”The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.” — Russian author and imprisoned dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
To see the images of the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attacking police and desecrating the U.S. Capitol is to see the truth.
To hear the savage roar of the rioters is to hear the truth.
To learn the sworn testimony from members of President Donald Trump’s own staff about his actions and inactions that day and in the days leading up to the insurrection is to know the truth.
Trump acted un-presidentially, unethically and almost certainly illegally in stoking the rioters to disrupt certification of Joe Biden’s victory — by more than 7 million votes — in the 2020 election.
In the run-up to the insurrection, evidence presented by the U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack clearly shows, Trump intentionally pushed his most dangerous lie toward a violent culmination.
Still, his army of supporters remains many — many who have hitched their political careers to the reckless manifestations of the former president’s insatiable appetite for power and control.
Sadly, these fools are known by this moniker — Republican. They use it as a cloak of legitimacy to conceal their lies and deceit, reflections of Trump’s false narratives and conspiracy theories.
They aren’t truly Republicans, these Trump followers. They’re the true RINOs, Republicans in Name Only.
Richard Lugar was a true Republican. So were Dwight Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln.
It takes only a few truth-tellers to poke holes in the fabric of lies. Just a few with the courage to suffer the castigations of Trump and to value integrity and truth over political fortunes.
Enter Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. As members of the Jan. 6 committee, both are speaking the truth and paying the price.
Cheney faces a Trump-backed opponent in her state’s primary this month. She trailed by a whopping 22 percentage points in a poll taken in mid-July.
Lamenting the partisan extremes of both parties, Kinzinger announced in October that he would not run for re-election.
Cheney, in particular, has provided clear-headed leadership for the Jan. 6 committee as it makes its case with volleys of evidence in hearing after hearing after hearing. Since the insurrection, Cheney has not minced words.
When voting in favor of Trump’s impeachment in 2021, she said the president “summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack.”
Those assertions ring true, given the overwhelming evidence presented by the Jan. 6 committee.
The vast majority of Americans, 79%, believe that Trump acted illegally or unethically in the aftermath of the 2020 election, according to results of a CNN poll released in late July. Still, tens of millions of Americans, most of whom call themselves Republicans, cannot see the truth, hear the truth or accept the truth.
That’s how strong Trump’s cult of personality is, how masterful his appeal is to white Americans’ fears about immigration, progress and modernization. And how cunning and complete his takeover of the GOP is.
History will tell the truth. It always does. The lieutenant villains of this chapter will be known as the politicians who ride Trump’s noxious wave, who deny the damage he wrought because they can capitalize on it.
They will be swallowed up and spit out by history, and all will see them for what they really are.
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