(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Trump awarded Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom, Biden will honor Rusty Bowers and others [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-01-05 "I will follow the Constitution." - Rusty Bowers. "Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society." - Rush Limbaugh If you’ve lived in Arizona for a while and follow local politics, you’ve known Rusty Bowers a long time—for thirty years a state Senator, Representative, and recently Speaker of the House. The rest of the country got to know him during the Jan. 6 hearings, when he was one Republican who defended the Constitution and told the Committee about the pressures he experienced to not do that—to not defend democracy. The arm-twisting included calls and visits from Giuliani, calls from trump, pressure from other Arizona Republicans like the fake elector nitwits, and constant Stop the Steal protests, sometimes violent, outside his home as his daughter lay dying (she later passed away). The ultimate pressure came from voters, who threw out their long-time representative and elected a trump-backed clown. Throughout all the coercive calls and visits, Bowers kept asking the election deniers for evidence, and they provided none. He testified to the Jan. 6 Committee that Giuliani told him, “We’ve got lots of theories, we just don’t have the evidence.” To which Bowers replied, “You are giving me nothing but conjecture and asking me to break my oath and commit to doing something I cannot do because I swore I wouldn't. I will follow the Constitution...” Rusty Bowers is a very conservative politician, and I doubt there’s much he’d agree with at Daily Kos, other than those last five words: “I will follow the Constitution.” Because he took that stance, unlike gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who parroted trump’s stolen election bullshit and still maintains her election was stolen, President Biden will award Bowers and other defenders of democracy the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian award after the Medal of Freedom. … President Joe Biden is scheduled on Friday to host a ceremony where he will speak about the Jan. 6 attack, and award medals to a dozen people who “demonstrated courage and selflessness during a moment of peril for our nation,” according to a White House official. Other recipients include Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, the Georgia election officials who trump targeted (and continues to smear), putting their lives in danger, along with Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who also faced down ugly protesters and death threats when she refused to overturn the election results. Even with narrow margins in the House and Senate, Joe Biden was able to deliver a remarkable amount for everyday Americans, from infrastructure to climate legislation, insulin caps, pandemic relief, gun policies, marriage equality, and more jobs. No, it wasn’t perfect, but consider what trump delivered—tax cuts for corporations and the rich, as hundreds of thousands died waiting for Covid to “fade away,” and white supremacists were emboldened. But if you really want to appreciate the difference between the two administrations, consider that trump awarded gasbag and lying, racist, misogynistic nutter Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom, while Joe Biden will honor Americans who truly represent citizenship—putting their careers and even their lives on the line to play that role. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/5/2145580/-Trump-awarded-Limbaugh-the-Medal-of-Freedom-Biden-will-award-it-to-Rusty-Bowers Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/