StemCell Therapy

Monday night, two neighbors and I enjoyed each others company and conversation around a backyard fire to celebrate the summer solstice.

Politics came up. One neighbor said she didnt think Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 presidential election. The other said he didnt think too many people were paying much attention to the House select committees historic hearings about the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

I did not argue with my neighbors or try to persuade them to change their minds. I asked what they thought of Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Vice President Mike Pence, Republicans who refused to go along with President Donald Trumps plot to overturn results of a free and fair election.

RINOs, the one neighbor said, meaning Republicans In Name Only. Many share her view that loyalty to the GOP matters more than oaths sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution.

The House committee is building its case to the American people. Through witness testimony, documents, emails, text messages, video and other evidence, the committee is showing how Trump tried to stay in office despite losing the popular vote to Biden by about 7 million votes.

Trumps lust for the power drove him to convince millions of his followers that the 2020 election was fraudulent. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Fox News hosts and other influential people publicly went along with the scheme. The committee has heard from former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and others, who testified they repeatedly told Trump his ploy was illegal.

If fraud had occurred, Trumps proper recourse was to plead his case in court. His supporters filed more than 60 lawsuits in state and federal courts, but no one could present any evidence of fraud, only lies and hearsay. Judges, including some appointed by Trump, dismissed the cases.

Trumps unwillingness to accept the reality of his loss may involve a concept known as willful blindness, legal analysts have written. Trump himself might have believed there was fraud, but testimony shows he refused to listen to anyone who told him the evidence said Bidens win was legitimate.

To this day, many Republican voters and elected officials refuse to publicly admit Biden won the presidency. Many believe fictional stories about mules harvesting illegal votes cast by purported dead people or immigrants. Theyve been told to believe electronic voting equipment was somehow manipulated to favor Biden.

The false narratives collectively known as Trumps big lie cast doubt on the integrity of our voting systems and democracy.

Not only is Trump willfully blind, the hearings show that millions of fellow Americans deliberately refuse to acknowledge mounting evidence that violence at the Capitol that day was no accident. Rather, it was the culmination of an illegal ploy to halt the certification of Electoral College results.

Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump breach the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/John Minchillo/AP)

Trump embraced the plan to violently overturn the outcome, but Pence refused to go along with the scheme. There was no legal basis to a cockamamie theory that the vice president could reject the will of voters by legitimizing slates of phony electors in several swing states that Trump lost.

The plan was to kick Electoral College slates back to certain states where Republicans held legislative majorities. The scheme never made it that far. Our institutions held, but barely. You may recall 121 House Republicans and six GOP senators voted to reject results from Arizona.

Americans who ignore the truth of Jan. 6 use mental gymnastics to create an alternate reality. They deny evidence. They deflect by talking about gas prices or other concerns. They try to discredit those presenting evidence by calling the effort to seek accountability a partisan witch hunt.

The select committees important task is to show Americans that the threat to democracy is ongoing. Last week, a Republican-led county commission in New Mexico relented and voted to certify election results after initially refusing to do so. The states supreme court ordered the panel to certify results that the commission initially rejected due to unfounded conspiracy theories, Reuters reported.

Our institutions held in late 2020 and early 2021 because enough people of integrity were in positions to refuse to go along with illegal schemes to overturn election results. Now there are fewer people of integrity left in gatekeeper positions. Some left amid threats and intimidation.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., listens Tuesday as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol continues to reveal its findings of a year-long investigation. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

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Kinzinger on Sunday shared a letter he received at his home in Channahon. The writer threatened to execute the congressman, his wife and their 5-month-old child because of the Republicans efforts to uphold democracy.

The Darkness is spreading courtesy of cowardly leaders fearful of truth, Kinzinger wrote on Twitter. The threats Ive gotten dont scare me. They make me more determined.

Many are concerned insurrectionists will try again in 2024 to overturn election results if they disagree with the outcome. Evidence of the ongoing plot to destroy our democracy ought to strengthen the resolve of every American to vote and exercise their rights.

The battle for American democracy reminds me of The Skin of Our Teeth, a 1942 play by Thornton Wilder. We have always faced existential threats, and have barely survived many of them. Fascism, nuclear war and economic collapse, to name a few.

Somehow weve pulled through, sometimes by razor-thin margins. Whatever the future holds, I expect it will be close. A few votes here and there could make a world of difference.

Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.

tslowik@tribpub.com

See more here:
Trump election lies may fit legal concept of willful blindness - Chicago Tribune

This entry was posted on June 26, 2022 at 2:09 am and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |