George Washington, as he embarked on the work of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, wrote to his dear friend Lafayette and pondered what kind of government we would have. Washington said:
” …whether we are to have a Government of respectability under which life — liberty, and propertv [sic] secured to us, or whether we are to submit to one which may be the result of chance or the moment, springing perhaps from anarch⟨ie⟩ Confusion, and dictated perhaps by some aspiring demagogue who will not consult the interest of his Country so much as his own ambitious views.” [emphasis added]
At the outset, let me admit that my purpose here is to express real concern, not approval or acceptance, for some of the sorry lot of Americans who stormed the Capitol. What they did was horribly wrong. They should have known better. Some of the mob were thugs; others thought their actions would be fun. Some, whether they acknowledge it or not, are fascists. When they changed from peaceful protesters to a violent mob, they crossed a line and will have to pay for it.
I doubt there is much anyone can say or do to persuade the thugs and the fascists that what they tried to accomplish would not “Make America Great Again.” To the contrary, what was attempted was a lynching of the Constitution. I am certain that, as time passes, the depth of the coup attempt will run very deep and we will hear a chorus of the familiar refrain: “I was only following orders.” We hear the first of them already. The worst part of that statement is that the man who gave the orders was Donald Trump.
And we are lucky the rioters failed. Lucky. Not a reassuring word when you think that it was luck that saved the nation. It wasn’t law enforcement. It wasn’t those elected officials in the House and Senate who spit on their oath to defend the United States from enemies foreign and domestic. It wasn’t the cabinet. It wasn’t the swill of lawyers who defended Trump and spread his lies. It wasn’t the evangelicals who embraced the morality of a moral leper.
My concern is for those who believed the grotesque lies they were being told: that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. It is for those who did not understand that the election being stolen was Joe Biden’s. These were the victims of the actual election fraud being engineered by Trump and his coven of enlisted, elected, and appointed thugs who worship at the altar of self-interest, hypocrisy, and sedition.
The individuals who fell for Trump’s fraud, and were urged on to violence by him, are not exonerated by their credulity. But they may be reachable and come to understand the terrible conduct they engaged in. We will either reach people like these or they will fall victim to the next Trump.
It is why they believed the lies that are worth examining. It allows empathy for so many who did what we all once thought was a proper thing to do. They trusted the President of the United States. Critically important is that the trust was validated and bolstered because others in positions of power and authority encouraged that trust.
Not a few, but scores of senators and representatives, governors and cabinet members, scholars and entrepreneurs, told us that Trump, for whatever his faults (and they admitted he had many), would make America great again. These people spoke to a population of folks whose grievances and fears they brilliantly played to. The people believed them. And every voice that validated the lies, the fear mongering, and the race baiting enhanced the perception of truth.
It is hard to imagine that so many Americans who should have known better were defrauded. Or is it? Remember those titans of industry, finance, and the common person who lost everything to that other great defrauder, Bernie Madoff. They too should have known better.
This fraud was not aimed at investors. It was aimed straight at voters. And it worked. It was fueled by men and women who saw nothing wrong with a theory that only works in the world of fraud, not reality. The grandest huckster of them all, Trump, could not and did not do it alone. He had an army of sycophants prepared to spray deodorant onto his stench and stir sugar into his toxic stew.
If the only people to be punished are those who trespassed on Capitol grounds or who vandalized the building, then those who are guilty of far greater crimes will feel free to do this again.
Great leaders teach. Leadership based on lies and self interest destroys. And that is what we have had. And sadly, we have had it because those who could have stopped it not only refused to, but actively encouraged it.
From Sean Hannity to Rudy Giuliani, from Mitch McConnell to Ted Cruz, from Kevin McCarthy to Mo Brooks to Josh Hawley. They and scores of others, dressed in suits and ties, not looking at all like what Trump referred to as the “low class” image of the rioters, each bear full responsibility for the violence at the Capitol. They each participated in an attempted coup against the government of the United States.
I can think of no greater crime in a democracy. Nor will I forget that not a single Republican senator stood up for the truth they knew: that Trump posed a serious risk to this country. I can applaud Mitt Romney for having seen the light sooner than the others, but that light shone brightly enough for all of the Republicans to have seen it much earlier.
There was not a single Winston Churchill who was unafraid of the truth and embraced it. Who rose to attack the appeasement of Hitler when it violated his own party’s policy to do so? Who spoke out when it was against his own political interest but in the interest of his nation that he thereby saved? And here, not one Republican senator rose to attack the appeasement of Trump. Not one.
Our nation has paid a terrible price. Only when the enormity of Trump’s crimes could no longer be hidden in an avalanche of more lies and violence have a few voices been raised. But not until after the predictable disaster occurred, and even then, many continue to support Trump. What is the matter with them? What is the stuff they are made of?
And to a man or woman, all of Trump’s conspirators in sedition need to be punished; punished in a way that makes any future Trump think long and hard before seeking to poison the American soul.
The lawyers such as Giuliani and Lin Wood should be disbarred. Senators Hawley, Cruz, Hyde-Smith, Kennedy, Marshall, Tuberville and members of the House who participated in the fraud and incited violence should be censured and removed from office preferably by their own chamber.
Article I, Section 5, of the United States Constitution says, “Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.” Or if the chamber fails to do so, by their constituents when they stand for reelection. Contrition, if any, must require that the liars and defrauders admit to their acts. We have to reach the hearts and minds of those who have been misled. If they believed the lies of the liars, perhaps they will believe them when they admit they were lying.
If Abraham Lincoln’s towering vision of the promise of America is doomed never to be fully realized, historians searching for understanding may well look back on this time for the causes and for those responsible. My hope and expectation is that our democracy will be strong enough to withstand the assault.
But, should the historians conclude that American democracy began to decline in earnest during the Trump presidency, it is my purpose here to make certain that there is absolutely no doubt as to who is responsible. Not in the future, but today, I want the American people, Trump supporters who fell victim to Trump Steaks, Trump University, and Trump’s endless lies, to understand what a known group of cowards permitted to happen.
Douglas Cooper, Egremont
The writer is a commercial trial attorney in New York and a member of the Egremont Historical Commission.
