Accountability

We must never just turn the page

The violence, corruption, and other horrors of this era will not only need to be remembered and marked for posterity. They must be confronted. They must lead to real accountability. And that accountability must come as soon as possible, in every way possible.

When this regime falls, it will fall hard. Most of those who appeased it, condoned it, worked for it, and supported it will scatter from the wreckage, hoping that confusion and exhaustion will shield their complicity and their guilt.

We cannot allow that to happen.

I fear that at the very moment when full accountability will be possible, we will lack the leaders willing to do what is necessary. There has long been a bias in our political culture, reinforced by the antidemocratic elements of our system of government, that grants deference to right-wing forces who falsely claim the mantle of patriotism. Too often—from the aftermath of the Civil War to Watergate to January 6—those who tried to destroy our constitutional order have been excused for their treachery.

To that I say, never again.

There will be calls from so-called serious-minded people, politicians, pundits, business leaders, and members of the mainstream press, insisting that the highest priority is a national project of reconciliation. We will need to allow for amends and evolving views. But failing to hold those most responsible to account would be a grave mistake of historic consequence, one that would ultimately weaken and potentially irreparably imperil our recovery.

Because before you can get to reconciliation, you need an agreed-upon truth. And when the full scale of the crimes and complicity becomes apparent, there can be no choice but accountability.

Many should face the legal system. The henchmen and women leading this autocracy are obvious and necessary targets for thorough criminal investigations and likely prosecutions. Already, the president, had there been any justice, would have faced a long litany of serious and provable federal charges after his last term. That list has now grown exponentially.

But it will not be enough to go after the Trumps and the likes of Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, and Pam Bondi. It must also extend to the masked agents wreaking havoc in our cities. The military officials who followed illegal orders. The phalanx of grifters and con artists who engaged in fraud, corruption, and bribery.

Others, whose actions were technically legal but carried out in service to a deranged autocrat, must face permanent consequences to their positions, wealth, livelihoods, and public standing. The law firm partners and university administrators who caved. The business leaders who sucked up. The quiet enablers who told themselves they had no choice.

There will be a powerful and understandable desire to move on, to rebuild the nation according to its most enlightened values, to make amends with those who have been harmed, and to somehow regain our standing as a respected member of the community of democratic nations. We cannot engage in these efforts, however, if we treat what we have lived through as an aberration rather than a feature of our nation’s deeper faults and systemic injustices.

That is why accountability cannot stop at the personal level. We must examine our systems of government, our economy, and the rule of law. We will need to reform the Supreme Court and protect voting rights. We will need to revisit how power is allocated within our federal system. We will need to break apart rapacious monopolies, regulate dangerous technologies, and reassert science in shaping public health.

And we cannot wait for any of this to happen. We must have leaders now who introduce articles of impeachment, who refuse to allow governance to proceed as usual, and who hold members of the business world, academia, and the media accountable. Everyone should be put on notice that we see what is happening, and we will not forget when the bill for this autocracy comes due in a wave of democratic restitution.

And when it does, we should disregard those who condescendingly tell those of us who bore witness to “turn the page.” Those urging caution and half measures will be the same ones who minimized the danger when it mattered most. They were wrong then. And they will be wrong again.

Wisdom does not come from avoidance. It comes only from a full and unflinching reckoning with the truth. We must choose leaders who understand this imperative. It is the only path to a more perfect union.