Bring the Insurrectionists to Justice
The politicians who egged them on should also be made to pay
a heavy price.
By Peggy Noonan
Jan. 7, 2021 7:19 pm ET
A rioter carries a House podium at the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6.
PHOTO: WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES
How do we deal with all that has happened?
We remember who we are. We are a great nation and a strong
one; we have, since our beginning, been a miracle in the political history of
man. We have brought much good. We are also in trouble, no point not admitting
it.
We regain our confidence. We’ve got through trouble before.
We love this place and will keep it. We have a Constitution that’s gotten us
this far and will get us further.
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We lower the boom. No civilized country can accept or allow
what we saw Wednesday with the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol. This was an
attack on democracy itself. That is not just a phrase. Rule by the people
relies on adherence to law and process. The assault and siege was an attempt to
stop the work of democracy by halting the peaceful transfer of presidential
power, our crowning glory for more than two centuries.
This was a sin against history.
When something like this happens it tends to be repeated. It
is our job to make sure it is not.
And so we should come down like a hammer on all those
responsible, moving with brute dispatch against members of the mob and their
instigators.
On the rioters: Find them, drag them out of their basements,
and bring them to justice. Use all resources, whatever it takes, with focus and
speed. We have pictures of half of them; they like to pose. They larked about
taking selfies and smiling unashamed smiles as one strolled out with a House
podium. They were so arrogant they were quoted by name in news reports. It is
our good luck they are idiots. Capitalize on that luck.
Throw the book at them. Make it a book of commentaries on
the Constitution. Throw it hard.
They have shamed and embarrassed their country in the eyes
of the world, which is not only a painful fact but a dangerous one. The world,
and the young—all of us—need to see them pay the price.
Now to the devil and his apprentices.
As for the chief instigator, the president of the United
States, he should be removed from office by the 25th Amendment or impeachment,
whichever is faster. This, with only a week and a half to go, would be a most
extraordinary action, but this has been an extraordinary time. Mike Pence is a
normal American political figure; he will not have to mount a new government;
he appears to be sane; he will in this brief, strange interlude do fine.
The president should be removed for reasons of justice—he
urged a crowd to march on Congress, and, when it turned violent, had to be
dragged into telling them, equivocally, to go home—and prudence. Mitt Romney
had it exactly right: “What happened here . . . was an insurrection, incited by
the president of the United States.” As for prudence, Mr. Trump is a sick, bad
man and therefore, as president, a dangerous one. He has grown casually
bloody-minded, nattering on about force and denouncing even his own vice
president as a coward for not supporting unconstitutional measures. No one seems
to be certain how Mr. Trump spends his days. He doesn’t bother to do his job.
The White House is in meltdown. The only thing that captures his interest is
the fact that he lost, which fills him with thoughts of vengeance.
Removing him would go some distance to restoring our
reputation, reinforcing our standards, and clarifying constitutional boundaries
for future presidents who might need it.
As for his appointees and staff, the garbage they talk to
rationalize their staying is no longer acceptable to anyone. “But my career.”
Your career, in the great scheme of things, is nothing. “But my future in
politics.” Your future, even if your wildest schemes are fulfilled, is a
footnote to a footnote. There are ways to be a footnote honorably. “But my
kids.” When they are 20 they will read the history. You want them proud of your
role, not petitioning the court for a name change.
It was honorable to arrive with high hopes and idealistic
commitments. It is not honorable to stay.
As for the other instigators, a side note.
True conservatives tend to have a particular understanding
of the fragility of things. They understand that every human institution is, in
its way, built on sand. It’s all so frail. They see how thin the veil is
between civilization and chaos, and understand that we have to go through every
day, each in our way, trying to make the veil thicker. And so we value the
things in the phrase that others use to disparage us, “law and order.” Yes,
always, the rule of law, and order so that the people of a great nation can
move freely on the streets and do their work and pursue their lives.
To the devil’s apprentices, Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.
They are clever men, highly educated, well-credentialed, endlessly articulate.
They see themselves as leading conservative lights, but in this drama they have
proved themselves punks practicing punk politics. They are like people who know
the value of nothing, who see no frailty around them, who inherited a great
deal—an estate built by the work and wealth of others—and feel no
responsibility for maintaining the foundation because pop gave them a strong
house, right? They are careless inheritors of a nation, an institution, a party
that previous generations built at some cost.
They backed a lie and held out the chimera of some possible
Trump victory that couldn’t happen, and hid behind the pretense that they were
just trying to be fair to all parties and investigate any suspicions of vote
fraud, when what they were really doing was playing—coolly, with lawyerly
sophistication—not to the base but to the sickness within the base. They should
have stood up and told the truth, that democracy moves forward, that the
election was imperfect as all elections are, and more so because of the
pandemic rules, which need to be changed, but the fact is the voters of America
chose Biden-Harris, not Trump-Pence.
Here’s to you, boys. Did you see the broken glass, the crowd
roaming the halls like vandals in late Rome, the staff cowering in locked
closets and barricading offices? Look on your mighty works and despair.
The price they will pay is up to their states. But the
reputational cost should be harsh and high.
Again, on the president: There have been leaders before who,
facing imminent downfall, decide to tear everything down with them. They want
to go out surrounded by flames. Hitler, at the end, wanted to blow up Germany,
its buildings and bridges. His people had let him down. Now he hated them. They
must suffer.
I have resisted Nazi comparisons for five years, for the
most part easily. But that is like what is happening here, the same kind of
spirit, as the president departs, as he angrily channel-surfs in his bunker.
He is a bad man and not a stable one and he is dangerous.
America is not safe in his hands.
It is not too late. Removal of the president would be the
prudent move, not the wild one. Get rid of him. Now.
About this article
Declarations
“Declarations” seeks the truth and then tries to state that
truth. The column is published online every Thursday evening and aims to give
clarity and humor where appropriate. It is isn’t overtly ideological and asks
the reader to be open to different considerations.
She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in
2017. A political analyst for NBC News,
she is the author of nine books on American politics, history and culture, from
her most recent, “The Time of Our Lives,” to her first, “What I Saw at the
Revolution.” She is one of ten historians and writers who contributed essays on
the American presidency for the book, “Character Above All.” Noonan was a
special assistant and speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. In 2010 she was
given the Award for Media Excellence by the living recipients of the
Congressional Medal of Honor; the following year she was chosen as Columnist of
the Year by The Week. She has been a fellow at Harvard University’s Institute
of Politics, and has taught in the history department at Yale University.
Before entering the Reagan White House, Noonan was a
producer and writer at CBS News in New York, and an adjunct professor of
Journalism at New York University. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew
up there, in Massapequa Park, Long Island, and in Rutherford, New Jersey. She
is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in Rutherford. She lives in New
York City. In November, 2016 she was named one of the city's Literary Lions by
the New York Public Library.
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