INDIANAPOLIS — One of the most vivid moments of my fatherhood was sitting in the woods one hot early July day on the Gettysburg battleground between Devil’s Den and Little Round Top, watching my two sons climb up what became the most important strategic heights of the American Civil War and a turning point for civilization.
Had the Union lost at Gettysburg, the political will of the North to continue would have evaporated. There would have likely been a United States of America, the Confederate States of America, the Republic of Texas and, perhaps, a half dozen other nations. There would have been nations with slavery, regional wars, and the accompanying Pandora's Box of atrocity and horror.
While raising my sons, there were the normal parental concerns sending them off to war on a foreign battlefield, but up until now, the notion that they face a second American civil war seemed far-fetched. In the America we grew up in, the regional battles young Hoosiers waged against Alabama and Texas took place on football fields, basketball courts and baseball diamonds.
Ominously, that has changed. When a significant portion of one of our two main political parties refuses to accept the results of a presidential election, that calls into doubt the fragile American experiment. A YouGov poll in October 2020 found that 56% said they expect to see "an increase in violence as a result of the election." Some 40% "strongly agreed" that the United States could be "on the verge" of a second civil war. “This is the single most frightening poll result I’ve ever been associated with,” said Rich Thau, president of Engagious, a poll sponsor.
The Washington Post reported on Monday that a third of nearly 700 Republicans seeking U.S. House and Senate seats have embraced Donald Trump's perverse and baseless notion that the 2020 election was "rigged" and "stolen."
The Atlantic's Tim Alberta writes in the article "The Senator Who Decided to Tell The Truth" about Michigan State Sen. Ed McBroom, a conservative, pro-life Republican. He chaired the Michigan Senate Oversight Committee, which released a bombshell report in June: “There is no evidence presented at this time to prove either significant acts of fraud or that an organized, wide-scale effort to commit fraudulent activity was perpetrated in order to subvert the will of Michigan voters. The Committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain.”
McBroom has been doubted by constituents who would rather believe a Russian or Chinese website designed to discredit American democracy and sow division. “It’s been very discouraging, and very sad, to have people I know who have supported me, and always said they respected me and found me to be honest, who suddenly don’t trust me because of what some guy told them on the internet,” McBroom said.
Last week, the New York Times posted a 40-minute video investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. It documents in vivid detail from hundreds of videos it obtained, the origins of the mob that was incited by President Trump, how the U.S. Capitol was breached in eight places, the deaths of two Trump supporters, and the hours of hand-to-hand combat that Capitol and Washington Metro Police endured resulting in more than 140 injuries.
My takeaway from this spasm of violence was, given all the mayhem, it’s a wonder there weren’t more casualties. Despite the beatings that police endured, they only fired one shot. The video raises questions on why police were so ill-prepared, why it took the Pentagon hours to respond to the assault which had been planned in plain view on the Internet. It revealed how close the insurrection came to derailing the “peaceful transfer of power” that has forged the American democracy experiment and how fragile that has become.
Last week, former vice president Mike Pence said at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, "Now, there are those in our party who believe that in my position as presiding officer over the joint session that I possess the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states. The Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress. And the truth is, there’s almost no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone.”
Pence added, “In the years ahead, the American people must know that our Republican Party will always keep our oath to the Constitution, even when it would be politically expedient to do otherwise. If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections. We’ll lose our country.”
President Ronald Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
I keep thinking of my young sons scaling Little Round Top, at a time when the American experiment in democracy seemed to present an unlimited vista to excel and celebrate. Now I am deeply concerned that my grandchildren may watch the lethal horrors that came to be known at the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield and Cemetery Ridge.
The columnist is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana at www.howeypolitics.com. Find Howey on Facebook and Twitter @hwypol.
