I am not a fan of Liz Cheney in general. She opposed gay marriage (although she later recanted that position while still failing to vote for any kinds of protection for the LGBTQIA community), she has no compassion for the poor, and her views on immigration are in direct opposition to mine. From her own website:
Liz voted against amnesty and any attempt to soften sovereign border enforcement
Liz cosponsored the Refugee Resettlement National Security Act requiring the Comptroller General to do a full assessment of the costs of refugees to federal, state and local governments
Liz cosponsored the Criminal Alien Deportation Enforcement Act, a bill that withholds foreign aid from countries that refuse to take back criminal aliens…
She believes in an Us vs Them way of seeing the world. I believe in “There is no Them; we are all Us.”
She is in favor of increasing the military budget, and she wants to fight more wars. I would like to fight fewer wars. In fact, I would prefer we never fight another war ever again.
She is in favor of ensuring everyone can get any firearms they want. If you listened to my podcast on the mass murder at Robb Elementary School, you know I would prefer to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people, and I would really like civilians to do without guns that are intended to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
I could go on, but I have made my point. I disagree with Liz Cheney… most of the time.
Many of The People on The Porch are Conservatives who probably like Liz Cheney and agree with her views most of the time. And I respect their right to disagree with me. You could be right. I could be wrong. I’m hoping we can find agreement on this.
These words are from Ms. Cheney’s opening remarks in the January 6 Committee Hearings:
Tonight and in the weeks to come, you will see evidence of what motivated this violence, including directly from those who participated in this attack. You will see video of them explaining what caused them to do it. You will see their posts on social media. We will show you what they have said in federal court. On this point, there is no room for debate. Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them: that the election was stolen, and that he was the rightful President. President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.
I am not a fan of former Vice President, Mike Pence. He is in direct opposition to LGBTQIA rights. His views about gun control are very different from mine. The same is true concerning his opinions about abortion. Again, I recognize many of my Conservative friends may like Mr. Pence more than I do, and I respect their right to disagree with my assessment of him. I don’t like Mike Pence very much at all. Most of the time…
He also, however, said this:
“Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election, and (Vice President) Kamala Harris will have no right to overturn the election when we beat them in 2024.”
Although then-President Trump asked him repeatedly to find a way to invalidate the November 2021 election results, the then-Vice President declined to do that. The result of this was that on January 6, those attacking the Capitol wanted to find and hang Mike Pence. It would appear that for many people, the assessment of all people is dependent upon the assessment their leader makes. People who once liked Mike Pence wanted to hang him because Donald Trump decided he didn’t like his Vice President anymore.
What we’ve seen from Liz Cheney and Mike Pence, as well as several others who have participated in the January 6 Committee Hearing, is love of country over love of party. That’s becoming as rare a commodity as efficient bureaucracies. I can, and do, disagree with them about nearly everything, but I also have to respect the courage to do what’s right. I’m allowed a nuanced point of view. I can walk and chew gum at the same time. I can leave my little box whenever I choose. I wish those who wanted to harm Pence and Cheney could entertain more than one idea at a time, and practice some kind of moderation.
The response to the Hearings I’m hearing from Trump supporters is that it’s a Nothing Sandwich. We need to forget about January 6 and focus on more important problems like runaway inflation and gas prices skyrocketing. I don’t deny the importance of those issues. I’m not aware of anyone who does. There are a nearly infinite number of problems that are urgent and must be faced, investigated, and solved sooner rather than later. I could add quite a few to the list. Mass murders, homelessness, poverty, crimes of desperation, the steady decline of mental health, and the issue of allowing people to be who they choose to be all come to mind. Climate change is an existential threat to our planet.
The existence of these problems does nothing to mitigate the horrors of January 6. The effort to destroy what little remains of our freedom is not to be ignored. Had they been successful, what would that have meant? Would it really have been no big deal to execute our Vice President? No, I don’t like him. Yes, I disagree with him. But, hanging him? That’s obscene. It’s unimaginable. It’s nothing short of terrorism. The same fate would certainly have awaited Nancy Pelosi, AOC, and any number of others had these people been successful. Aside from the murders, the other consequences would have been equally unthinkable.
They would, one assumes, have installed their own President. With elections now invalidated, we would have a Dictator. Freedom, even the limited Freedom we have thus far preserved, would be over. Media as we know it would topple. This show would certainly be shut down. Racism, misogyny, homophobia, and hatred of “The Other” would become commonplace. Suffering would increase exponentially for nearly everyone.
