Rep. Adam Kinzinger Has Shown Courage and Should be Commended

I knew Rep. Kinzinger when I was growing up. He was a few years older than me, but we went to the same church. He was part of the college group at the church, and I remember as a high school student having many conversations with him including about politics. In 2010, Adam was elected to Congress in the Tea Party wave and has served the rural Illinois district for the last 10 years.

Adam and I do not agree on a lot politically. I remember our political disagreements went back to 2008 when it was Obama versus McCain. During the Trump years, there were many times I was dismayed by some of his decisions, most notably the decision to not vote for impeachment at the end of last year.

I wish he would have been the sole Republican in the house to stand up, but I also understood it would have been absolute political suicide as his very red Illinois district would have voted him out in a second in the primaries. That is the nature of the movement following Trump. I remember composing a long private message to send to him (as I had done previously) to express my dismay, but I decided not to.

Adam did speak out against Trump a number of times during his presidency, but he has now come out strongly against the “scam” of the attempted coup that is occurring now with Trump. Some will say it is too little too late, but I appreciate it. There is a very strong chance it will cost him his seat in the primary in 2022, but he seems to have decided that standing up for democracy and against an attempted coup by the president is important enough to make this sacrifice.

He has not just sent out one tweet, but he has been consistently hitting cable news to speak out against with Trump is doing and not mincing any words. When people look back on what saved our republic, I believe it will be people that now only vocally opposed Trump at the beginning, but also people like Adam who perhaps was not very vocal in the beginning but realized over time that the republic had to come before his party, the anger from his constituents who believe the conspiracies, and even his career.

It is easy for Democrats to stand strongly against Trump, just like it is easy for Republicans to stand strongly against Biden or Obama. There is no real courage in that. It does take courage to stand up to the leaders of your own party and not only disagree with them but state what they are doing is dangerous and anti-democratic. I applaud Adam for making this shift, and history will look upon him laudably. Those who are willing to shift their positions in light of the evidence and encourage others to do so are the ones that will actually ensure our republic survives.