Give Rusty Bowers and others who forfeited their offices the Presidential Medal of Freedom

The worst part of an election – any election, but particularly this one – is not when the candidate of your choice loses.

The worst part is when Election Day rolls around the most honorable and selfless elected officials are not on the ballot.

That’s how it is this Election Day for Republican Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers and for Republican Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, among others.

As soon as the smoke clears and the ballots are counted – assuming that ever happens – President Joe Biden should award Bowers, Cheney and Kinzinger the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Bowers' actions were 'especially meritorious'

There aren’t three other Americans who have made the kind of sacrifices the award recognizes as “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

Bowers was ousted in a Republican primary by a Donald Trump-backed Trump sycophant, something Bowers refused to be.

In 2020, when the minions of Trump could produce no evidence that there had been election fraud in Arizona, and when Bowers found none during his own investigation, he refused to ignore his oath, abandon the law and the Constitution, void the decision of voters and declare Trump the winner of the presidential election in Arizona.

So Trump turned on him. And so, too, did the Trump cultists.

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But he was unbowed.

“The thought that if you don’t do what we like, then we will just get rid of you and march on and do it ourselves – that to me is fascism,” Bowers said.

He added, “The constitution is hanging by a thread. The funny thing is, I always thought it would be the other guys. And it’s my side. That just rips at my heart: that we would be the people who would surrender the constitution in order to win an election. That just blows my mind.”

Kinzinger honored his oath to the Constitution

The same is true for Cheney and Kinzinger. Each was forced out by fellow Republicans for putting country over party, like Bowers.

The two members of Congress have been shunned and vilified by their party for participating in the select House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In an opinion piece for The New York Times last year Kinzinger wrote, “I’m a Republican dedicated to conservative values, but I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution – and while this is not the position I expected to be in or sought out, when duty calls, I will always answer.”

Kinzinger first ran for Congress in 2010 after returning from overseas military service. Of his decision to put his career at risk by serving on the committee he said, “If we’re asking young people to fight and die for this country, I have to be willing to give up my career for the same cause.”

As for those Republicans who refused to certify the presidential election and opposed the Jan. 6 committee Kinzinger said, “I’m surrounded by cowards.”

Cheney put country over party after Jan. 6

Cheney also agreed to serve on the committee and has been boldly outspoken in her condemnation of Trump.

Among other things she said, “One of the things that has surprised me the most about my work on this committee is how sophisticated the plan was that Donald Trump was involved in and oversaw every step of the way.

“It was a multipart plan that he oversaw, he was involved in personally and directly.

“While leaders in Congress were begging him, ‘Please, tell the mob to go home,’ Donald Trump wouldn’t. And just set the politics aside for a minute and think to yourself, ‘What kind of human being does that?’”

Their selflessness and honor cost them

Because of that, she said, “I certainly will do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump isn’t anywhere close to the Oval Office.”

She’s also spoken out against politicians who are, essentially, Trump cultists. Like Arizona Republican Kari Lake.

“I’ve certainly never campaigned for a Democrat,” Cheney said. “But we’re in a moment now where my party has really lost its way and it’s lost its way in a way that is dangerous. ... We’ve become beholden to a man who was willing to attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.”

Each of these rock solid conservatives deserves to be in office, and wanted to be in office, but weren’t willing to abandon their oaths in order to keep their jobs.

If that doesn’t merit a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, I don’t know what does.

It would remind us that some of our most honorable and selfless elected officials were not on the ballot this Election Day, and that what kept them off the ballot was their selflessness and honor.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rusty Bowers deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom