For those of us old enough to remember Watergate, it was then, and is today, fascinating to learn the details of a monumental, historical event. The J-6 Hearings invoked that same sense of history in the making.
As a student/teacher of spirituality, allow me to explain how parsing energies and elucidating principles can provide exceptional Clarity regarding that which motivates each of us in our daily lives. With the understanding that comes from clarity we can feel less helpless and depressed, and more Hopeful and Confident.
The Stage is Set
In the 5th January 6 – Attack on the Capital Hearing, Adam Kinsinger began by describing what motivated him to run for Congress after leaving his time in Iraq, “to insure freedom and democracy were defended overseas.”
Freedom and Democracy are Principles
Principles are ideas or concepts that form a foundation of understanding. “A fundamental, primary or general law or truth from which others are derived.” Postulates are “something taken as self-evident or assumed without proof as a basis for reasoning.”
Spiritual Principles then, I define as postulates that have been verified with experience, things we can KNOW for sure from a spiritual standpoint. I can postulate that if I treat you with Dignity and Respect, we will have a much better relationship than if I treat you like an object. It’s when I actually do treat you that way and find out it’s true, I find that the postulate is actually a Principle.
The Principles of Willingness and Unattachment
Kinsinger not only cited Freedom and Democracy as his motivation to run for office but backed that up with another very important Principle: willingness to release attachment. He said, “… if we are going to ask Americans to be willing to die in service to our country, we as leaders must at least be willing to sacrifice our political careers when integrity and our oath requires it. After all, losing a job is nothing compared to losing your life.”
As he continued his opening statement, he referenced these Principles as they pertain to the Department of Justice, “Justice must both, in fact and in law, be blind. That is critical to our whole system of self-governance.”
The Department of Justice is not a political arm of the president. “Critical to our whole system” means that if people in these positions do not commit to maintaining their oath to this Principle, then the system doesn’t work as intended, separate and independent from other branches of government. This is how we have checks and balances.
Loyalty to Principle or People?
What an oath to a Principle means: It means that your loyalty is to the Greater Good (for everyone), not to a person (even the president).
Previous Attorney’s General put it this way in their confirmation hearings:
Jeff Sessions: “ultimately the Attorney General owes his loyalty to the integrity of the American People and to the fidelity of the Constitution and the legitimate laws of the country.”
Eric Holder: “I will be the People’s lawyer. If, however, there were an issue that I thought were significant that would compromise my ability to serve as Attorney General in the way I have described, as the People’s lawyer; I would not hesitate to resign.”
Michael Mukasey: “If the president proposed to undertake a course of conduct that was in violation of the Constitution… I would have two choices. I could either talk him out of it or leave. Those are the choices.”
After a rather heated discussion, Trump’s second Attorney General Bill Barr, did exactly that, he resigned after refusing to say there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election as Trump had wanted him to, according to Barr. The remaining DOJ officials who were testifying at this hearing, Mr. Engel, Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donahue, as Kinsinger says it, “… stood firm in the face of overbearing political pressure because they understood that their oath was to the Constitution and not to the personal or political interests of the president.”
So, when these men failed to cave to the pressure put upon them to “just say the election was fraudulent and leave the rest to me and the republican members of Congress,” Trump then looked for someone whose loyalty was to him rather than an oath they had taken. The person offered up as just the man for this job was Jeffrey Clark, an environmental lawyer working at the DOJ.
“What was his only qualification?” Kinsinger asks, “that he would do whatever the president wanted him to do, including overthrowing a free and fair democratic election.”
The Gift of Clarity
The Gift of Clarity regarding this very important event in history is tantamount to understanding the difference between having a free democratic constitutional republic… or having something else.
The Principle of Democracy Requires Integrity
It should be very Clear that loyalty to a Principle is the most important thing in a society, a nation, a system of government that is built upon each individuals personal commitment to an IDEA, an idea of self-governance.
Take traffic for example. We all “agree” to stop at stop lights and stop signs. No one is making us do that except for laws that hold us accountable for not doing them. To stop at a stop sign is based on an IDEA of safety. We agree with and to, that idea when we get a driver’s license. We comply with that idea so that many people can drive on our roads with relative safety.
It is to the degree that we value our own personal integrity that we abide with the law.
