Inauguration Eve

The question about learning the lesson of history is, will we learn the right one? On the eve of this particular historic moment, I think of another historic transition which has much to teach us, not from the rich history of our country, but from a different continent and hemisphere.

When he was freed from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela had spent 27 years as a political prisoner in his effort to bring the most basic principle of democracy – one person, one vote – to South Africa. By that time apartheid had become universally recognized as one of the greatest systemic injustices in the world. The brutality inflicted by the white minority upon the black majority in order to maintain their hold on power was politically, economically and morally unsustainable.

A good friend of Judy and mine was even caught up in the oppression. Gottfried Kraatz, the pastor of the Berlin congregation where Judy was working when we met in 1978, left the safety of his church to serve a black congregation in Soweto, where his work eventually resulted in his arrest and imprisonment for several months before being deported. Fortunately his German passport and advocacy from the Evangelical Church of Germany spared him from the kind of abuse many of his parishioners endured.

Many feared that the collapse of the apartheid regime would lead to widespread retaliation in retribution for the decades of suffering. That such did not happen can largely be attributed to the courageous leadership of Mandela to insist on a peaceful transition of power and the wisdom to put the nation’s spiritual leader, Desmond Tutu, in charge of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The work of the TRC to unveil the atrocities of apartheid and to grant amnesty to some of the perpetrators as the path to reconciliation is one of the most remarkable stories of national healing in world history. It is the classic example of restorative justice in contrast to the more common model of retributive justice.

As we hear politicians and pundits call for healing the divide in this country after the violent insurrection on January 6th, this is the lesson that is essential for us to learn: reconciliation can only come after truth is affirmed. There is a reason it was “Truth and Reconciliation”, not “Reconciliation and Truth.” Politicians who piously call for healing after voting to overturn the valid vote of the people have the credibility of a carnival shyster selling $3 bills: “Two for a dollar!” What a bargain! Without truth, reconciliation and healing simply cannot occur.

This is the truth that our nation must hear from ALL of our political leaders: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the election, fair and square. Without that most basic affirmation, there can be no reconciliation, no healing of the division that tore into our nation’s most hallowed citadel so violently before our eyes. “How was this possible?” many asked. It was possible because the President stoked the anger of his supporters by perpetuating the Big Lie – “those cheating Democrats stole the election and now you have to fight to take back your country,” as if the country belonged to one party, or in this case, to one person. That may be how fascism works, but not democracy.

Sixty-two court cases and the Trump campaign lost all but one and that on a minor legal issue totally unrelated to any claim of fraud. If the election itself wasn’t a landslide, the courts gave us an unequivocal one. There is a reason why lawyers won’t make the same claims in court that politicians make by tweets, in court you can be held accountable for telling a lie, resulting in being disbarred or even jailed for contempt. This points to the crux of the problem – voters are more likely to believe what they read in social media than what they hear from judges, if they hear it at all.

For this reason the politicians who have been lying to voters must be held accountable. Of course there may be a kernel of truth in the old joke: how can you tell when a politician is lying? Their lips are moving. Unfair of course to many a good politician who strives hard to be truthful. But if stretching the truth is simply how politicians tell voters what they want to hear in order to be re-elected, why should this time be any different? Why should we care more about this lie than any other? Because lying about the results of an election is a whole different thing than lying about the danger of “socialized medicine” or who is going to take away your guns. In a democracy, the integrity of the electoral process is everything. Without that, you lose the will of the governed.

This is precisely why we are living in such a dangerous time. As Trump made his baseless claims of a stolen election, Republican opportunists realized that they could weaken the ability of Democrats to govern by creating doubt in the minds of voters. They knew good and well that Trump lost the election, but if voters have their doubts, then President Biden will be weak and easier to block at every turn. So they bought into the Big Lie knowing it was completely bogus. The problem is, once you let that tiger out of the cage, who is to say it will only eat your opponents? Hullo. I am not so naive to believe that only Republicans will stoop so low. The way in which the Trump administration has built upon one lie after another with little accountability has effectively demonstrated how democracy can be undone from either the right or the left.

Attempting to use an arcane process of Congress to undermine or even overturn the election results based on a lie is the unpardonable sin of democracy. Yes, there have been previous objections made by Democrats in other elections but those were purely symbolic and even if successful would not have changed the results. What we witnessed on January 6th even before the mob broke into the Capital was an illegitimate attack on the election for purely political gain. The leaders of the Congressional attack must be held just as accountable as the leaders of the violent mob. Indeed, they are are even more responsible than the vandals who destroyed government property for they are vandals who destroyed, or at least attempted to destroy, the electoral process. There can be no pardon for such in politics, they should be removed from office. I am talking about you, Senators Hawley and Cruz and Representative Gohmert.

Fortunately, there are decent politicians who stood up for the integrity of the election in their states. Senator Joseph Toomey in Pennsylvania and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in Georgia, both Republicans, are two such leaders to be highly commended. And Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, also Republican, went so far as to publish an article in The Atlantic defending the results of the election and calling on his colleagues to affirm the undeniable truth. Even Senator Mitch McConnell, perhaps the biggest enabler of Trump’s bad behavior over the last four years, has finally had enough and denounced Trump for provoking the riot, stating that “the mob was fed lies.” Meanwhile Raffensperger and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp along with the ten Republican members of the House who joined Democrats in supporting Trump’s second impeachment are facing significant voter backlash and the promise by Trump supporters and even Trump himself that they will be targeted for defeat in the next primary.

This too, worries me deeply even as some Democrats can hardly conceal their glee. They should be careful for what they wish. An internal war within the GOP might result in more victories at the ballot box for Democrats, but it will not be a victory for the country. It takes two to tango as they say, and in politics, that tango, as ugly as it sometimes is, is the dance that makes us strong as a nation. The better politicians know that they need the other side to not only make them a better party, but also to make better laws. Good governing requires good checks and balances. For all its ills, the two party system provides one means to achieve that. A de facto one party system, should it ever come to that, does not make us a stronger country, it makes us a tyranny.

I could not be more delighted to see a decent man like Joe Biden sworn into office tomorrow. He wasn’t my first choice to fill the role, but I have come to realize that he and Kamala Harris are exactly what we need in this time. I pray not only for their success, I pray just as much for Republican leaders to be courageous and to put the good of the country above election denial. If we can get more Senators like Toomey and Sasse in loyal opposition to the current majority, then our republic may indeed stand united in liberty and justice for all. And I pray for all our leaders to commit to the truth in order that we may have reconciliation, recalling the admonition of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

May it be so for one and for all.

Photo: East entrance of the Knight Library, University of Oregon.