Incoming

Death Threats From The President

This morning, a group of U.S. veterans who serve in the US. Congress as Democratic Senators and Representatives put out a video reminding members of the military that they have the right and, indeed, the responsibility—under the Constitution and various international standards—not to obey an illegal order. I know most of these people; they are extraordinary public servants. They take their jobs, and our country, far more seriously than the current inhabitant of the White House does. Some, like Jason Crow of Colorado, have led troops in combat; others, like Elissa Slotkin of Michigan served with the CIA in Iraq; others, like Chrissy Houlihan of Pennsylvania, not only served in the Air Force, but as a Teach For America volunteer. I am grateful to know them, humbled by their courage. They are people of honor.

I’m not sure that the video was wise, either tactically or strategically. But I am absolutely certain that these six Democrats didn’t care about that. The Trumpist for Hire on CNN, Scott Jennings, said it was an act of pure politics. I am certain it was the exact opposite of that. I’m sure it was painful, difficult and decided upon after serious moral scrutiny. That’s how these folks roll. Having stood up, at a moment when standing up was not required, makes me admire them all the more.

Inevitably, Donald Trump called them traitors, called for their arrest, called for their trial and execution, called for them to be hanged. Our Tweeter In Chief twittered that George Washington would have hung them. Actually, George Washington more likely would have punished a man who encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol.

Today’s video was an extraordinary act, advocating an absolutely unnimpeachable truth: You don’t have to obey an illegal order. You have an obligation not to, say, kill prisoners of war or fire on unarmed American protesters in the streets of our country. The latter point is salient right now: there are armed, uniformed, masked, anonymous federal thugs chasing peaceful illegal immigrants—and snagging some American citizens in their dragnets as well—in multiple cities, most recently Charlotte, North Carolina. There are also fighter pilots and drone operators sinking boats allegedly operated by drug cartels in the waters off Venezuela and the Pacific Coast.

It should be clear that every one of these veterans would like to see illegals who are criminals arrested and deported. It should be clear that they’d like to see the operators of actual drug boats arrested and detained. But Trump’s minions are nudging past the bright lines of the law. Sooner or later, an ICE agent or National Guard member may be ordered to do something stupid under pressure; they are being asked to do things that are cruel and perhaps not entirely legal now. Sooner or later, the Wild West culture of ICE will cause the death of someone, perhaps an American citizen, who did nothing wrong. That was today’s warning was all about.

The six Democrats were entirely in their rights to issue this warning. Donald Trump was entirely off the reservation in issuing the death threats against them. He didn’t take these crazy, unAmerican actions in a vacuum, which makes them all the more outrageous. It is dangerous to be an elected official these days. These veterans now have targets on their backs. The threat to their lives and families is very real. And so, we need to put his callousness in context. Members of Congress, especially those who disagree with Donald Trump, are under constant threat of violence. They are leaving Congress in bunches. A few weeks ago, an extraordinarily independent member of Congress, also a veteran, the Democrat Jared Golden of Maine announced his retirement in a local newspaper:

“I have grown tired of the increasing incivility and plain nastiness that are now common from some elements of our American community – behavior that, too often, our political leaders exhibit themselves. … Additionally, recent incidents of political violence have made me reassess the frequent threats against me and my family. Last year we saw attempts against Donald Trump’s life, and more recently we witnessed the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home, the assassination of Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota and the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk.”

“These have made me reconsider the experiences of my own family, including all of us sitting in a hotel room on Thanksgiving last year after yet another threat against our home,” Golden continued. “There have been enough of those over the years to demand my attention.”

Golden quit college to join the Marines after 9/11. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He got in trouble with the MAGA crazies after a mass shooting in his home town of Lewiston, Me, caused him to change his position on gun control: he now opposed assault rifles. I’ve heard him speak a number of times. He’s not a screamer. He is, in fact, decidedly soft-spoken. One of his causes—aside from government reform—is the construction of a Washington Memorial honoring those who served with him in Iraq and Afghanistan. They remain with him forever, scarred in memory. That work will now left to his fellow veterans remaining in the Congress.

But they are, for the moment, a declining breed—even though they’re our best hope to get out of this morass. They tend to get in trouble for speaking their minds. They speak their minds because they know taking an unpopular vote, and losing an election, isn’t the worst thing that can happen to you. Seeing your buddies die in combat, and perhaps getting wounded yourself, is worse, by orders of magnitude. They know that governance is the most serious business, not a reality TV show. They know that Clausewitz was careless: war is not the continuation of politics by other means. War is the failure of politics. Politics should be the very opposite, the antidote, to war. They also have a very precise notion of what being under threat of violence means; the thought of their families, their children, under such threat is intolerable.

It is not a phenomenon limited to Democrats. In the past few years, three Republicans who split with Trump, on issues as minor as refusing to vote for Jim Jordan as House Speaker, left Congress. All three—Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, Don Bacon from Nebraska and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois—were extraordinary public servants. All three received death threats after they split with Trump. Don Bacon had to sell his house and move elsewhere; his wife still sleeps with her pistol under her pillow.

And yes, I know: there are crazy lefties, too, like the guy who killed Charlie Kirk and perhaps the idiot who shot at Trump. Insane violence is not the province of either party. But the spike in such violence has one very obvious and irresponsible source: Donald J. Trump. He has empowered crazy. He has been a victim himself, and even that didn’t modify his disgraceful rhetoric. He spews sewage on a daily basis. And one hopes, his latest effluent will cause no harm to the six Democrats who stated the obvious in their video today.

One last thing: Several recent polls—one by Gallup—showed that the biographical quality that people want most in a politician is that they served in the U.S. military. I’ve been writing about such people for decades. I feel that way, stronger than ever, in part because I’ve gotten to know most of the elected officials mentioned above. Losing their service has been a national debilitation. I hope these six Democrats will continue to devote their lives to serving us, even as the President’s loose tweets make their lives more dangerous.

I hope you’ll help me continue to advocate for veterans in public service—and at a holiday discount! Give the Gift of Sanity.