(I write under the shadow of a pandemic that has taken more than 310,000 American lives – and more than a million worldwide -and the nascent hope of a vaccine’s protection from this modern plague.)
It is time to move on from Donald Trump…but not before saying that his behavior since he lost the election is a disgrace to our country and to the office he holds.
He is a very small man, and as the damage he has done across the government becomes more widely known, he will grow smaller still.
Nothing, though, compares to Trump violating his oath of office by refusing to accept the outcome of the November election.
He had his chances to prove the election was rigged, 58 times, in fact, before state and federal judges and twice before the Supreme Court, failing every time.
The fact that he continues to try to subvert Joe Biden’s victory pushes violating his oath of office to the level of sedition. The term means “conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.” That is exactly what Trump is doing now.
I don’t know how many Republicans actually support Trump’s behavior. We know 18 state attorneys general, several state legislators, and 126 members of Congress do.
The number of Republican voters among the 77% who believe the election was rigged also believe his behavior is justified remains unclear, but, make no mistake, those who do are as guilty as he is of undermining the Constitution, whether they realize it or not
The only other time in our history something like this has happened was when southern states refused to accept the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln and seceded from the Union before he could be sworn in.
I don’t believe we are there yet, though “secession” rumblings are being heard in a few states. I would also say that it wouldn’t be surprising if Trump would welcome that possibility and the prospect of “red” states “electing” him their president.
As I said, I don’t believe any of that happening is likely, yet I do think President Joe Biden will face a divided nation in 2021 similar to what Lincoln faced in 1861.
For that reason, Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address, reflected as it is of a Lincoln who still had much to learn, nonetheless contains his usual eloquent wisdom in calling on southern leaders to exercise caution in the decisions they were making, a wisdom that speaks directly to where our nation is at this moment:
“Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from, will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake?”
He went on to say, “A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.”
“Majority rule.” In Lincoln’s view, this was the only antidote to anarchy and despotism. Rejecting it because of “ills you fly from [that] have no real existence” was, Lincoln believed, to proceed without forethought in destroying “our national fabric.”
When Joe Biden delivers his Inaugural Address in January, it will have been 160 years since Lincoln delivered his. The question he will face is, “Have we not learned anything in the interim?”
It is a sad state of affairs that we have to ask that question, that the Constitution with all its strengths and weaknesses remains secondary to the anger, hatred, personal grievances, misguided priorities, and foolish allegiances of Trump Republicans.
That the question has to asked tells us that Joe Biden faces the same task Lincoln faced, to save the country from permanent divisions.
Lincoln believed it was possible to do that without war. He was wrong because southern leaders had already given up the Constitution.
We will soon see if Trump Republicans have as well.
Joe Biden will do his best to unite the nation, to be the President of the United States of America.
But his best demands the same from us. He will need our help, our support, our encouragement, our goodwill, and our good sense.
In short, we must do our part in the work of forming a more perfect union that begins with preserving the Union itself.
linnposts.com 