What happened on January 6, 2021 is important. It can’t be ignored without risking everything we hold dear. People must be held accountable so we can reduce the odds of anyone else trying it again. The Proud Boys, The Oath Keepers, and the other White Nationalist groups aren’t going to go away until we put them away. While I certainly respect their right to the vile beliefs with which I think all rational people disagree, and while I believe they should be allowed to speak those beliefs on their own platforms, this doesn’t mean they’re allowed to act on those beliefs and overthrow our country.
No, The January 6 Committee Hearings are not a Nothing Burger. They are a means of informing all the world, truthfully and with clear evidence, of a significant attack on our country.
Will the former President be indicted? If he is, will he be convicted? If he is, will he go to prison? I doubt it. I hope I’m wrong, but in all of American history only one President has ever been arrested after becoming President. (It was Ulysess S. Grant. He didn’t go to prison.)
A year into his appointment to the MPD, (formerly enslaved person) William H. West came across President Ulysses S. Grant while on patrol near 13th and M Streets NW in Washington, D.C. He stopped the president for speeding in his horse and buggy and gave him a warning for excessive speed before sending him on his way. The next day, on a very similar patrol, West witnessed the president repeating his behavior and thus, arrested him. While arresting the president, West said, “I am very sorry, Mr. President, to have to do it, for you are the chief of the nation and I am nothing but a policeman, but duty is duty, sir, and I will have to place you under arrest.” President Grant was taken to the police station and released on a $20 bond—the equivalent to $430 today—and he did not contest the fine or the arrest. This was not President Grant’s first citation for speeding in the District of Columbia. According to former chief Cathy Lanier, Ulysses S. Grant received three citations for speeding in his horse-drawn carriage during his tenure as president.
It’s hard to imagine a former President being indicted, in spite of the enormous body of evidence that anyone who has watched the hearings has seen. Trump could have stopped the attack at least three hours earlier than he did. He was, as we have seen in the Hearings, begged repeatedly by friends, family, and staff to call off the crowd.
“For 187 harrowing minutes, the president watched his
supporters attack the Capitol — and resisted pleas to stop them…”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a Trump booster, called him and said, “You have to denounce this.” Trump falsely claimed to McCarthy that the rioters were members of antifa, but McCarthy corrected him and said they were in fact Trump supporters.
“You know what I see, Kevin? I see people who are more upset about the election than you are. They like Trump more than you do,” the president replied.
“You’ve got to hold them,” McCarthy said. “You need to get on TV right now, you need to get on Twitter, you need to call these people off.”
Trump responded, “Kevin, they’re not my people.”
McCarthy told the president, “Yes, they are, they just came through my windows and my staff is running for cover. Yeah, they’re your people. Call them off.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/what-happened-trump-jan-6-insurrection/
This isn’t a partisan issue. Trump supporters asked the former President for help. Their pleas were ignored for more than three hours. Loyalty and compassion don’t seem to be strong suits for our 45th President.
The evidence is clear that Trump was aware that he had lost the election. The Hearings showed us several people, including his closest supporters, staff, friends, and family had told him this. If he believed he won the election when he was organizing this attack, he was not in touch with reality. We can debate the qualifications of a President, but I would like to believe we all agree a President needs to recognize reality.
There is nothing you (unless you’re in the Justice Department) or I can do about indicting anyone. That doesn’t mean, however, that we’re entirely powerless to keep this destruction from recurring. We still have the power of our votes.
It’s likely that Trump will be the nominee for President in 2024. We can simply vote for anyone else. This doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be the Democratic nominee. I recognize that in the two-party system we have in America it seems pointless to vote for anyone other than a Democrat or a Republican. No one else can possibly get elected. To vote for someone else is to waste your vote. That’s the traditional wisdom. It may be true.
You’re on Fred’s Front Porch right now, though, and we are Idealists around here. We believe that change begins with Imagination. I’m unaware of anything humans have created that didn’t begin with an idea. I don’t know who will be running in 2024, but we can imagine that someone who isn’t backed by billions of dollars in corporate money could be President. And then we can do what little we can to make that happen.
A single drop of water is all but powerless. When you put enough of them together, however, you can carve the Grand Canyon. I’m working on that now. I hope you’ll join me in your own way.
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