Some Encouraging Signs

Our national crisis continues. Yesterday, the House of Representatives filed Articles of Impeachment against Trump. This time, the charge is ‘incitement of insurrection’ and includes excerpts from the speech he gave his supporters before they stormed the capital and also his January 2 phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State in which Trump asked him to ‘find’ the votes Trump needed to win the state. The House will vote on the Articles today and begin the impeachment on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Trump and his administration appear to be in hiding. There have been no briefings from the White House, FBI, Department of Homeland Security or the Justice Department about what happened on January 6 and what is being done to contain the ongoing threat of violence. The investigation of the insurrection, arrests, and preparation against future threats does appear, however, to be continuing.

But today, I am most encouraged by other events over the weekend:

• Twitter and Facebook have ‘deplatformed’ Donald Trump and all his accounts.
• Major US Corporations (BlueCross-BlueShield and Marriott among others) have announced they will stop contributing to Senate and House members that voted against counting the Electoral College for Joe Biden.
• Deutsche Bank, one of the only banks that would still work with Trump has announced it will no longer do business with him.
• The PGA has announced they are moving the 2022 golf championships from Trump’s golf course in New Jersey.
• Even my Wesleyan classmate and football coaching genius past Trump supporter Bill Belichick has turned down Trump’s offer of a Presidential Medal of Freedom saying: ‘Above all, I am an American citizen with great reverence for our nation’s values, freedom, and democracy.’

Though I don’t think Trump will lose sleep over being jilted by Bill, the tide has clearly turned against him and the backlash that many of us have hoped for for the past four years appears to be gathering momentum.  All of these sanctions and consequences of Trump’s actions diminish his power right now and over the coming months and years. This is indeed a good thing for us all. The economic ramifications for Trump and the whole Trump brand are significant and will greatly reduce his influence and power going forward.

In the midst of all this, we are engaged in coming to a new understanding of how a democracy can function in the time of the internet. Part of Trump’s power has been his ability to say anything, and we know this really means anything, without being held accountable. Twitter and Facebook have allowed him to make patently false claims as if they were true – without having to answer questions.

Trump’s steadfast creation of an alternate reality to suit his purposes has been the hallmark of his time as President. He and his allies in the media and online have created a full service information system that reflects and amplifies itself to the delight and detriment of millions of Americans. This perpetuation of misinformation has given cover for those Republican politicians who know very well that the election was free and fair, to falsely claim otherwise to satisfy their base and to maintain their power. These ongoing and mendacious statements led directly to the violent attempt to seize the Capital on January 6.

This kind of false free speech cannot be tolerated if our democracy is to function. While we are all against censorship, apparently we need to adjust our limits of what kind of speech is acceptable and useful. Already we have libel laws and other limits on public speech, so that there must be boundaries even to free speech is not a new idea for us Americans, but it will be a difficult discussion to have to find our way to new limits to protect our democracy and ensure that we are not as vulnerable to an authoritarian movement as we have found ourselves to be.

(For a more thorough exploration of our current issues of free speech see Thomas Edsall’s presentation of the issue and opinions both pro and con in his op-ed piece in the New York Times that came out on January 6, the day the Capital was stormed, Have Trump’s Lies Wrecked Free Speech?)

Some of Trump’s former Congressional supporters are now trying to avoid accountability by calling for ‘lowering the temperature’ and not moving forward with impeachment. Now, in the wake of an armed insurrection that came terrifyingly close to harming or kidnapping the three highest ranking government officials beneath the President, the Republicans who supported and stirred up this movement are now calling for moderation.

My friend Robert Hubbell calls this False Equivalency (though I have to claim prior trademark on that title from January 8) in his post today:

 As Americans continue to grapple with the ramifications of the Capitol Insurrection, we must refuse to accept false equivalency from those who seek “healing” without accountability. Those who encouraged or excused the violence must not be recognized as responsible members of our democracy unless and until they admit their complicity, ask forgiveness, and make amends. To date, those responsible for the violence are refusing to acknowledge their role in encouraging violence.

We should be moderate but determined. We must hold people, especially our elected officials, accountable for their words and their actions. But as we pursue this accountability, let us remember how easily we become infected with the virus of hate and either/or thinking. We are all always in danger of falling into our own self-reinforcing bubble of ignorance.

Let us proceed with courage and compassion. Let us act in alignment with the values of justice, truth and decency as we work to repair the ancient wounds that are woven into our country and to meet the grave challenges of this political moment.

(I would urge you all to at least occasionally read Robert Hubbell’s daily summary of the news along with Heather Cox Richard’s ‘Letters from an American’—both are referenced from a wide variety of news sources and well worth the time.)