Friends,
Like many of you, I watched with disbelief and sorrow as the deeply disturbing events at our nation’s Capitol unfolded yesterday. Let there be no doubt about what we witnessed: a violent mob sought to overturn a Presidential election and thereby disrupt the very foundations of our democratic institutions.
This mob terrorized Congressional staffers and our representatives, assaulted outnumbered Capitol Police, shattered windows and doors, and sought to upend our cherished hallmark of a peaceful transfer of power. As violence stretched through the afternoon and early evening, I was struck by both the fragility and the strength of our democracy. Our long history of Presidential elections, the transfer of authority from one to the next, the assurance that our military will not seek to assume power for itself, and the integrity of the individual ballot: these are all foundational values, and we trust in their strengths because they protect our American ideals.
Yesterday, we observed what happens when people have been conditioned, over the course of several years by cynical and self-serving individuals, to disparage and distrust these foundational values. The tragic result was mob violence that sought to intimidate Americans and disenfranchise the votes of over 81 million people.
This assault, however, was counterbalanced by the strengths of our democratic institutions. Last night, despite the terrors of what they had witnessed and the anxieties that they surely felt, our Congressional leaders reconvened and continued to carry on the work of the country, as they are entrusted to do. Individual states’ electoral college votes were all certified, following time-honored protocols, by both the House and the Senate. Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris have been duly confirmed as the next President and Vice President of the United States, and we look forward to their Inauguration on January 20.
An election and an inauguration in the midst of a deadly, global pandemic was — from the start — bound to be challenging and difficult. These challenges were further exacerbated by the divisive rhetoric of a president who has refused not only to accept his electoral loss but has built a career on subverting social and civil structures. No other elected individual in our American history has behaved in this extreme way. Almost 160 years ago, this country withstood the horrors of a massively destructive Civil War. In the midst of that Civil War, the nation continued its established democratic procedures and held both a Presidential election and a second inauguration for Abraham Lincoln. Like Lincoln, President-Elect Biden faces a country that has been driven to bitter division and anger.
Lincoln understood with clarity, as we must understand now, that we have a common destiny, that we are one nation, and that we must restore our fundamental integrity. Our children deserve the example of a leader who is bound by ethics, demonstrates compassion, and secures our democratic principles. We all deserve a nation that better reflects the very essential goodness of this country and its people.
“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
— Abraham Lincoln, 1861
General Assembly 2021
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Take care and be well.
—Ghazala Hashmi
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Senator Ghazala Hashmi was elected to represent Virginia Senate District 10 in 2019. She has led efforts in the General Assembly to support education, protect healthcare and the environment, and prevent gun violence. Senator Hashmi is committed to ensuring Virginia's government works for everyone.
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