Peter S. Konchak, Law & Public Policy Scholar, JD Anticipated May 2021
Nearly two-and-a-half centuries ago, our republic was conceived in accordance with the general will of the singular, sovereign people of a new nation. In that moment, the permanence of that republic—and that nation—was far from assured. Indeed, the history of that Union has, in no small measure, constituted a continuous struggle for the endurance of a people united in a manner unique in all of human history. For we are a people bound not by arbitrary or immutable identity, nor parochial or sectarian interest, nor total or all-encompassing ideology. Rather, we are a people connected by a common commitment to government predicated upon and dedicated to the sovereignty of reason—to a constitutional order guided by rationalism, empiricism, and self-evident truth. And the mere existence of a people thus united has oft been challenged in our history.
The most exigent of those challenges—and our responses to them—have defined the character of our nation. The United States of America is itself therefore an expression of the struggle for freedom from want and fear amid economic depression and totalitarian aggression. Of the struggle for justice and liberty amid discrimination, subordination, and oppression. Of the struggle for a more perfect Union, dedicated to the proposition of innate human equality, amid a house divided between slavery and freedom. In each of those moments, our forebearers were called upon to defend the integrity of the foundational principles of our nation and promote the greater realization of the just constitutional order our republic was created to achieve. It is the steadfast service and immeasurable sacrifice of those who answered that call that has made our government of, by, and for the people the last best hope of the earth.
In our own time, recent events have demonstrated that this generation has been similarly called upon to engage in such an undertaking. Over the past decade, this nation has endured economic stagnation and growing wealth inequality at home, and witnessed the rise of new forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism abroad. Over the past year, this nation has suffered the loss of over 400,000 of its citizens from a deadly pandemic and been gripped by the effects of systemic racism on our basic social contract. And, over the past two weeks, this nation has been convulsed by the aftermath of a violent insurrection carried out against our government, on the grounds of the United States Capitol, by domestic terrorists. It is that unlawful act of violence against our constitutional order, in particular, that demonstrates the extremity of our present situation.
It has long been recognized that, in recent decades, our nation has gradually and increasingly become more politically polarized and fragmented than at any point since before the onset of the Civil War. It therefore might have been expected that, in the aftermath of our most recent national election, partisan passions would be elevated—that those whose preferred candidate lost would be largely unwilling to affirmatively support the policy initiatives of the victor, or be predisposed to disagree with him, or be incentivized to oppose him electorally. But what has in fact transpired in the months since November 3, 2020, and culminated in the dastardly attack of January 6, 2021 has been unprecedented in recent American history. In the oldest constitutional republic in the world, a President has refused to concede his defeat in a free and fair election, perpetuated a conspiracy theory about his loss and thus warped the minds of his supporters, and incited violence against the very government he leads. In the nation in which modern liberal democracy was conceived, millions of American citizens believe that the incoming administration of their government is illegitimate. In the most powerful nation in the history of the world, the threat of violent insurgency is a clear and present danger.
This nation is therefore now faced with an existential crisis of the greatest possible magnitude. But that crisis is not, at its core, about violent extremism, or political legitimacy, or the criminality of any one man. Rather, the crisis we now face is a manifestation of the perennial paradox of our national existence—that our character as a people is dependent upon nothing more nor less than that which we choose for ourselves. We are—uniquely among the peoples of the world—no more nor no less than who we choose to be. That reality is the tragedy of our national history. For in the past, there were Americans who chose to exploit the vulnerable, oppress the marginalized, and hold other human beings in bondage; to pursue private interest over public good, individual fortune over national wealth, and personal comfort over sacrifice in defense of a just society in its hour of maximum danger; to destroy—through rebellion, insurrection, and terroristic violence and in furtherance of hateful, irrational, and odious ideologies—a republic dedicated to the betterment of all mankind. But that reality is also, however, the promise of the American experiment. For our history is also filled—and has been won—by those brave Americans who fought to protect the powerless, deliver the unfree, and emancipate their fellow citizens from a monstrous tyranny; who dutifully presided over the public trust, promoted the general welfare, and rose to provide for the common defense; who, when the existence of their nation was threatened—in the words of President Lincoln—”gave their lives that that nation might live.” The life of that nation depends again today upon the kind of people we, as Americans, decide to be—upon the cause to which we will be dedicated, the principles that we will serve, and the vision that we will aspire to realize for ourselves and our fellow citizens.
The storming of the Capitol has made clear that our ability to determine the future character of our society will not necessarily result in progress towards the ideal of just constitutional order as envisaged by the founders. Some of our fellow citizens have chosen to engage in armed violence in opposition to that order, or have threatened to do so. Some among them have acted in affirmative opposition to the very concept of a pluralistic, liberal democratic society, in accordance with the view that just government exists only insofar as it promulgates policies that correspond to their own identities, interests, or ideologies. Others have embraced violence in the nihilist pursuit of mere anarchy intended to destroy any government committed to the advancement of civilization towards rational ends by rational means. Others, still, have incited, provoked, or legitimated such violence in pursuit of individual interest without regard to the damage wrought by their actions on the integrity of our shared institutions.
Amid those efforts, we must recognize that our national mission must be to endeavor, in the words of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to “restore the temple of our civilization…to the ancient truths”—to recommit our nation to the revolutionary principles on behalf of which it was conceived. We must recommit ourselves to the cause of human equality, the protection of the unalienable rights of our citizens, the promotion of the economic and social welfare of our nation, the defense of our republic from enemies both foreign and domestic, and the perfection of a Union defined by common purpose. In large measure, that commitment must first be directed towards accomplishing the reconciliation of a society divided by atavistic fears, alienated from itself by contemporary anxieties, and disconnected in its understanding of its ancient heritage. Those of us who aspire to build new technologies, revolutionize our industrial capabilities, and expand the frontiers of scientific understanding must recognize the men and women who have in the past been forgotten and extend to them the promise of a new future. Those of us who seek to right the historical injustices of our nation must make clear to those who recoil against criticism of our society that the pursuit of justice in our own time is not a repudiation, but an affirmation, of the foundational principles of our republic. And those of us who strive to realize a nation in which rationalism, empiricism, and self-evident truth serve as the lodestars of governmental action must prove to all of our citizens skeptical of state power that the ultimate objectives of such a government is the promotion of more meaningful human autonomy.
In the coming days, weeks, and even years, the accomplishment of those lofty objectives must necessarily take the form of concrete action that will be far more difficult to pursue than were those words to write. Reconciliation, if it is to be meaningful, will require not only charity towards those who have been lied to, taken advantage of, and led astray, but also accountability for those who deceived, manipulated, and misled them. Those who engaged in acts of violent insurrection on January 6, 2021, or who attempt to or in fact do so in the future, must be met with swift and certain justice. Institutions that have been corrupted, eschewed, or allowed to languish in the recent past must be rapidly revitalized and reconstructed in order to meet the myriad internal and external challenges faced by our republic. Bold new efforts must be undertaken to ensure the equity, prosperity, and security of our society. Those are the tasks now before us. Let us therefore set out to meet that challenge. Let us now recommit ourselves to our founding purpose and rededicate ourselves to our common ideals. Let us now act so that when the history of this moment is written, it will be said that this generation saved our republic, the nation it serves, and the single, sovereign people of, by, and for whom it was so nobly conceived.