On Monday, December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt addressed the nation after Japan launched an unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7. The United States entered World War II by declaring war on Japan on that fateful day but what we most remember from that famous address is how the president labeled December 7: “A date which will live in infamy.”
Seventy-nine
years later, in a traumatic twist of history, we experienced yet another
December Day which will live in infamy in our nation's history.
On December
8, 2020, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit directly with the U.S. Supreme
Court to bar the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and
Wisconsin from casting their electoral voted for Joe Biden. Biden had won these
states in the November presidential election. The Texas lawsuit essentially
asked the Supreme Court to declare Trump the winner in those four states and
hand over the presidency to him for a second term.
That the Supreme
Court threw out the absurd lawsuit three days later is not the point. It was
expected and was obviously the right thing to do, even though Trump had packed
the court with his hand-picked nominees.
No, the
reason why this date will live in infamy, 79 years after the first one, is
because 126 Republican Members of Congress (more than 60 percent) and 17
Republican Attorneys General signed the lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton.
Think about
that for a moment! People who swore to uphold the law and the constitution chose
instead to support the baseless claims of a demagogue that the election was
stolen from him, even though more than 7 million Americans voted for Biden than
Trump, the largest difference in U.S. history.
For four
years, Trump had assaulted the foundational values of America, aided and abetted by
his sycophants, Republican Congressmen, Senators, Attorneys Generals and white
supremacists. Trump’s criminal negligence in combating the lethal coronavirus
has so far resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 Americans, more than the number
of Americans who lost their lives - 291,557 - fighting in the four years of
WWII after Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan following its
deadly attack on Pearl harbor.
The difference
between the two infamous dates couldn’t be starker. A foreign nation attacked America
in December, 1941, forcing America to declare war. The cause was just, the
right to defend the country moral and the nation united.
Seventy-nine
years later, majority of the Republican Members of Congress and Attorneys
General of 17 states declared war on America from within, threatening secession
and evoking the specter of a Civil War.
These “By
Hook or by Crook” Americans who so brazenly betrayed our democracy must not be forgotten
for their treachery. We the people have the power to vote them out of office
when it is their time for reelection.
Here are the names
of the traitors, the quislings, the domestic terrorists, who have betrayed
their oaths by supporting the unholy and undemocratic demands of a rogue
president:
First,
the attorneys general, supposedly the chief law enforcement officers of their
states, who joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in their treacherous lawsuit:
Eric Schmitt, Missouri; Steve Marshall, Alabama; Leslie Rutledge, Arkansas;
Ashley Moody, Florida; Curtis Hill, Indiana; Derek Schmidt, Kansas; Jeff
Landry, Louisiana; Lynn Fitch, Mississippi; Tim Fox, Montana; Doug Peterson,
Nebraska; Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota; Mike Hunter, Oklahoma; Alan Wilson,
South Carolina; Jason Ravnsborg, South Dakota; Herbert H. Slatery III,
Tennessee; Sean Reyes, Utah; Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia.
Second,
the House members, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Whip Steve
Scalise (La.); Jim Jordan (Ohio), ranking member of the House Judiciary
Committee; Kevin Brady (Tex.), ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee;
Rep. Gary Palmer (Ala.), head of the Republican Policy Committee; and Mike
Johnson (La.), who organized this betrayal of the U.S. Constitution.
The
rest, in alphabetical order of their home state, are:
Alabama (Robert B. Aderholt, Mo Brooks, Bradley Byrne), Arizona (Andy Biggs,
Debbie Lesko), Arkansas (Eric A. “Rick” Crawford, Bruce Westerman), California
(Ken Calvert, Doug LaMalfa, Tom McClintock), Colorado (Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn),
Florida (Gus M. Bilirakis, Mario Diaz-Balart, Neal Dunn, Matt Gaetz, Bill
Posey, John Rutherford, Ross Spano, Michael Waltz, Daniel Webster, Ted Yoho),
Georgia (Rick Allen, Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, Douglas A. Collins, Drew Ferguson,
Jody Hice, Barry Loudermilk, Austin Scott), Idaho (Russ Fulcher, Mike Simpson),
Illinois (Mike Bost, Darin LaHood), Indiana (Jim Baird, Jim Banks, Trey
Hollingsworth, Greg Pence, Jackie Walorski), Iowa (Steve King), Kansas (Ron
Estes, Roger Marshall), Louisiana (Ralph Abraham, Clay Higgins), Maryland (Andy
Harris), Michigan (Jack Bergman, Bill Huizenga, John Moolenaar, Tim Walberg),
Minnesota (Tom Emmer, Jim Hagedorn, Pete Stauber), Mississippi (Michael Guest,
Trent Kelly, Steven M. Palazzo), Missouri (Sam Graves, Billy Long, Vicky
Hartzler, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Jason T. Smith, Ann Wagner), Montana (Greg
Gianforte), Nebraska (Jeff Fortenberry, Adrian Smith), New Jersey (Gregory
Steube, Jeff Van Drew), New York (Elise Stefanik, Lee Zeldin), North Carolina
(Dan Bishop, Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy, David
Rouzer, Mark Walker), Ohio (Bob Gibbs, Bill Johnson, Robert E. Latta, Brad
Wenstrup), Oklahoma (Kevin Hern, Markwayne Mullin), Pennsylvania (John Joyce,
Frederick B. Keller, Mike Kelly, Dan Meuser, Scott Perry, Guy Reschenthaler,
Glenn Thompson), South Carolina (Jeff Duncan, Ralph Norman, Tom Rice, William
Timmons, Joe Wilson), Tennessee (Tim Burchett, Scott DesJarlais, Charles J.
“Chuck” Fleischmann, Mark Green, David Kustoff, John Rose), Texas (Jodey
Arrington, Brian Babin, Michael C. Burgess, Michael Cloud, K. Michael Conaway,
Dan Crenshaw, Bill Flores, Louie Gohmert, Lance Gooden, Kenny Marchant, Randy
Weber, Roger Williams, Ron Wright), Virginia (Ben Cline, H. Morgan Griffith,
Rob Wittman, Ron Wright), Washington (Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dan Newhouse),
West Virginia (Carol Miller, Alex Mooney), Wisconsin (Tom Tiffany).
Don’t forget
these traitors who put politics and party above country. We have the power to give
them the boot through our voting power.
We are counting
on Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to restore decency, civility, Rule of Law,
justice and democracy to a traumatized nation after four years of nonstop
misrule by Donald Trump. It won’t be easy, and it certainly will not be accomplished overnight.
But given their experience, expertise and sincerity of intention, we know that Joe
and Kamal can accomplish these goals with our continued support and activism.
