Today the Republican National Committee formally declared that the attack on the U. S. Congress on January 6, 2021 was “legitimate political discourse” and censured Republican representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the investigation of this attack.
I have kept my silence for a year, because my concern is not about a mob that were duped into believing a lie. My concern is that the leadership of the Republican Party has now formally committed to supporting the attack on Congress with total impunity.
There is only one oath that American public servants take: to defend the Constitution of the United States of America. It is explicitly stated at the end of Article 2, Section 1, for the swearing-in of the President:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Article 6 extends that oath explicitly to legislative, judicial, and executive officers:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
The Fourteenth Amendment extends this requirement to local jurisdictions and offices; and likewise the Oath of Enlistment into the U.S. Armed forces is to defend the Constitution.
Americans are generally familiar with the ten Amendments that form the Bill of Rights. These rights define many of our freedoms, but not our duties and obligations to the United States, nor the institutions we vow to defend. The design of the government is described in the Articles of the Constitution itself. Article 1 describes Congress in great detail, from term lengths to election processes to designated powers. The Executive and Judiciary are described relatively briefly in Articles 2 and 3. Their powers are complementary to, and partially counterbalancing the authority of the Congress. But the document is unambiguous about the central role of Congress in defining the government of this republic.
Attacking Congress with the intent to overturn its democratic function is the most direct attack on the survival of the United States government since the British invaded and burned the capital in the War of 1812. We have had many other great difficulties as a country, but this was the most direct threat to the continuance of this government in 210 years. Such an attack is also the only crime the United States Constitution defines as an act of treason.
For a year since the attack on Congress, there has been a lot of debate about how to interpret the attack. It could be argued that it was only Trump loyalists, who have many of the characteristics of a cult. Virtually all Trump loyalists are also members of the Republican Party, but it was not clear whether the Republican Party as a whole was supportive of an attack on Congress. With today’s declaration, the Republican Party has formally declared that it opposes the U. S. Constitution.
Jefferson’s arguments in the Declaration of Independence are often misinterpreted as condoning insurrection. He writes:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
The “throwing off” Jefferson is referring to is the political separation of the Colonies from the British Empire. What justifies this act is the threat of absolute despotism. Since the attackers on January 6 were trying to overthrow an election and force all Americans to be ruled for another four years by Donald Trump—because he demanded this insurrection—then who is attempting to be a despot?
George W. Bush lost the popular election in 2000, but Americans respected the Electoral College process in choosing him as the Republican president. Trump lost the popular election in 2016, and yet again Americans accepted the idiosyncrasies of the Electoral College process in choosing another Republican as president. Already, Democrats and independent voters have demonstrated twice in recent history the willingness to put up with a peculiar electoral process and accept leaders whose policies they dislike. Republicans, meanwhile, have benefited twice while not winning the actual popular vote. But can Republicans accept actual defeat both in the popular vote and the Electoral College?
Narrowing options for glossing over crimes
The Republican-party alignment with this 2021 insurrection has some parallels to the Democratic-party alignment with the Confederate secessionists in the Civil War. In the 1870s, in order to preserve the republic, Northerners withdrew occupying troops, abandoned the Reconstruction, and left black Americans to fall prey to the systematic terrorism of humiliated white plantation-owners.
However, the dominant historical view now is that allowing Jim Crow policies in the 20th century was a more widespread sin of cowardice by the white majority—Southern and Northern—in which black Americans were forced to pay the price for the preservation of the republic. We made a terrible mistake, allowing false humility to pass for “man-of-the-people” representation and “good old boy patriotism.” Atrocities inflicted on brown-skinned people distracted poor whites from the fact that they were still being used by white elites.
The contradictions of poor people swearing devotion to a foul-mouthed billionaire cannot hold together indefinitely. Political alignments and interests shift. But what does it mean for a national political party to formally side with the insurrectionists who attacked Congress in their attempt to undo the Constitution? The Republican Party has made a mistake that may be fatal to its long-term survival. In its attempt to survive, it is already threatening to take the republic down with it. This is the threat that every patriot must actively oppose. This is the oath that we have actually taken.