William Kennedy Smith, a physician, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, executive director of Retirement Security for All, are the nephew and niece of President John F. Kennedy and the nephew and daughter of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Our family has firsthand experience with political violence. We know how it affects a family, a country and even the world, for generations. Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to those who were killed or wounded at the hands of the mob on Jan. 6 and to those who took their lives in the aftermath. They died in service to the highest ideals of our democracy. Calls to “move on” from those who, literally or figuratively, wave the Confederate battle flag alongside a Trump banner in the Capitol demean their memory and their sacrifice. Despite the pain of reflecting on that day’s events, we must not fail to repudiate the injection of violence into our politics.
Trump has been consistent in cultivating the threat of political violence since he first emerged as a candidate. The danger became increasingly apparent over the years of his presidency, and even more so as he lost his bid for reelection. Among those who denounced his tactics was Republican election official Gabriel Sterling of Georgia, who on Dec. 1 presciently warned, “Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed…. It’s not right.”
Judgment and action on the matter of Trump’s role in the insurrection now rests with the U.S. Senate. That body holds a special place in our family’s history. John, Robert and Edward Kennedy all served in the Senate, and John’s book “Profiles in Courage” examined the roles of eight senators in some of the great historic struggles between the competing demands of politics and statecraft. It seems clear that the measure of political courage necessary for a senator to achieve statesmanship today is infinitely greater than it was in President Kennedy’s day. The ability of lies, however ridiculous, to drive the national narrative seems almost unlimited; and tribalism, stoked by public figures, partisan media, social media and other actors both foreign and domestic, can turn a mob against anyone. Former vice president Mike Pence can speak to that point directly.
We are not among those who believe the outcome of the trial now underway in the Senate is a foregone conclusion. In “Profiles in Courage,” John Kennedy wrote, “A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality.” It is true that times change, but we believe our leaders are still capable of living up to that standard.
Political violence, the “greatest of all civic sins,” remains a cancer on our body politic. It cannot be left unchecked to grow and metastasize. This reckoning is not simply about addressing past transgressions — it is about reclaiming our future, and it is on that basis that we will be judged by our children and by history. Senators should use the tools at hand, however imperfect, and find the courage and the decency to say what really matters most to those who were killed or wounded defending the Capitol and to the millions of Americans, including Trump, who watched as horrific damage was inflicted on our democracy. It was wrong. Enough is enough. Never again.
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