Name: Unity? First, accountability: Before Joe Biden can bring America together, Donald Trump and his helpers must pay for what they’ve done
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Unity? First, accountability: Before Joe Biden can bring America together, Donald Trump and his helpers must pay for what they’ve done

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AdvertisementBy New York Daily NewsJan 17, 2021 at 8:22 amOn Wednesday, a new president will put his hand on the Bible and repeat an oath that the current president has degraded and despoiled. That new president, Joe Biden, says he wants to bring the nation together — even as his Democratic Party, and some members of the Republican Party, are demanding Donald Trump and his enablers be held accountable for what they have just done to America.Some say these two objectives, unity and accountability, are at odds with one another. In fact they are inseparable. Without accountability, unity will be an illusion, an invitation to further, deeper, more dangerous division. With accountability, the nation has a genuine chance to come together and move forward.AdvertisementFor nearly two-and-a-half centuries, the leaders of our nation have fought to preserve and defend our Republic during times of strife. The men and women privileged enough to have earned the trust of the voters always proudly made the pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. as the peoples’ voice. Their politics differed, but there was a long line of commitment to truth, democracy and the freedoms we Americans universally hold dear. We were — and are — an imperfect nation, led by imperfect people. For all those imperfections, America has always been more than a nation; we are a people of many races and religions, gifted by providence a set of human ideals worth fighting for.Few Americans will ever have the opportunity to serve our nation in a capacity that carries as much honor, weight, authority or power that members of Congress in both chambers enjoy. It has never been an easy job and was never advertised as such. The best of our elected representatives took on the heavy responsibility of leadership, always guided by a relentless desire to create that more perfect union.AdvertisementBoth the process executed in and the decisions made by these bodies set an example, not just to our fellow Americans, but to the entire world. America has a unique role in the world both as a moral compass and as an aspirational model for a big, messy, but successful democracy: We are the benchmark. Despite historical stumbles and mistakes, we remained the shining city on the hill.It is more than a cliché. We have been a real model to those who want better across the globe.Through wars, pandemics, economic crisis, social unrest, scandals and attacks on our own soil, the Congress of the United States has always been a steady force, guiding our ship through turbulent waters, re-calibrating as we go, using our defining principles as outlined in our Constitution as our map. Designed by the founders to capture both the will of the people and to constrain its most passionate urges, we had a kind of unspoken, homeostatic balance. No one side of the ideological fight dominated too deeply, or for too long. Power ebbs and flows; our core principles should not.One thing the Founders would have never expected was a physical attack on the members of those august bodies to be ordered by a president who had lost a free and fair election. The could never have imagined that members of the Senate would stand on the floor and actively promote insurrection. The last time it happened was at the start of the Civil War, and those members were rightly expelled from the body.As hard as it is to admit, on Jan. 6, our nation, democracy and government were attacked by a group of treasonous insurrectionists at the command of the sitting president of the United States. Not since the Civil War have we seen our fellow Americans attempt to tear apart the very fabric of our nation with such determination. And never in the history of our nation have our leaders unapologetically refused to hold those responsible for an attack on America accountable.Last week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy attempted to block the impeachment of the president by claiming that this was a political game that would further divide the nation and that while the president may have incited the riot, now was not the time to push for impeachment. Only 10 bold members of the Republican caucus broke party lines to vote for impeachment. It was one of the most insulting, egregious, cowardly, anti-American acts in recent memory by a supposed leader in Congress. It ultimately didn’t matter, on Jan. 13, President Trump became the only president in U.S. history to be impeached twice by the U.S. House of Representatives. It was richly deserved.Never mind Trump’s belated and obviously begrudging claims that he wants peace and a smooth transition, this after weeks of fiercely stirring the bubbling cauldron.You cannot suddenly stop a chemical reaction you have been stoking. You cannot suddenly switch off a raging fire you have fueled. And the president, who doesn’t know much but does understand the logic of inchoate rage fed by disinformation, knows this.AdvertisementThis is a dangerous moment, a fork in the road where one path leads to the healing of a divided nation and the other leads down the road of our demise. The choice is between an America we recognize and in which we take pride, or a Third World authoritarian kleptocracy.This moment