View From the Editor’s Desk: If Trump Wins; Oath and Honor
If Trump Wins: In his introduction to The Atlantic‘s special edition, If Trump Wins, featuring 24 staff writers imagining what a second Trump term could look like, magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg noted, “America survived the first Trump term, though not without sustaining serious damage. A second term, if there is one, will be much worse.”
The Atlantic‘s writers are made up of all viewpoints so there are opinions and concerns from all sides of the political aisle concerning Trump’s possible return.
Today’s online edition kicks off the first group of writers whose work will be published in the January/February 2024 print edition with a prelude from Goldberg, and contributions from the first nine writers:
–Jeffrey Goldberg, editor (A Warning): “America survived the first Trump term, though not without sustaining serious damage. A second term, if there is one, will be much worse.”
–David Frum (The Danger Ahead): “If Donald Trump returns to the White House, he’d bring a better understanding of the system’s vulnerabilities, more willing enablers, and a more focused agenda of retaliation against his adversaries.”
–Anne Applebaum (Trump Will Abandon NATO): “If reelected, he would end our commitment to the European alliance, reshaping the international order and hobbling American influence in the world.”
-McKay Coppins (Loyalists, Lapdogs, and Cronies): “In a second Trump term, there would be no adults in the room.”
–Caitlin Dickerson (The Specter of Family Separation): “Donald Trump and his allies have promised to restore their draconian zero-tolerance immigration policy.”
–Barton Gellman (How Trump Gets Away With It): “If reelected, he could use the powers of the presidency to evade justice and punish his enemies.”
–Sophie Gilbert (Four More Years Of Unchecked Misogyny): “In a second Trump term, women would once again be targets.”
–Zoë Schlanger (The Climate Can’t Afford Another Trump Presidency): “His approach to the environment: ignore it.”
–George Packer (Is Journalism Ready?): “The press has repeatedly fallen into Donald Trump’s traps. A second term could render it irrelevant.”
Liz Cheney’s Oath and Honor: On Tuesday, December 5, Liz Cheney’s book, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, will hit bookstores and online sites.
Representative Liz Chaney is a woman of honor and courage. “So strong is the lure of power,” she said, “that men and women who had once seemed reasonable and responsible were suddenly willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump.”
The former Republican Congresswoman from Wyoming, who was third in U.S. House leadership until she chose to defend the U.S. Constitution instead of Donald Trump’s January 5 insurrection, warns that democracy is at stake in the age of Trump (Little, Brown and Company):
A gripping first-hand account of the January 6th, 2021, insurrection from inside the halls of Congress, from origins to aftermath, as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution—by the House Republican leader who dared to stand up to it.
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump and many around him, including certain other elected Republican officials, intentionally breached their oath to the Constitution: they ignored the rulings of dozens of courts, plotted to overturn a lawful election, and provoked a violent attack on our Capitol.
Liz Cheney, one of the few Republican officials to take a stand against these efforts, witnessed the attack first-hand, and then helped lead the Congressional Select Committee investigation into how it happened. In Oath and Honor, she tells the story of this perilous moment in our history, those who helped Trump spread the stolen election lie, those whose actions preserved our constitutional framework, and the risks we still face.
It is 400 pages of American history that we lived through as current events and that will not be forgotten in the history books.
Anyone who knows me knows how much I respect those within the GOP who had beliefs that made them Republicans to begin with and therefore stood up for those beliefs and against Trump, who tore down the walls of decency, respect, statesmanship, working with our allies, ignoring a global pandemic, and so much more.
Those few, true Americans include Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, Alexander Vindman, Capitol police officers, state level Republicans who followed the rule of law and didn’t fall for the big 2020 election lie, and a smattering of others. If they’ve written a book, there’s a good chance I have it as a record of these volatile and unsettled times.
In the Republican Party, you’re shunned if you don’t walk the majority line which is, of course, supporting a lying, bullying, vindictive Donald Trump – all things the party of “family values” didn’t support in the past. How did they flip so fast? “The ends justify the means.” The GOP continues to drown in hypocrisy.
December: We are almost through the first week of this month. Time is passing quickly; the calendar is filling with daily additions. Entertaining, family and friends, decorating, baking, shopping, cleaning for company — there is much to do. Don’t forget the hot cocoa!
And the Advent calendars! Mine this year from my son and daughter-in-law (who gave us the cocoa Advent calendar last year) is a Hallmark Countdown to Christmas with Bissinger’s chocolates behind each door. It’s a sweet treat each day as we count down to December 25.
Fa la la la la!
~Lynn
