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January 8, 2021
Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe referred,
in a recent tweet, to a group of GOP senators who intended to object to the
certification of the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the
“Treacherous Eleven.”
After the capitol was overrun by insurrectionists,
fomented by the President of the United States, only six senators continued
their cowardly kowtowing to the lead insurrectionist - Donald Trump. The
“Seditious Six,” led by Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri
also included Roger Marshall (KS), John Kennedy (LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS) and
Tommy Tuberville (AL).
Sedition is a federal crime - “Whoever incites, sets
on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the
authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort
thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years,
or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
The sole purpose of the Electoral College objection
was to win favor with a disgraced lame duck president - a man who only days
earlier berated, cajoled and threatened the Georgia Secretary of State in an
effort to find 11,780 votes to overturn the state’s election results. The
same defeated “wannabe-tyrant” who on Jan. 6, 2021 directed a raucous group of
Trumpsters to march on the capitol building.
These six senators are anything but profiles in
courage. They challenged the results of the presidential election without any
legitimate basis and without any possibility of success. The “Seditious Six”
cowered in the face of unrelenting pressure from the president and his
delusional supporters.
On Dec. 18, 1963, only weeks after President John F.
Kennedy was assassinated, his brother Robert wrote a new forward to Kennedy’s
Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Profiles in Courage.” The first line of the
forward is “Courage is the virtue that President Kennedy most admired.”
In 1956, as a Senator from Massachusetts, Kennedy
wrote “Profiles in Courage.” Kennedy told the story of eight senators who acted
on principle and national interest even though it put their own political
careers at risk. As Robert Kennedy wrote in his forward, “It is a study of men
who, at risk to themselves, their futures, even the well-being of their
children, stood fast for principle.”
Kennedy wrote about Sen. Daniel Webster of
Massachusetts. Webster was opposed to slavery. He saw the Compromise of 1850 as
a way of averting national discord, preserving national unity and preventing
the south from seceding. His vote placed him at odds with his anti-slavery
supporters and his party, and ended any chance of Webster being president. He
said following his vote, “No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too
soon, if he suffers or if he fall in defense of the liberties and Constitution
of his country.”
Another profile in courage was Sen. Edmund G. Ross.
The newly-elected Republican senator from Kansas, who followed his conscience -
in defiance of his party - and cast the deciding vote against the impeachment
of President Andrew Johnson. After being pressured by constituents to vote for
Johnson’s removal he wrote, “I have taken an oath to do impartial justice
according to the Constitution and laws, and trust that I shall have the courage
to vote according to the dictates of my judgment and for the highest good of
the country.” The voters of Kansas did not return Ross to the senate.
Kennedy examined the career of Sen. George Norris of
Nebraska who split with his party and constituency on the issue of the
presidency. Norris was a “dry,” Protestant, Midwestern-Republican. In 1928, he
supported Al Smith, a big-city Democrat who happened to be Catholic and against
Prohibition. He said at the time, “shall we be so partisan that we will place
our party above our country.”
The siege of Jan. 6, 2021 could have been avoided if the Seditious Six would have put country before party; duty before ambition; truth before fiction. This country cannot, and should not, forget the Seditious Six.
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George
P.C. His book “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010” was released by McFarland
Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and
follow him on Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.
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