Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning

by Liz Cheney

It is up to us in our time to choose, and choose wisely, between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom, and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day.

Reagan

I expect to pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there can be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do my fellow being; let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Quaker sentiment on brevity of life and need for a personal code.

We discussed the cult of personality that had captured our party. This was something America had never experienced before. I asked Condi if she could think of any historic examples of countries successfully throwing off cults of personality. “Not without great violence and upheaval,” she said.

Historical reference to trouble we are in due to djt

If you attack the judicial process and you attack the rule of law, you aren’t defending the Constitution; you’re at war with the Constitution.

To bad self anointed patriots who are equally willing to overfhrow the Constitution don't see this. I can't figure this out.

Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution?

Good concise thought

“Let it never be said that the dedication of those who love freedom is less than the determination of those who would destroy it.”

Thatcher cold war re enemies

The statues and paintings have a purpose: They are there to remind elected representatives why they are serving. If we are so inclined, we can descend into pettiness, into the day-to-day muck of partisanship. And surely, some of that is unavoidable—on many issues, the people of the United States are not united. But when the fundamental ideals of our nation come to bear, we must be united. When our country faces a crisis, we must find our noble purpose. Some things are beyond partisanship. That is the reason we all take an oath.

Reminder of statuary hall

The assumption that our institutions will protect themselves is purely wishful thinking by people who prefer to look the other way. Those loyalists and lawyers who step up to help Trump unravel our republic would do so knowing that they would be pardoned. That they would face no risk of prosecution. And Donald Trump would not hesitate to pardon himself. Any who step forward to oppose Trump will face the types of threats, retaliation, and violence we have already seen—but this time with the full power of an unconstrained American president behind them.

Horror of uncontained power by a madman

His letter included a prayer, which is now inscribed above the fireplace in the White House state dining room. It reads, in part, “May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.” Adams knew that the character of our leaders mattered. He and our other founders knew that the institutions of self-government could not sustain and protect themselves. It would fall to the people of this nation—and to our elected leaders—to do that. The perpetuation of our institutions and the defense of our Constitution now depend on us.

Founders point out need for honesty