certifying the electoral votes
6 January
The Twelfth Amendment to our Constitution requires
“The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.”
Of course, the newly-certified President does not assume the reigns of government in March any longer as the subsequent 20th Amendment moved forward the end of the incumbent’s term to noon on the 20th of January following a general election in November.
What overwhelmingly, despite differences, is a pro forma process, regardless of victor or loser, became a horrifying spectacle in 2021. While we have experienced many scenes under the Capitol’s dome, none paralleled that day. May we never experience that violence again.
In the shadow of our first capital across Spa Creek in the historic Maryland a house of Delegates on 6 January 2021.
I welcome your thoughts on 2021, on the future, or on anything else where Actions create consequences. I deeply respect your time reading this and all columns. I would love to hear from you.
Be well and be safe. FIN
“Twelfth Amendment”, 1803, The Constitution of the United States (1787), retrieved at https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxii
“Twentieth Amendment”, 1933, The Constitution of the United States (1787), retrieved at https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxx
The Germans have courageously acknowledged their past and the despicable behavior so many embraced. We are perilously close to abandoning all sorts of actions that would keep us humble.
Over the past several years, there has been a loud call from some to erase parts of American history that doesn't sit well with them. These are the warts from our past that many of us today are not proud of and the thought of some of those past acts are indeed sickening. But these occurrences, items, situations are a part of our history and what made this country what it is...good AND bad. We've seen statues removed, military installations renamed and attempts at changing what's taught in our schools in order to (in theory) bring up our next generation w/out the burden of what's happened in our past. Where is the line drawn?
In post WWII Germany, laws were put in place that not only discouraged some free speech but also made it illegal with respect to the Holocaust, antisemitism and Nazi images. The specifics are found int section 130 of their Criminal Code.
"The law bans incitement to hatred and insults that assault human dignity against people based on their racial, national, religious or ethnic background. In post-World War II Germany, it has been used to prosecute racist and antisemitic threats and slurs, and it carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. ....The German penal code prohibits publicly denying the Holocaust and disseminating Nazi propaganda, both off and online. This includes sharing images such as swastikas, wearing an SS uniform and making statements in support of Hitler." 1.
While there are deniers, I think most of the world agrees that Germany's actions toward the Jewish people leading up to and during WWII are atrocities no one would agree with or ever want repeated. But how do we prevent history from repeating itself if we don't teach it and draw discussion about it? Will we get to this same point with our ugly past where mentioning slavery or teaching what happened as part of our history nets teachers jail time?
The January 6th events and the sanctity of our U.S. Capitol building gets even more sticky when you look at the history. Construction began in 1793. George Washington laid the first cornerstone and "enslaved Black people performed the actual construction of the Capitol." (https://www.history.com/news/us-capitol-building-violence-fires). Whoa. What? How do we square that part of our history? By some of the previous arguments, perhaps our Capitol is the glaring, white reminder of our early embracement of slavery? Are we right to call for it to be torn down and re-built by today's contractors? Probably not.
In fact, the Capitol building has witnessed many acts of violence in its history....and many of those were over the concept of slavery which seems a bit ironic given its construction history.
During the War of 1812, British troops burned federal buildings in Washington D.C. to include the Capitol. It was almost damaged beyond repair.
"Historian Joanne B. Freeman identified more than 70 violent occurrences between congressmen while researching her book, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to the Civil War. In 1858, a fistfight between about 30 congressmen broke out in the House of Representatives at 2:00 a.m. when a southerner grabbed a northerner by the throat. In 1860, pro-slavery congressmen threatened an anti-slavery congressmen with pistols and canes while he spoke against slavery on the House floor."
During WWI, a German professor at Harvard planted dynamite in the Capitol which detonated around midnight and claimed he did so in order to "make enough noise to be heard above the voices that clamor for war." In 1954, four Puerto Rican Americans fired shots in the House of Representatives injuring 5 congressmen. The were acting to demand independence for the U.S. territory. In 1983, the 2nd floor of the Senate wing was bombed by a group (Armed Resistance Unit) retaliating for U.S. military actions in Grenada and Lebanon.
The Capitol has long stood as a beacon of democracy and freedom for the United States and all it's citizens. Given the latest attack of January 6th 2021 and our seemingly increasing desire to erase undesirable blights in our historical past, I wonder when we'll get the cry to erase what happened on January 6th from our history as well?
1. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/germanys-laws-antisemitic-hate-speech-nazi-propaganda-holocaust-denial/