sets the trajectory of the United States going forward. It is past time for outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in that body to live up to their titles and their calling. Our democracy is no longer one generation from extinction, as President Ronald Reagan once famously claimed; we are now just a few votes away.If McConnell and Senate Republicans allow for Trump to escape culpability for his actions that led to an attack on the sacred ground where they work every day, this country may well fall. It won’t happen quickly, but the seeds will be planted.It will be clear that a demagogue slinging lies like a monkey throws poop can declare an election null and void, insist that he is the rightful leader, and get away with it. That message will be well-learned by all the wrong people. Trump’s actions will be emulated by politicians with more skill and cunning than him, with the ability to manipulate information growing ever more sophisticated as technology and social media evolve.The actions of those who seek to destroy us must be met with a show of force so strong that no American ever attempts to overthrow our government again.The seriousness of this moment cannot be overstated.AdvertisementAlready, Republicans are taunting Democrats with the claim that a drive to impeach, remove and otherwise hold Trump accountable is at odds with Biden’s pledge to heal the nation, to end the bitter era of demonizations. This is turning history on its head, in real time.There is no path to unifying the people of this nation as long as loyalty to party and fear of a weak, deranged man take priority over ensuring the safety and well-being of our Republic and our democratic processes. The wounds that have been inflicted can only be healed by holding those responsible publicly accountable with a punishment that reflects the severity of the transgression.Sure, some on the fringes will only grow more furious with any move toward accountability, but the vast majority, those with a genuine interest in coming together, will understand that there is an underlying republic worth honoring, norms worth protecting, a Constitution worth defending.This is not only about Trump.By letting Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson and the rest of the Senate’s Sedition Caucus skate for their role in the conspiracy, the Senate Republicans are telling Americans they want impunity, not unity.Senate Republicans giving Trump a pass for his fiery incitement to violence — which came after a spate of spurious lawsuits and repeated attempts to strongarm Georgia officials into changing their recounted, certified vote totals — aren’t interested in reconciliation; they’re fine with Trump and his allies inciting an insurrection and staging an attempted coup on our own government.AdvertisementFive American lives were lost that day, based on the words, deeds, and plans of Trump and his dead-enders; if this isn’t grounds for impeachment and conviction, what is?WeekdaysCatch up on the day’s top five stories every weekday afternoon. &gt; History will remember who stood up for America when our democracy was tested from within; they are the brave, the deserving, the leaders. But history will have a longer, and more brutal memory for the conspirators and cowards, too. Hawley, Cruz and the rest of their seditious claque should be censured and expelled from the Senate. They, too, swear an oath to the Constitution. They, too, broke it.McConnell is famous for the ironclad control he exercises of his caucus. He alone will decide if he’ll let enough of his members vote to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial. He is a base, transactional politician. He may not care much for his legacy, but failing to stand up in this moment may make retaking the Senate majority nearly impossible in a tough 2022 cycle — and that is something he most certainly cares about.The judgment of the voters has been rendered. Trump will go; it is inevitable.Accepting the legacy of his destructive character and politics is a choice. Holding to account the enablers, organizers, supporters and players in the insurrection — be they cop-killers in MAGA hats, senators or soon-to-be former presidents — is existential to preserving the republic.Donald Trump has always been a political parasite, slowly hollowing out his host.AdvertisementIt’s up to the few Republicans with honor, integrity, and a sense of duty to the country to make the final votes to stop the worst political cancer in American history from spreading, and killing this great nation.Wilson is a former Republican political consultant and co-founder of the Lincoln Project. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy New York Daily NewsJan 17, 2021 at 8:22 amOn Wednesday, a new president will put his hand on the Bible and repeat an oath that the current president has degraded and despoiled. That new president, Joe Biden, says he wants to bring the nation together — even as his Democratic Party, and some members of the Republican Party, are demanding Donald Trump and his enablers be held accountable for what they have just done to America.Some say these two objectives, unity and accountability, are at odds with one another. In fact they are inseparable. Without accountability, unity will...

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Rick Wilson

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Unity? First, accountability: Before Joe Biden can bring America together, Donald Trump and his helpers must pay for what they’ve done

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