What Accountability Looks Like Now

I have been all over this country over the past few weeks.

Arizona. West Virginia. New Orleans. Nebraska. Wisconsin. New York. Maryland. Anywhere I’ve been called, I showed up. Because that’s what this moment requires.

But I want to talk about something I’ve had to sit with and wrestle with through all of it. Something that had me ready to quit and say the hell with it all.

What does accountability look like now?

When I started this fight, the answer was clear. Hold accountable the people who attacked us on January 6th. My coworkers. My fellow officers. The people who bled that day. The people who are still living with what happened to them. That’s where my political awakening began. That’s where I stepped out from behind the badge and said I’m going to fight this.

But accountability has had to evolve. Because the goalposts keep moving. Not because I moved them. But because our institutions have failed us, have failed me.

The people who attacked us got pardons.

The Supreme Court basically declared Donald Trump a king with immunity.

The DOJ is now running his agenda for retribution instead of investigating him.

So you throw your hands up, right? You say I give up on accountability. We lost.

No.

I went and campaigned against him for the presidency. That didn’t work. He won. Okay. Now what?

You shift. You find where accountability is still possible and you go there.

Right now that means going after the people who spread the lies that made January 6th possible. The people who told their constituents the election was stolen. Who stood in front of crowds and pointed them toward Washington and said your government is being taken from you. Go take it back.

Andy Biggs. That’s why I went to Arizona. I hold Andy Biggs directly responsible for what happened at the Capitol. The people who attacked us believed what Andy Biggs told them. Seeing him lose is accountability. That’s what it looks like now.

Tom Tiffany. Derek Van Orden. That’s why I went to Wisconsin. Eau Claire. Green Bay. Milwaukee. Across the whole state. Election deniers. People with no character. And character is what this election is about.

I keep hearing people say let’s talk about the issues. I agree. Healthcare. Energy costs. What it actually costs to live in this country right now. I want to have those conversations. Let’s go.

But you don’t get to have legitimate conversations about policy with people who don’t accept the legitimacy of elections. You don’t debate the issues with people who pointed a mob at the Capitol and then called it a normal tourist visit. Character is not a policy position you can negotiate around. It’s the foundation everything else sits on.

When we stopped demanding it, we got Donald Trump. And Donald Trump cleared the way for people across this country to get elected by dehumanizing whoever they disagree with.

I think about John McCain. The woman at that town hall who said Obama was a terrorist, a Muslim, whatever it was. McCain shut it down immediately. Barack Obama is a good, decent man. A family man. He didn’t agree with him on anything. But he said it.

Donald Trump would have turned that woman into a rally chant. That’s what we lost.

Nebraska showed me something. I was in Lincoln, in Omaha, in Hastings. Middle America. Thousands of miles from Washington and the Beltway and all the noise. Those people just want life to be affordable. They want their kids in good schools. They want to work without scratching for every dollar. They’re not asking for much. They’re asking for what every American deserves.

We can give them that. But first we need the right people in office.

Louisiana showed me the same thing. The community down there is doing great work. People are fired up and ready to get rid of Steve Scalise and Mike Johnson, to elect Jamie Davis and Lauren Jewett. The people of Louisiana deserve better. So do the people of every state where we’re fighting right now.

Early voting is already underway. Make a plan. Drop your ballot at a secure drop box if you can. Do not trust the mail. Donald Trump has made it very clear he wants to end mail-in voting. Get out in person. Get out early. And do not be intimidated. He said he wants federal agents around polling places. You know why? Because your vote matters that much. If it didn’t, they wouldn’t be fighting this hard to take it from you.

We are almost through this. The only way we get through it is to keep showing up.

Subscribe to Standing Our Ground if you want to keep doing this with me.

-Harry