There is a saying…something about when good people do nothing….that I haven’t been able to shake since watching three of the January 6th Committee hearings the past couple of weeks. That’s usually the sign that I need to get my thoughts out by writing about it.
Those of a certain political party will almost assuredly have a different take on what the Committee is revealing. Either they believe it is all fake or they just don’t care because in the grand scheme of things, they believe what happened that day was the only way they could preserve what they felt they deserved.
As an Election Official myself, I have a much different opinion and have had since way back in the 2016 campaign when a candidate for President of the United States started laying the groundwork for a loss by repeatedly and very publically stating that if he were to lose, the election would have been rigged. (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/donald-trump-s-rigged-election-claims-raise-historical-alarms-n667831) Lies, when repeated often enough, often become the truth for most people.
While there certainly is never an error free election, to believe that an entire country of election officials had somehow banded together to rig an election is ludicrous. Those are statements made by people who have no knowledge of how the system works and the checks and balances that are in place to prevent such a scenario. It is an affront to every single Election Judge and local and state Election Official who works so hard to follow the laws of their state and ensure democracy is preserved. But I digress.
As the planning for what eventually happened on January 6th progressed, and it became clear the President was desperate to stay in office even after a safe, secure and quite legal election that resulted in him losing, many of those in the White House, including those in his inner circle, said nothing at all to stop his lies about the election being stolen. Some even became complicit in spreading the lies and fueling the divisiveness that was spreading across the country based on those lies. It seemed currying favor of the man in the oval office was more important to them and their future careers than doing what was right. The people who every President needs to keep him/her on course, cared more about themselves then they did about their country.
When they said nothing at all, going way back to those comments in 2016, they gave away their souls, but for what? A job? A career? The prestige that comes from working in the most historic building in the country? Was what happened on January 6th and what is happening since worth it to have said nothing at all? Can they sleep at night? Unless they are truly bad people, I don’t see how that is possible.
Watching the hearings, I have shed many tears over how such a great country, how such a great democracy, could have fallen so dramatically. When, in 2016, that president promised to “drain the swamp”, it appeared he was doing so in order to fill it with even worse creatures who, like lemmings, were expected to do his bidding no matter what the cost. Those sycophants – the ones who said nothing at all when our country’s constitution was in jeopardy – those people are the ones we should fear the most.
I have often said that it doesn’t really matter how smart a President is as long as they surround themselves with smart people – people who will not hesitate to tell the President what is right and what is wrong. The 2020 White House just proves how true that is.
Not everyone in the 2020 White House was bad. Greg Jacob, the Vice President’s legal counsel and one of those who has testified at the hearings, struck me in particular. He gave thoughtful and sound advice about what the President asked the Vice-President to do on January 6th and, while it was ignored, he spoke up and repeatedly pointed out that the Vice-President did not have the power to decide who the next President was.
When I reached out to express my appreciation to Mr. Jacob for doing the right thing, his simple response was, “We just did our duty…” It’s too bad other people in that White House forgot that their duty was not to the man in the oval office, but rather to the country they all served.
If what happened on January 6th and probably well before then teaches us anything, it’s that when good people stand by and say nothing as bad people do bad things, evil wins. Our nation can boast many people who spoke up when evil was at hand even though doing so came at great personal cost. I hope and pray that if that day comes for me, I will be among them and maybe this post, as insignificant as it is, can be the first step on that path.
Be well my friends….
~BAL
Author Barbara A. Luker 