Moving forward from ‘profound disunity’

“American Patriots” have marched on the Capitol and invaded the temple of our self-government, people who heard the call of a failed president who had lost an election and sought the last refuge of a scoundrel, lying through his teeth that the election had been stolen after he had won an imaginary landslide, after courts had rejected his challenges wherever they were made, and who then asked for a mob to nullify the will of the voters as if insurrection were patriotism.

That is not the way of America, of the Constitution and laws we follow to live in peace with each other in our civic family. After this week has shocked our collective conscience, we must ask how Republicans and Democrats can make common cause as what American patriots are in fact and not in pretense, and how we can move forward together.

First, the adults in the room who are sitting in government, the vice president and cabinet, must invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office to prevent what President Trump could be doing in his remaining days in office. We know how he has conducted himself since the election, including cynical use of the pardon power and now encouraging armed insurrection to interfere with the constitutional process. Our nation is at risk every day the president remains at the helm of the ship of state, and it is the sad duty of the cabinet to remove him.

Second, Congress must now invoke the remedy of impeachment, addressing the president’s conduct in this moment, not just for removal of the president today, but to disqualify him from office tomorrow. After his conduct since the election, and in particular this week, there is no alternative but to remove him from our public life.

Impeachment must be in sorrow and not in anger, the very sad and bipartisan business of removing a disgraced president from future participation in our civic life because of the kind of misconduct all of us and our children can see.

Marching on the Capitol under arms and bringing the Confederate flag is a stunning act. Those who followed the lead of the president, of Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and their comrades in ill spirit, have challenged an election that they knew had been settled. They all disserved our democracy. For America to move forward, the followers of those who have led this malignant moment certainly must understand that they have been seduced and abandoned by leaders who have used them cynically, and created one of the saddest moments in our history.

The current moment is one for unity of purpose after the most profound disunity.

By removing the cancer on the presidency of this president, we can engage together to move forward in Congress and our civic life, understanding that we are better than denying truths like the fact of an election conducted simultaneously in 50 states where one party gained in Congress and the other won the presidency.

The words of a Hasidic master, Reb Nachman of Breslov, are instructive. “The whole entire world is a very narrow bridge and the main thing is to have no fear at all.” As Republicans and Democrats, and as a nation of many divergent views, we all must not be afraid and engage with each other as we cross this very narrow bridge together, making common cause as a nation engaged in its mission as a shining city on a hill, a light unto the nations.

Mark A. Shiffrin served on the presidential transition of George H.W. Bush, as deputy general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education, and as a Connecticut commissioner of consumer protection. He practices law in New Haven and can be reached at mark@markshiffrin.com.