Susheela Jayapal: Unity requires accountability
Facts. Truth. Accountability. These are the solid foundations upon which unity can and should be built.
Housekeeping
Look forward to hearing from Tim Nesbitt (this afternoon), Hilary Demitrescu, Adam Davis and Chris Harder.
Check out our new comments feature and make sure authors have the chance to hear directly from you.
Send ideas for policy discussions, new contributors, and opportunities to further expand the Oregon Way community to Kevin (kfraz@berkeley.edu)
Now to the post!
Multnomah County Commissioner for District 2, North and Northeast Portland. South Asian immigrant, lawyer, and Oregonian since 1994.
Last week was a split-screen week.
On one side, Wednesday’s horrific events: the United States Capitol stormed; lawmakers crouching, unprotected, and praying for safety in the gallery as the House chamber was breached; people killed; and, a president inciting it all.
On the other side, the orderly conclusion of Georgia’s special elections, with a result that was the outcome of years of grassroots organizing. And right here in Oregon, the appointment of our newest state senator—a refugee from Somalia—and the swearing-in of dozens of city councilors, county commissioners, and other local elected officials, including three of my colleagues on the Multnomah County Commission, sworn in for their second term the very day after the insurrection in Washington D.C.
Many have responded to Wednesday’s events with the statement that “this is not who we are.” President-elect Biden used almost those exact words: “The scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not represent who we are.”
But it is who we are.
We are both sides of that split screen. Suggesting that we are not ignores the fact that Wednesday’s events did not emerge from the blue. It’ll be up to scholars to trace all the historical antecedents, but we don’t need to go that far back. The “chaos” (in quotes because it seems an enormous understatement) represented the culmination of the past five (at least) years of increasingly antidemocratic, autocratic, and dishonest behavior by the departing President.
We are here as a result of backsliding—events small and large, but frequent, that have pulled us away from our ideals. In law school, my professors made liberal use of the “slippery slope” metaphor. This represents the notion that small changes in interpretation of the law, small deviations from principle—each of which individually seems like not that big a deal—can become a very big and very disastrous deal indeed.
Wednesday’s events found us in the muck at the bottom of that slippery slope.
Years of shoulder shrugs, eye rolls, and other forms of avoiding or minimizing the threat posed by the departing President’s behavior have led us to this place. Years of suggestion that it was all an act, that his words did not represent his true intent, or that only a fringe of followers took them seriously have led us to this place.
Years of wanting to believe that this is not who we are have led us to this place.
In Wednesday’s aftermath, we’ve already begun hearing the calls to move on. Statements that a push for accountability is unnecessarily divisive, and that we must unite in order to heal.
Unity can indeed heal. But a unity built on avoidance, untethered to the truth of what happened and why, will lead us further down that slippery slope. And it will be illusory, founded on shifting sands.
How does this relate to the Oregon Way?
Shared values, building bridges, civility—these are all qualities I’ve heard associated with our Way. And I believe in them. But civility should not mask justified outrage; bridges must be built on a foundation of truth; and, our shared values must include accountability.
Facts. Truth. Accountability. These are the solid foundations upon which unity can and should be built. And the other side of that split-screen—grassroots democracy, local processes rooted in community—that other side allows me to marry my rage over who we are with deep faith in who we can be.
**********************************************
Connect with Susheela:
@SusheelaJayapal
Keep the conversation going:
Facebook (facebook.com/oregonway)
Twitter (@the_oregon_way)
Check out our podcast:
I appreciate Susheela's email message. I have felt the same rage and fear she describes. I agree that unity requires accountability and that we need to confront the violence, injustice and racism in our history. Further, I am afraid that we are in for a long haul to overcome the evil that has been metastasizing in our midst. I am not minimizing that. It's just that I'd rather continue that fight with the sense, or is it hope?, as Biden framed it, that most of us are better than the "this" of January 6 and all that gave rise to it.
I'm all for accusation and accountability, swift, firm and certain, where it is warranted, beginning with both the actors and their enablers in the assault on the Capitol. I'll let my post this afternoon speak to this issue before weighing in again.