Will There Be Any Civic Virtue Left?

Cassidy Huchinson, who stood up the the Trump crowd at age 25

Watching the January 6 hearings back in 2022, I was quite impressed at the level of civic virtue I saw among our governing elite in the wake of Trump's defeat.

Not one Republican election board county clerk rejected the outcome.  Not one swing state Republican legislature agreed to appoint an alternate set of electors.  Arizona Speaker Rusty Bowers
 made a powerful and heart-rending witness:

First of all, when the people — and in Arizona, I believe it — some 40-plus years earlier the legislature had established the manner of electing our officials or the electors for the presidential race. Once it was given to the people as in Bush v Gore, illustrated by the Supreme Court, it becomes a fundamental right of the people. So, as far as I was concerned, for someone to ask me in the — I would call it a paucity. There was no – no evidence being presented of any strength.

Evidence can be hearsay evidence. It's still evidence, but it's still hearsay. But strong judicial quality evidence, anything that would say to me you have a doubt, deny your oath, I will not do that. And on more than — on more than one occasion throughout all this, that has been brought up. And it is a tenet of my faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired, of my most basic foundational beliefs. And so, for me to do that because somebody just asked me to is foreign to my very being. I — I will not do it.

. . . . . . .

Well, as others in the videos have mentioned, we received, my secretaries would say, in excess of 20,000 emails and tens of thousands of voicemails and texts which saturated our offices. And we were unable to work, at least communicate, that at home, up till even recently, it is the new pattern or a pattern in our lives to worry what will happen on Saturdays because we have various groups come by and they have had video panel trucks with videos of me proclaiming me to be a pedophile and a pervert and a corrupt politician and blaring loudspeakers in my neighborhood and leaving literature both on my property, and — but arguing and threatening with neighbors and with myself.

And I don't know if I should name groups, but there was a — one gentleman that had the three bars on his chest. And he had a pistol and was threatening my neighbor. Not with the pistol, but just vocally. When I saw the gun, I knew I had to get close. And at the same time, on some of these we had a daughter who is gravely ill, who is upset by what was happening outside. And my wife that is a valiant person, very, very strong, quiet, very strong woman. So it was disturbing. It was disturbing.

That is an impressive display of civic virtue. Presumably it was replicated (perhaps in less dramatic form) in Republican legislatures across the swing states.

Georgia was the only swing state with a Republican Governor or Secretary of State, and they stood up to ferocious pressure.

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER:

Well, after the — after the election, my email, my cell phone was docked [sic, doxed]. And so I was getting texts all over the country. And then eventually my wife started getting the text and hers typically came in a sexualized attacks which were disgusting. You have to understand that Trish and I, we met in high school.

We've married over 40 years now. And so they started going after her I think just to probably put pressure on me. Why don't you just quit walk away. And so that happened. And then some people broke into my daughter in law's home and my son has passed and she's widow and has two kids. And so we're very concerned about her safety also.

ADAM SCHIFF:

And Mr. Secretary, why didn't you just quit and walk away?

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER:

Because I knew that we had followed the law, we had followed the Constitution And I think sometimes moments require you to stand up and just take the shots. You're doing your job. And that's all we did. You know, we just followed the law and we followed the Constitution. And at the end of the day, President Trump came up short.

But I had to be faithful to the Constitution. And that's what I swore an oath to do.

Eric "Potty Mouth" Hershman, J-6 witness

Federal officials were equally firm.  Federal judges who were Trump appointees refused to overturn the results.  US attorneys who were Trump appointees refused to prosecute for election fraud in the absence of evidence of such fraud.  Department of Justice department heads threatened to resign en masse rather than act to undermine the election.  Mike Pence refused to leave the Capitol as the mob bayed for his blood and returned to certify the Democratic victory.  It was all very impressive.  The one place where civic virtue was notably lacking was in Congress.

I faced the 2022 midterms with great fear and trepidation, fearing not just a red wave, but that Republican candidate would refuse to concede defeat, that Republican election officials would throw out results they didn't like, that election watchers would unplug machines and commit other acts of sabotage, and that militias would show up to intimidate voters.  None of that happened.  The election went off as a completely normal election.  Voters voted without disruption.  Officials (with a few exceptions) certified the results.  Even though Democrats did better than expected, defeated Republicans (with a two exceptions) conceded, and none made a serious attempt to overturn the results.

Republicans took control of the US House of Representatives and, whatever else one may think of their tenure, Republicans did expel George Santos when he came under indictment and seriously investigated Matt Gaetz even after the Department of Justice declined to indict.

Even up to the 2024 election Republican officials showed significant civic virtue.  Republican election officials sought to assure voters that elections were honest.  When Donald Trump falsely accused the Haitian community in Springfield Ohio of eating people's pets, Republican Governor Mike DeWine went to Springfield to calm things down.  Actual displays of hate occurred, but only from a handful of outsiders.  When Hurricane Helene rained death and destruction across the South and Elon Musk promoted false stories that FEMA was not helping, the Republican governors of Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee all cooperated with the feds and sought to refute such rumors.  Even Ron DeSantis cooperated with FEMA, albeit in a more low key manner.

And following the elections Republicans who lost, even by small margins (with the exception of the North Carolina Supreme Court) conceded defeat.  Even Kari Lake refrained from contesting the results.

So it appears that as of 2024, Republican candidates not named Trump running for an office other than President are still willing to abide by election results.  As of 2024, civil virtue was not dead in this country.

But I have serious doubts that it can survive four years of sustained assault from you-know-who.