I Was Wrong

Just over a month ago, encouraged by the response of state election officials and federal courts to the unsubstantiated election fraud charges by the president of the United States, I wrote that, having initially being “in despair about the attacks on the credibility of a U.S. election by the president and his supporters … It has begun to dawn on me that the resiliency of the American democratic system in the face of an all-out assault by a sitting president is, in fact, evidence of its strength, and that will persuade the world of the value of our system, not its flaws.”

Subsequent events have proven me wrong. The continued refusal of a sitting president to accept the will of the people and the certification of the election results by the duly elected officials, his attempts to threaten and cajole elected officials into illegal acts to block the certification of the election results, and his invitation to rioters to congregate in Washington, D.C. and exhortation to them to march to the Capitol is not evidence of the strength of the American democracy.

Ultimately, the American democracy will prevail. But we can no longer claim to be an example to the world. An American president and too many of his supporters in Congress have made an unjustified and unconstitutional attempt to overturn an election. The president has failed in his effort to “make America great again.” Instead, he has made America an example of what happens when an anti-democratic demagogue is given power.

What we’ve seen is sedition. I’m proud of business leaders who have spoken out and of the National Association of Manufacturers for its call for the vice president to consider invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove the president from office. And as a former senior official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations, I call on the Republican Party and all of its elected officials to condemn the president and those who have supported him. If they do not, they no longer have any right to expect any support from the American people.