David Inoue
Thirty-four years ago this week, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, more commonly known to our community as Japanese American Redress. Passage of redress was possible due to a confluence of many factors that seem so distant in today’s hyperpartisan Congress that lacks the collegiality of the past and, more importantly, the greater interest of our country over party.
The Jan. 6 commission has been revealing the depths to which our former president and his closest supporters went to try to maintain power. The violence of the rioters was well-documented that day as most of us watched in horror.
What is now being revealed is the direct role the president played in promoting his followers to insurrection — and allowing them to continue, despite the pleas of several of his other advisers to call for an end to the violence.
The bipartisan cooperation that passed redress is a distant memory, indeed.
Perhaps in a glimmer of hope, at the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage, ground was broken on the Mineta-Simpson Institute, a new multipurpose facility with the hopes of fostering the bipartisan friendship that was the hallmark of the institute’s namesakes.
The friendship between Secretary Norman Mineta and Sen. Alan Simpson was one forged outside the contractions of political partisanship. This was the common thread for many from their generation in Congress.
Others such as Sen. Daniel Inouye had forged friendships on the basis of their shared experience of service during World War II. And other more recent generations through their service in the Vietnam War. Their relationships were not only through their service in Congress and to their constituents, but also in relation to one another at a truly personal level.
Key to the leadership in the fight for redress were Sen. Inouye, who had come to prominence during the Watergate hearings as a member of the Senate Watergate Committee, and Secretary Mineta, who was elected to Congress as part of the Democratic wave in response to the Watergate scandal.
It would be an understatement to say that the Jan. 6 insurgency is the modern Watergate. A mob breaking into the Capitol, assaulting the Capitol police and calling for the heads of Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi makes the Watergate scandal look more like a parking violation relatively speaking, and yet our political leadership remains unable to coalesce to agree that what happened was wrong.
Just as Watergate defined a generation, where we go from here will define our country. Will we continue down the path of obstruction, where the best form of government is no government, leading to the anarchy of Jan. 6? Or, do we get the leadership we need who will denounce such hyperpartisanship and work to ensure our government serves the people.
We are now three months away from the midterm elections. We have seen the impact of past elections that have led to a regressive Supreme Court that values gun rights over the right to life, while ignoring the right of a pregnant person to determine the future of her own life.
Thievery voting rights we will seek to exercise in November have been eroded by justices who believe only in justice for themselves and their allies, not for equal voting rights for all. The only way we can make a difference on these issues is if we vote, and not only for federal representation, but also for school boards, city council and state legislators.
We need for both of our major political parties to engage in the process of legislating and taking part in an honest debate of issues. Right now, we don’t have that, and are faced with an uncertain future unless we make the difference with our votes.
I still hold the hope that we can live out the ideals of the Mineta-Simpson Institute and return to a political system that works to pass bipartisan legislation like the Civil Liberties Act.
David Inoue is executive director of the JACL. He is based in the organization’s Washington, D.C., office.