It’s when those who decide that speeding because they’re late to work is more important than their “oath/agreement” to that idea, that the system for safety we have set up is made that much less so. Destructive consequences for not adhering to that “oath” reveal the voracity of that Principle as it pertains to safety.
The idea of a democratic republic, that we can solve our problems and move forward based on the Fairness and Equality of blind law is a principle we agree with, or not, as members of this society. If laws are compromised by a low-level employee of a government agency for example, then the agency is weakened to that degree, just like safety is with travel. If laws are compromised by the highest level of government, then everything below is also compromised. And if this type of corruption spreads, then the whole system is in danger of collapse.
Just ask Putin!
It’s not easy having a whole country based on the voluntary adherence to an IDEA. It’s messy and contentious and, at times, volatile. Much easier for upper government to just control everything from the top down by force. Demanding loyalty to a “strong man” is a much simpler way of governing than idealistic principles for sure. But better for whom?
Russia is an excellent example of this form of government where ideals, principles and lofty notions of Freedom, Fairness and Justice for All just interferes with authoritarian rule. It may be easier and simpler to run a country that way, but it requires force, dishonesty, manipulation, aggression and oppression to maintain.
Whereas a democracy based on self-governance requires Willingness to participate, Integrity regarding adherence to laws and oaths and Responsibility to maintain the system that insures our rights and freedoms are protected.
Without Principles like Freedom, Equality and Integrity to stand in their way, authoritarian governing is about power for the elites in control. And this is exactly why Ukraine is fighting Russia, to keep power with The People and its sovereignty as a nation.
To keep a democracy of, for and by The People requires The People, at least most of them, to honor through Integrity and Respect, the IDEA of self-governance it is founded upon.
Freedom, Equality and Integrity, require Responsibility, Honesty, Trust and Respect. It also requires Willingness to release attachment to personal ego desires in favor of the laws and principles of the Greater Good of which our Constitution was devised to ensure.
Imagine…
Kinsinger went on to ask us to imagine if our country were run by people for whom things like laws, constitutions, and other lofty principles of the Greater Good are just silly idealistic notions: “we know these men before us [Engel, Rosen and Donohue] did the right thing. But think about what happens when these Justice officials make a different decision. What happens if they bow to the pressure; what would that do to us as a democracy, as a nation? Imagine a future where the president can screen applicants to the Justice Department with one question:
Are you loyal to me or to the Constitution?“
And it wouldn’t take long to find people who are willing to pledge their loyalty to the man.
“… Imagine the country’s top prosecutor with the power to open investigations, subpoena, charge crimes and seek imprisonment; imagine that official pursuing the agenda of [their] party instead of that of the American people as a whole.”
It’s not hard to imagine; we have plenty of examples throughout the world. Whether it’s communism in China, the autocrat using a thin guise of democracy in Russia, democracies that are beginning to unravel from within like Hungary or have already unraveled like Venezuela; you don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to see just how rare and tenuous Freedom, Equality and Integrity can be as a hallmark for a particular society.
Our forefathers warned us when they set up our Constitution based on Freedom, Equality and Integrity: here is “A republic, if you can keep it.” Benjamin Franklin
For Freedom to exist there must also be Responsibility. For Equality to happen, oppression must end. For Integrity to prevail, darkness and corruption must be painfully exposed.
Perhaps this is what our country is experiencing right now: a painful ripping of the band aid.
These past six years in particular, have revealed great Clarity regarding a stark division between those who value and cherish our fragile democracy, and those who do not. Those who find it worth sacrificing for a strong man leader who will (supposedly) “save and take care of us” and those who recognize the folly of that.
History is replete with examples of how the sacrifice of a democracy in favor of a strong man leader also means the sacrifice of hard-won ideals, rights and freedoms.
If we want our rights and freedoms to be there for the next generation, and generations to come, it’s important we see to it that every action of our government is grounded in the most basic of Life-Giving ideals.
Honesty, Integrity, Respect, Compassion and Humility are what Love is.
Love is a ‘doing thing’, Love is doing what is in the highest and best for EVERYONE involved.
Huna Wisdom
Freedom, Fairness and Equality are born out of Love.
As corny as it may sound, our country was founded in Love, and to the degree each of us ‘do Love’, is the degree we will manifest the qualities of Love, in our lives, in our country, and indeed, the world.
Being and doing Love, is the most natural thing for any of us to be and do… but you get to choose.
Choose wisely.
Aloha