If You Still Stand With Donald Trump, You Have Forgotten What It Means to Be an American
The Republican Party really wants us all to forget about the attempted insurrection that took place in Washington, D.C. in January of 2021. But neither their desperate attempts at distraction nor their cowardly cries of “propaganda!” can refute the horrific truths brought to light last night by the January 6 committee’s first public hearing.
We now know that former President Donald Trump did indeed respond approvingly to the suggestion that then-Vice President Mike Pence should be hung. “Maybe our supporters have the right idea,” he said. “Mike Pence deserves it.”
We also know that Trump did not want to take the necessary steps to quell the violence, and that Pence had to intervene to get the job done.
While I’m certain there are many more disturbing revelations to come, I don’t have to wait for them. I’ve already heard enough. When you’re the President, and you’re told that an unruly mob of your own supporters is calling for the execution of your second-in-command, the only acceptable reaction is to try to stop them.
Why didn’t Trump do that? Because in that moment, he unilaterally decided — without any legal or ethical justification whatsoever — that Mike Pence was no longer the legitimate Vice President of the United States.
In 2016, it was the will of the American people that both Trump and Pence should assume leadership of this nation for at least one full presidential term. Trump, however, doesn’t give a damn about the will of the people. He never has. In his twisted mind, the only people in his administration who were entitled to be there were his own handpicked sycophants. It meant nothing to him that both he and Pence were democratically elected, and that they were therefore equally entitled to serve in the positions they were chosen to fulfill. And that’s not because Trump misunderstands democracy or momentarily forgot how it works. It’s because he simply does not believe in democracy.
Democracy dilutes the power that autocrats like Trump would prefer to concentrate in their own hands. That’s why he has no respect for it, nor for the outcomes it produces. That’s why he took no action to suppress the January 6 insurrection or stop the far-right terrorists who sought Pence’s execution. And that’s why he has long maintained that the presidency was stolen from him despite all evidence to the contrary.
To be American is to be unwavering in one’s allegiance to this country’s democratic process and the institutions designed to preserve the integrity of that process. Yesterday, it was made clear to us all, in no uncertain terms, that Donald Trump doesn’t meet that criterion. We learned that he is not an American, but rather the living, breathing antithesis of America’s most fundamental ideal. To support him now, after everything we’ve learned about his actions and behaviors on January 6, is a betrayal that cannot be excused or rationalized away.
In other words, if after these revelations you still stand with Donald Trump, you can still call yourself a conservative, a Republican, and even a United States citizen — but you simply cannot in good conscience call yourself an American. And to those of you who fit that bill, all I can say is that I sincerely hope you’ll find your way back home. I sincerely hope that you’ll one day rediscover what it is that you’ve lost by choosing Donald Trump over your principles, your party, and the country you claim to love.
