Medals of Democracy
President Biden should lay out a new vision of patriotism, accountability, and courage for public servants.
Michelle Obamaās 2016 credo, āWhen they go low, we go highā has never been more relevant than in this season of post-election lunacy. Soon to be Ex-President Donald Trump is still peddling bizarre conspiracy theories aimed at overturning a decisive loss.. Next, almost surely, Trump will roll out a wave of presidential pardons for a posse of long-time cronies whose felonies and perjury struck at the heart of American democracy. When it comes to āgoing lowā Trump has no equal.
President-elect Biden has wisely āgone high.ā Ignoring Trumpās antics, he has calmly proceeded to create a new government leadership team ofāimagine thisāactually qualified people. While Trump tweets, golfs, schemes and whines, Biden and his professionals are laying out plans to cope with Americaās twin crises of COVID-19 and a still-struggling economy. The contrast between Trumpās sad pathology and Bidenās steady leadership becomes starker by the day.
But itās not soon for Joe Biden to begin thinking about another way to āgo highāāacknowledging this very real assault on democracy while honoring those who resisted it.
Biden should make plans to award our nationās highest civilian distinctionāThe Presidential Medal of Freedom āto a select group of true American heroes. These are men and women, members of both major parties, who risked their jobs, their careers, and even their lives, to defend American democracy in the 2020 election. Here are six utterly deserving candidates.
Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, the son of political refugees from Soviet tyranny, helped expose Trumpās attempt to extort Ukraine into announcing an āinvestigationā of Joe Biden by withholding military aid authorized by Congress. Vindman endured scathing criticism to tell Congress the truth, never wavering under tough probing. He was then hounded out of office by Trump and, in essence, forced to resign from the Army he loved and served in heroically.
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, the daughter of immigrants from the USSR, defied the Presidentās attempts to stonewall Congress and confirmed the essence of Trumpās extortion plot in Ukraine. She endured and surmounted intense criticism, including death threats, to convey the facts of the Ukraine plot to Congress and to all Americans.
Professor Fiona Hill, an immigrant from England who rose to become the National Security Councilās top Russia expert, confirmed and deepened the damning evidence of Trumpās Ukraine machinations. Like the other witnesses in the Trump impeachment hearings, she was subjected to a wave of criticism, lies and death threats.
Christopher Krebs, A lifelong Republican, appointed by Trump to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Krebs worked for more than two years to protect Americaās electoral systems from foreign penetration. Days after the 2020 presidential election, Krebs publicly affirmed the security of these systems and the validity of the result, undercutting Trumpās fraud claims at the root. Trump promptly fired Krebs for that act of truth-telling. Krebs was then assaulted on social media and Trumpās sometime lawyer, Joe DeGenova, viciously suggested on talk radio that he be āshotā and/or ādrawn and quartered.ā
Gabriel Sterling, A top Election Security official working for Georgiaās Secretary of State affirmed the validity of Bidenās victory in that state. He passionately warned that President Trumpās bogus fraud claims were inspiring death threats to Georgia state election officials and even to young IT techs, and would get āsomebody killedā if they did not stop. Sterling, like others, has endured an avalanche of social media assault and death threats to himself and family members.
Aaron Van Langevelde, a 40-year old Republican appointee to Michiganās board of state election canvassers, Van Langevelde resisted pressure from his party and the President to deny Joe Bidenās thumping 150,000-vote victory in that key state. While his other GOP colleague recused himself, Van Langevelde cast the deciding vote to affirm Michiganās votersā choice. The response from Trump backers on social media was so potentially violent that he and his family are now under police protection.
Bringing these brave citizens together for national recognition should be a proud moment, a ceremonial occasion for President Biden to lay out a new vision of patriotism, accountability and courage for public servantsā and for all Americans. As Donald Trump has so brutally taught us, American democracy depends, at its most crucial moments, not just on āchecks and balancesā but on individual men and women brave enough to risk careers theyāve worked their whole lives forāto preserve, protect and defend something greater than themselvesāand Keep America Great.
To anyone who might say that such an award ceremony would be too partisan a way to use the Medal of Freedom, I suggest you recall Trumpās own granting of the award to Rush Limbaughāin the middle of his last State of the Union Address on national TV. Limbaugh is a man whose entire career has been defined by vicious partisan vitriol and is now climaxing in full-throated backing of Trumpās mad election fraud claims and floating notions of āsecession.ā
Republicans, clearly, are not shy about partisanship. And if any Republican does criticize Biden for honoring these truth-tellers and defenders of the rule of law, Democrats should welcome that. That would tell our fellow citizens more about how ālowā Trumpās party has fallen morally than any attack on these genuine American heroes.
As to the timing of the ceremony, what better date than February 12, 2021, the birthday of our greatest president, Abe Lincoln? The first Republican president, the man who crushed the most treasonous conspiracy the United States has ever seen. Like him, these men and women understood the stakes at play when democracy itself is assaulted. They all took real risks to ensure that āgovernment of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish.ā All Americans are in their debt.
Let us now āgo highāāand honor them.
