There's Work To Do

“We’ve lost the line! We’ve lost the line!”

This was the frantic, frightened cry of one of the Capitol Police commanders staring at hundreds of wild-eyed, flag-waving, screaming zealots storming up the steps of the nation’s Capitol on January 6.

I watched those tapes, as I’m sure all of you did. And they made me sick.

Being the writer and historian that I like to think I am, what I saw that day were the ghosts of Pickett’s Charge come to life once more, Confederate flags waving, storming the heights at Gettysburg.

Only, in this case, there were no Union generals like Meade and Hancock to save us. These rebels were not repulsed. They made it over the stone walls. They swarmed the outmanned defenders and broke the lines.

“Neckbeards” waving, all manner of uniforms, weapons of every type, their “rebel yells” echoed down the sacred halls of the Capitol, seeking targets for their blood lust. Only the vast, confusing, unfamiliar structure of the Capitol itself, and the strength of its marble walls and stout oak doors, prevented disaster. The insurrectionists just couldn’t figure out what to do and where to go once they got inside, and eventually their ardor cooled, and sanity regained a foothold.

But the damage had been done. We had, indeed, lost the line.

On February 13, we lost the line again, as 43 Republican senators voted to acquit Donald Trump a second time of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

There is no line for the Republican Party anymore. Trump crossed it, many times. Those who support Trump — still — have proved without a doubt that political power and the “prestige” that goes with it are more important to them than their integrity and protecting the Constitution that they swore an oath to defend.

They have also told us what the price of honor is: Senators and congressmen (and congresswomen) are paid $174,000 per year and get free parking at the Capitol. One hundred thirty-nine members of the House and 43 senators sold out for that price (including our very own U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin).

I have been resistant to say this, but I think I finally have to: There is no viable path for the Republican Party that we have known since the days of Lincoln.

But I do have hope: Not all the 70 million-plus who voted for Trump are unredeemable. My guess is that the hardcore MAGA hat wearing, Trump flag waving, “Stop the Steal” people are less than half of that number.

Sadly, they seem to represent an America that no longer exists, an America that was founded mostly by whites from European countries (and built, in the South, by a great deal of slave labor). By 2040 or so, America will no longer be white race dominated.

The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, racists and white supremacists know this, and they are all engaged in a futile effort to close the borders and stop what they see as the destruction of their culture. This is far from what true democracy and freedom represent.

Perhaps its time for a new Republican Party — maybe we should even call it that. Or perhaps we should revive the Federalist Party, which once stood for a strong central government, a robust military, international commerce, central banking, vigorous foreign relations — and add to it freedom and dignity for all of its citizens of every race, color and creed. It would be a “big tent” party, leaving the unreconstructed, intractable white supremacists outside to shrink on the vine and eventually dry up and blow away.

We have, indeed, “lost the line,” and there’s plenty of work that needs to be done immediately to shore it up and make it stout again.

If only there had been no Trump administration; but, of course, there was, and there’s nothing we can do about that awful period of history now — except learn from it. We must make lemonade from lemons, and the one thing that Trump did for us was to expose the holes in our marvelous Constitution.

President Biden has a lot on his plate, but one thing he should seriously consider is calling a new Constitutional Convention to plug the holes. Perhaps this would be a good job for his vice president — chairing the new convention. As in its original configuration, each state would have delegates, perhaps two each to keep things from becoming unwieldy.

Among the holes that need to be filled: minimum qualifications for the office of president. Currently, candidates need to be at least 35 years of age, and native-born citizens. That is no longer enough. This situation allowed an uneducated, unprincipled, unfit Donald J. Trump to qualify.

The concept of presidential pardons needs to be addressed. Almost every single recent president has pushed the boundaries of what a pardon really stands for and who should receive one.

Article II, Section 1 needs a tweak, too. That’s the section on the Electoral College. It probably needs to be eliminated, but at the very least revised.

The Second Amendment, of course, considers the “right to bear arms,” but that concept is connected to having a “well regulated Militia,” which we don’t have anymore. Might be an opportunity to do something about the millions of guns we have in circulation, legal and illegal.

The 25th Amendment is a bit of a mess, too. Originally intended to provide a smooth pathway for a succession to an incapacitated president, it needs to also be clear about what to do concerning a cripplingly venal one. And what about term limits? There’s a debate I’d like to see, with some sort of term limits placed on both houses of Congress — and perhaps even the Supreme Court as well.

Yes, we have work to do — a lot of work. But, as can be seen from recent events, it’s necessary work. I never want to hear that cry again, “We’ve lost the line!”

And you know, of course, that I am “mostly right.”