Liz Cheney's "OATH and HONOR"

How Close We Came to Losing It All

Liz Cheney's recently released "Oath and Honor" is a must-read. The book methodically lays out how close we came to losing it all and how close we are to the next assault on the American experiment.

Those members of Congress who, at Donald Trump's urging, scuttled their oath to preserve and protect the Constitution of The United States by refusing to vote to certify the election of Joe Biden as President have forfeited their honor in allegiance to Donald Trump. There are 139 of these election deniers in the Congress of the United States. They know Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Any doubts they may have once harbored have been extinguished by reality time and time again. They are Donald Trump's useful sycophants. It isn't so much that they seek his praise as they fear his wrath. They have forfeited their honor in the service of a man who tried to undo two-and-a-half centuries of American democracy. They bartered their honor to curry his favor or to avoid his displeasure. History will not favor them.

To understand just how self-absorbed Donald Trump was and is, Liz Cheney points to a remarkably poignant moment when members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th attack on the Capitol visited the rare documents room of the Library of Congress. There, they studied some of American history's original and most precious documents. One in particular stood out to Cheney. It was written on August 23, 1864, by Abraham Lincoln when he was (mistakenly) certain he was about to lose the election of 1864 to General George B. McClellan. Lincoln wrote, "This morning as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the President-elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration…" The memo, Cheney writes, was Lincoln's pledge to respect the will of the people and the outcome of the 1864 election—and to do everything in his power to help his successor if he (Lincoln) lost. I found this particularly poignant given former President Trump's determination to do everything in his power to sabotage the outcome of the 2020 election, which he, indeed, did lose. The action of one President, that of a patriot. The action of the another, that of a tyrant.

The Trumpian campaign to win or steal the next election rages on. Cheney's chronicle of the danger the nation faced on January 6, 2021, and is facing today, is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what happened on that awful day three years ago and could happen again. The cast of schemers who plotted to steal the last presidential election is large, and those schemers are still around. They occupy seats in Congress and chair important committees, and they are still scheming. Only the sycophants manipulated to riot and do their dirty work on January 6, 2021, have been held to account. The danger to the Republic persists. They will try again.

Understand this. The majority of the Republicans in Congress have scuttled the oath they took to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. They are not only election deniers; they are also oath deniers. Their oath is to the Constitution of the United States. It is to no man and no party. It is a commitment to that historic document that changed how governance is practiced throughout much of the world. It is to support and defend the Constitution, the very basis of the American experiment.  

When the election deniers refused to certify the results of the 2020 election, they chose instead to support and defend the reign of Donald Trump—the decision of the people be damned.

These election deniers, these oath breakers, serve on and even chair some of the most important committees that govern the US House of Representatives and the United States Senate. They participated in the first widespread effort to undermine an American election. They will try to assert their will again. Anyone who thinks the election nullification wars are over is gravely mistaken.

One hundred and sixty years ago, Abraham Lincoln resolved at Gettysburg that our government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. That resolve was mightily tested by Donald Trump and his sycophants three years ago. He and they are about to assault that resolve once again. Make no mistake about it.

He cannot admit loss even though he and many candidates he has endorsed are losers. Donald Trump lost the popular vote in 2016 but won the electoral vote. He handily lost the electoral vote and the popular vote in 2020. He then prosecuted a desperate, elaborate attack on our Republic, our representative democracy, in a blatant attempt to steal the 2020 election. He will be just as determined but better prepared for the effort to steal the next election.

Make no mistake about it. The American Experiment hung by a thread on January 6, 2021. We came perilously close to losing it, and the plan to hijack it again rages on today. And it could succeed but for the vigilance of those who safeguard our elections by protecting the integrity of our election process. And they, too, were viciously attacked by Trump and his spear carriers, like Rudy Giuliani.

While Donald Trump and his co-conspirators led the attack on our Republic, we must not forget that 139 House Republicans and seven Senate Republicans also voted not to certify the 2020 presidential election. By doing so, they became key participants in the greatest political scandal in American history and have paid no price for their treachery. They still sit comfortably in their congressional offices and on the congressional committees that fund and shape our national priorities. And it gets worse because they perceive they need the former President's endorsement or to avoid his wrath to get by the next election they face.

Let this sink in. Nearly 70% of the 222 Republicans elected to seats in the House of Representatives last November were election deniers. That means there are more there now than there were two years ago. Five election deniers were elected to the United States Senate two years ago, joining the seven election-denying senators already there. Our travails are far from over.

As Liz Cheney warns, "In a just world, the January 6 Select Committee investigation and the criminal prosecutions that have followed would be the end of a dark period in our nation's history. The man who mobilized a violent assault on our Capitol—who attempted to overturn an election and seize power—would have no political future. Donald Trump and those who aided him would be scorned and punished. But as I write this in the fall of 2023, Trump is again running for President of the United States; he holds a sizeable lead among Republican contenders. Today, none of us can tell if the story of January 6 is nearing its end or is only just beginning. We may have darker periods ahead."

As I wrote this column, I kept thinking of the opening of Stephen Vincent Benet's “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” so I read it again.

"It's a story they tell in the border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire. Yes, Dan’l Webster's dead–or, at least, they buried him. But every time there's a thunderstorm around Marshfield, they say you can hear his rolling voice in the hollows of the sky. And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, "Dan’l Webster– Dan’l Webster!" the ground'll shiver and the trees shake. And after a while, you'll hear a deep voice saying, "Neighbour, how stands the Union?" Then you better answer that the Union stands as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper-sheathed, one and indivisible, or he's liable to rear right out of the ground. At least, that's what I was told when I was a youngster."

Perhaps it's time we all ask ourselves: How stands the Union? And do we care what the answer is?

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 Recent podcasts have featured my commentary on Jim Jordan, Brian Kemp and Those Republicans of Georgia, the Trump Indictments, the Fox Corp Settlement, The CNN Trump Town Hall, the Hunter Biden plea deal, The New American Cult of Personality, and my interviews with

William Bratton, Retired Chief of Police, New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston

Rikki Klieman, Attorney, Network News Analyst, and best-selling author

John Thoresen, Executive Director, Barbara Sinatra Children's Center

Katherine Gehl, co-author of The Politics Industry and founder of the Institute for Political Innovation

Jazz artist Ann Hampton Callaway

Outlander author Diana Gabaldon

AI Data Scientist Lawrence Kite

Ryan Clancy, Chief Strategist of No Labels

Senator Barbara Boxer

Senator Joe Lieberman

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan

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Please consider our Of Thee I Sing 1776 Premium option. While my weekly column is always free, for just $5/month, you’ll also receive my annual ebook, “Essays For Our Time,” and my new Podcasts.

https://oftheeising1776.substack.com/subscribe.