calling for his own head. Pence could have escaped the risk, whisked away to an undisclosed location by the Secret Service. His Secret Service team demanded that he get in the car.
But Pence understood what that would look like; the aerial shot of the limousines speeding away from the Capitol Building. It would lend strength to the mob, to the movement to postpone the certification of votes. It would have aided and abetted the agents trying to subvert the Constitution. So he refused to go, and stayed to fulfill his Constitutional duty.
There probably aren’t three issues where I agree with those men, Republicans who stood up against Donald Trump. But on those days leading up to the Insurrection, and on the day where some were at great personal risk, they stood for the Constitution. They were Republicans who showed the courage to stand up against Donald Trump. Two committee members, Congressmen Cheney and Kinzinger, also stand for principle over political expediency. Thursday’s hearing asked other Republicans to turn away from a path leading to the end of our Democracy, and stand up and do the same.
Thirty Percent
Thirty percent of Americans are determined to back Donald Trump. Another thirty percent of Americans are committed to stopping the Trumpian movement. And the remainder of America is “in the middle”. Many of those folks consider themselves as “Republican thinking”, not a part of the MAGA movement. This hearing was for them.
If there is a non-Trumpian future for the Republican Party, it will gather around those who stood for principles, and against Trump. Mike Pence, Liz Cheney, and others will suffer the short term price for their courage. But in a future world, when the failure of MAGA is clear, they will be the ones representing conservative views.
The Committee is highlighting why Trump remains dangerous for Democracy. Fox News talking points to the contrary, it’s not a “liberal witch hunt”. The goal of the Committee is to protect our Democracy from, as Judge Luttig stated, “…a clear and present danger to our future Democracy”.
Yesterday’s hearing invited Republicans to join in stopping that clear and present danger. Stand for the Constitution – even if it doesn’t mean short-term political gain. That’s the Republican, Democratic, and American Way.
