Not gonna go there

Lawmakers stand against damaging republic

“I see dead people … voting.” — A sign held by a pro-Trump protester among those who stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress voted on accepting states’ votes for the Electoral College.

When it comes to the citizens of the United States, there’s a cavernous space between yielding one’s freedoms and behaviors that could lead to prosecution for sedition. This isn’t China, where a tank might just roll over you, or Russia, where one might touch a poisoned door knob, as a result of expressing an opinion the government doesn’t like.

Dissent, our national history shows, is a constitutionally protected way of life for Americans.

Last week, dissent was on full display in Washington, D.C. It’s important to note that citizens who traveled there with grievances against their government and with a goal of peacefully protesting were engaged in a strong American tradition.

A peaceful assembly, though, is far different than a violent mob, which is what some participants became as soon as they broke through barriers, windows and law enforcement officers in an assault on the nation’s Capitol and the democratic republic for which it stands.

It was no accident they were there on Jan. 6. The president urged them to assemble on the day Congress was set to carry out its duty to certify the election that legitimately delivered Joe Biden the presidency. That very morning, the gathered crowd responded to Donald Trump’s call to march to the Capitol, hopped up on a poisonous cocktail of lies and encouragement by the man who continued to deny he’d lost the election. Others, like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, continued to feed a delusion that these were “patriots” returning to the mood and tactics of 1776.

Yes, this nation was founded in revolution. Its founders were, indeed, trying to throw off the shackles of an oppressive monarchy whose governance no longer fit the colonies’ growing desire for independence. Last Wednesday wasn’t about 1776 or some sort of new revolution, unless one wants to acknowledge the day’s events were intended to overthrow the U.S. government. It was about overturning a legitimate election solely on the basis that the crowd’s preferred candidate did not win.

The people who defended the Capitol are the American patriots of 2021.

Let’s us return to the days before Wednesday’s chaos, those days when it became clear to many of the president’s strongest political supporters that his claims of fraud, his assertions about a “rigged” election, were nothing more than allegations for which there was no substantiation, in the 50 states or in the federal courts. They had stuck with him to allow legal challenges to move forward, to give him room to prove his case. He could not and, indeed, the only instances of anyone trying to “steal the election” came from Trump himself. Just ask the Republican secretary of state in Georgia.

In those days, more and more of the president’s supporters could no longer abide his delusions that he’d somehow won the election.

Count us as thankful that Arkansas’ delegation to Washington stepped up before Wednesday’s siege to reject President Trump’s continued resistance to reality.

Sen. John Boozman on Tuesday declared attempts to overturn the results of the election as unconstitutional, calling them threats to core American values. He’d made his position clear weeks ago.

“We cannot erode the ideals that generations of Americans have fought to protect simply because we do not like the outcome of the election. We owe it to them and to future generations to uphold the values and principles that have made the United States the great nation it is,” Boozman said.

Sen. Tom Cotton last Sunday announced he would oppose efforts to stop certification of the election results, prompting Trump to lash out with a warning that Republicans “never forget.” Cotton, though, said overruling the Electoral College would take presidential elections away from the people and turn them over to whatever party controls Congress.

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack of Rogers, who represents the Third District of Arkansas, said Congress’ job is to count the Electoral College votes sent in by the states, but going beyond that would threaten the undesired result of federalizing elections. Fighting certification, he said, would “jeopardize our republic and the foundational system that has served America since its beginning.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs wouldn’t say before Wednesday what his position was. And Rep. Rick Crawford of Jonesboro chose to join those objecting to some of the Electoral College votes. Little Rock’s Rep. French Hill said he would not oppose the election results.

All of these men have supported Trump over the last four years and express disappointment in the election’s outcome. But we pay our respects to those who stood up before Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol and, effectively, said enough if enough. When it counted most — in the role Congress plays in the formal election of the next president — they did not throw out constitutional government in favor of a cult-like following.

We know there are some who claim it’s too little and too late. It wasn’t. A sacred American pledge to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States led them to perform their duty to the nation, not to a party and not to Donald Trump.

Prior to Wednesday’s events, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin avoided comment on efforts to overturn the election results. All of them have said they’ll run for governor in two years or are considering it. State Sen. Jim Hendren, another potential gubernatorial candidate, was clear in his view that overturning a free and fair election would “undermine the foundation of our democracy.”

Too late? If we’re going to talk about 1776, let’s remember that it took time for even the founding fathers to be convinced that independence from the king was necessary for the colonies. Many of them didn’t want revolution, until it simply could not be avoided.

So if it did take a long while for Cotton, Womack and others to stand firm for the nation, they nonetheless did it when they recognized to do otherwise was to turn their backs on American democracy.

That’s what Wednesday’s mob did.