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The State of our Union is F'd Up

Feb 26

I have worn a badge for most of my adult life. I swore an oath not to a man, not to a party, not to a movement, but to the Constitution of the United States.

On January 6th, I defended that oath with my body.

So when I sat and listened to Donald Trump deliver his State of the Union address, I did not hear strength. I did not hear unity. I did not hear respect for the rule of law. Subscribe to join me and support my work:

I heard gaslighting.

I heard rewriting.

And I heard something deeply un-American.

When you have been crushed in a doorway by a mob carrying flags and chanting lies, you do not forget it.

When you have had racial slurs screamed in your face while you are trying to protect the peaceful transfer of power, you do not misremember it.

When you watch fellow officers bleed, cry, and fight hand to hand to stop the Capitol from falling, you do not confuse that day with a celebration or a tour or a patriotic gathering.

You remember exactly what it was.

An attack on democracy.

So when a president stands before the nation and minimizes that violence, or worse, glorifies the people who carried it out, that is not just politics. That is betrayal.

The State of the Union address is meant to be a reflection of our country’s condition and a roadmap forward. It should be rooted in truth. It should recognize the gravity of leadership. It should attempt, at the very least, to bind the wounds of a divided nation.

What I heard instead was grievance.

What I heard instead was self congratulation.

What I heard instead was a man still unable to admit the damage done to institutions, to trust, to the men and women who stood in uniform that day.

You cannot claim to back the blue while simultaneously praising the very people who assaulted us.

You cannot claim to defend law and order while excusing lawlessness when it benefits you.

And you cannot call yourself a defender of America while undermining the constitutional system that makes America possible.

That is not strength. That is not patriotism.

That is un-American.

I have met Americans from every political stripe who love this country. Conservatives. Liberals. Independents. Most of them would never dream of storming the Capitol because they lost an election. Most of them understand that democracy means accepting outcomes you do not like.

That is what makes us different from the countries we criticize. That is what makes this experiment in self government worth defending.

On January 6th, we were not fighting Democrats or Republicans. We were fighting chaos. We were fighting the idea that power matters more than principle.

When I hear that same spirit dressed up in applause lines and patriotic slogans, I do not feel pride. I feel concern.

America is not perfect. It never has been. But it has always aspired to something bigger than one person’s ego. The Constitution is bigger than any president. The rule of law is bigger than any movement. The oath I took is bigger than any political moment.

If we forget that, if we decide that loyalty to a man outweighs loyalty to our democratic system, then we are walking away from the very thing that makes us American.

I stood in the halls of the Capitol on one of the darkest days in our history and watched what happens when truth gives way to lies.

I do not want to see us go back there.

We can disagree. We can debate. We can argue passionately about the direction of this country.

But we cannot pretend that an attack on democracy was anything other than what it was.

And we cannot call it American.