COUNTRY OVER PARTY

This post is my response to what Charles P. Pierce wrote in his Last Post of the Week at Esquire this last Friday. The partisanship he appears unable to shed for the sake of meeting the essential political crisis of 2024 is a sad thing to see, but I also know it’s shared by too many on both sides - which is why the crisis exists.

The choice of Ripon, Wisconsin, as the place where Kamala Harris and Liz Cheney came to publicly campaign together last Friday is a reminder that Mark Twain was right when he said that history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

The group of Americans who came to Ripon in 1854 were animated by their opposition to slavery and their recognition that the Slave Power was so powerful - controlling the White House, a majority in both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court - that the previous partisan alignments of national politics had proven themselves unequal to deal with the crisis of the Slave Power moving to extend slavery into the western territories and make itself nationally all-powerful. They recognized that a new political party which could bring together and unite all those who were opposed to slavery must be created.

This symbolism is personal for me. Peter James Cleaver, a Quaker Abolitionist and conductor on the Underground Railroad from Catawissa, Pennsylvania, was one of those who came to Ripon for that meeting. He was my great-great-grandfather.

I’ve felt over the past eight years - particularly when people were commenting negatively to posts I made about the need for a broad pro-democracy coalition to be built in order to defeat MAGA - that I was acting in accordance with his example. I’m sure Peter believed he was acting in accordance with the example of his ancestors; he was the great-great grandson of Isaac Cleaver, soldier in the Revolutionary War who crossed the Delaware with General Washington to save the Revolution.

There’s value in knowing who you come from, particularly in difficult times not that different from the difficult times those who came before faced.

And that’s where the rhyme comes in, because we face our own moment to make this choice.

It’s unsurprising that most people across the country have little to no idea that this Harris-Cheney event happened, let alone its political-historical significance. Right before the event, Trump decided to whine about Cheney and about how the media pays attention to her and the “RINOs” opposing him. And - surprise surprise (not!) - CNN. Instead of running a story about how momentous the event was, they ran the headline, “Trump Bashes GOP Former Rep. Liz Cheney as She Campaigns With Harris.”

Other sources of actual news (something the pro-Trump New York/DC Press Corpse is opposed to) show that Harris and Cheney were both keenly aware of the symbolic significance and the weight of the historical parallel, that we are at a point where we need to rethink the partisan divide we have lived under up to now.

So, don’t take what’s happening for granted.

As anyone here can attest, putting aside deeply held political beliefs and partisan loyalties isn’t easy, but the remarkable thing is that Kamala Harris is successfully working to create a big tent. That was also the message in 1854.

The Republican Party was founded as a coalition of three different political groupings that were wildly opposed on many issues, but were united on the point that republican democracy could only be preserved by defeating the Slave Power. The pro-freedom coalition was composed of Abolitionists, Quaker and otherwise; Whig businessmen who believed the government needed to invest in the infrastructure - including education - on which a modern economy could be built and prosper; and the anti-immigrant Know-Nothings. With the benefit of 170 years of hindsight, it can be seen that such a coalition was inherently unstable; the antagonisms that have developed between them in that time - particularly over the past 50 years - are what have created the modern Republican Party. But for 20 crucial years - 1854-74 - that coalition did defeat the slave power and initiate the reforms that also eventually led to our current state as a country.

When they appeared on stage together, Harris and Cheney embraced that big tent message. Cheney is still a conservative; her message was that this election is not about left vs. right, or even D versus R. This election presents the fundamental decision about whether or not we put country over party. She stated: “Our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before. A former president who attempted to stay in power by unraveling the foundations of our republic, by refusing to accept the lawful results confirmed by dozens of courts of the 2020 election.”

We cannot turn away from this truth - embraced by both progressive Kamala Harris and conservative Liz Cheney - in this election. Our two party system has now evolved to being the same that it was in 1854: Pro-Freedom vs Anti-Freedom.

In 2024, a decision to put patriotism ahead of partisanship is not something to merely aspire to. It is our solemn duty if we believe the things we say we do. Institutions don't defend themselves. People must do that. We, the people, defend our institutions. We are the first, last, and only line of defense, and the only question that needs to be asked of anyone seeking to join this movement is: do you support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the constitutional democratic republic it founded? If the answer is “Yes,” then welcome. Everything else is policy difference, which can only happen successfully with The Only Important Question answered.

We almost need to thank Donald Trump for having awakened us from our slumber in the past eight years, the unthinking slumber that led us to this election as we ignored the rise of the anti-freedom coalition over the past 50 years. Our reaction to Trump and the threat posed by MAGA is what created this broad coalition.

We disagree on many things, but we are bound together by the one thing that matters: our duty to our Constitution and our belief in the country that it has produced.

After Liz Cheney spoke, Kamala Harris said, “So today, I ask all of you here, and everyone listening across this great country, to join us. I ask you to meet this moment. I ask you to stand in truth, to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump. Liz Cheney stands in the finest tradition of the Republican party's leaders. And if people across Wisconsin and our nation are willing to do what Liz is doing, to stand up for the rule of law, for our democratic ideals, then together, I know we can chart a new way forward, not as members of any one party, but as Americans."

Our ancestors did it before. It can be done, but it is not easy. And its necessity will not end on November 6. It’s entirely likely that none of us reading this today will ever know an election where the fight is not pro-freedom versus anti-freedom. Our opponents are not going to take one defeat as definitive. But we have history on our side.

Asked by a woman what the Constitutional Convention had created in 1787, Benjamin Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

We have 30 days left to do that.

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