“I Do Not Want to be a Winner by Cheating”

Friends of Padre Steve’s World

Frederick Douglass said: “In my view there are no bygones in the world, and the past is not dead and cannot die. The evil as well as the good that men do lives after them … The duty of keeping in memory the great deeds of the past and of transmitting the same from generation to generation is implied in the mental and moral constitution of man.”

This is true. The evil and the good that men and women do lives after them, and the transmission of them by every generation is necessary for the truth to be told. Today we saw that in action as men and women of our day display both the evil and the good of history and the actions of our predecessors that has been transmitted to us.

Today those who watched former President Trump use all of his personal power as President to try to force Republican election officials and state office holders to violate their oaths and principles to overturn the election. He and his coconspirators organized mobs to terrorize them and their families. He also by name cast dispersions and threats against a low level election official and her mother who was a volunteer election worker based on a conspiracy that was disproved by the Georgia Secretary of State and multiple Georgia election officials as well as investigators from Trump’s own Department of Justice. The two women were targeted by often violent Trump supporters, were threatened with prosecution by Trump campaign officials unless she perjured herself by confessing crimes that she did not commit. Her mother was told by the FBI to leave her home for her safety. She was not able to return for two months. Her mother, the grandmother of the election official had her house assaulted by a mob seeking to execute citizens arrests. The President identified Ms. Shaye Moss and her mother by name, putting their lives in danger, and maybe even more so today.

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The testimony of Rusty Bowers, the Republican Speaker of the House of Arizona was amazing. Such a man of courage. He spoke truth to power directly to President Trump, he resisted the pressure of many others, and he and his endured, and still endure threats at their home. He was a Trump supporter during the election, he wanted him to win, but refused to do anything to violate his oath to the Constitution, or lie or cheat to see Trump win. He told that to Trump himself.

He discussed his faith as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (which he did not name) and how he viewed the Constitution as divinely inspired and how he could not stand before God if he did so. I don’t have to agree with all of his positions or believes to admire him. I admire him. He upheld his oath. He spoke truth to power, he remained steadfast to his Oath and thank God for his actions over a period of several months of extreme pressure and physical threats to his family.

Others Republican officials in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin received similar threats and pressure, but did not budge despite the pressure.

The threats did not even end with the attack on the Capitol which Trump egged on to the point of pushing for the execution of Vice President Pence, who in a rare moment of clarity, after consulting former Vice President Pence and the retired eminent conservative Judge Michael Luttig followed his oath and despite danger to himself and his family remained in the Capitol to certify the Electoral College count making Joe Biden the President Elect.

Despite this, Trump and his faithful have continued to propagate the Big Lie that the election was stolen, despite the mountains of forensic evidence. Instead their fantasy world has created such a great divide that anything is possible, so much that at its convention last weekend the Republican Party of Texas declared that Joe Biden was not the legitimate President and called for a vote on secession in 2023. Don’t forget that Texas was among the original seven Confederate States, and the last to surrender. Personally I think that the Federal government needs to start moving major units and headquarters of Texas to other States that will remain loyal.

The danger is not over. The threats continue, including death threats to Republicans who are not MAGA enough, Democrats, and others who will not go along with their attempt to create an authoritarian state, which is Fascist in orientation and led in part by Christian Nationalists, who like their predecessors in the Confederacy and Nazi Germany do not understand the consequences of their complicity with liars and those that would destroy the republic, undermine the Constitution, and end the rule of law.

We dodged a bullet on January 6th 2021, but we may not be able to do it again if people do not put country and Constitution over party and resist the slide to fascism. We need more men like Rusty Bowers who put his sacred oath to the Constitution over loyalty to a man he supported in the election, and would not lie to win. We also need people at all levels of government of both parties who will do the same, regardless of the violent threats made against them by Trump, his allies, and the violent paramilitary groups who do his bidding.

So for tonight, peace and stand strong,

Padre Steve+