The Stories Told About James Comey and Colonial Spain

Former FBI Director James Comey is sworn in prior to testifying before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 8, 2017. | REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

James Comey. A name displayed throughout the media during the 2016 Presidential Election and the 2017 Trump-Russia investigation. James Comey is an American lawyer who was the director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017. Although he associated with the Republicans for most of his life, in 2016, he became unaffiliated.

James Comey was heavily criticised by Democrats for his actions regarding the reopening of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email less than two weeks before the election because they felt it was a political move to hurt Clinton’s chances at Presidency.

As a proclaimed Democrat, it was only normal to believe that Comey was as terrible as the media portrayed him to be. I did not look into Comey’s past history or experiences, he was just another “evil Republican.” However, my ethical leadership class recently assigned us to read excerpts from James Comey’s autobiography A Higher Loyalty. After reading his author’s note and the chapters on his early career, I learned more about what his values were and how liberal media skewed my interpretation of him.

Political Cartoon "Lampooning James Comey" | PoliticoMagazine

He talks about the importance of truth; he believes we are at a dangerous time in the country because the truth is under assault. Comey recognizes faults in himself such as being stubborn, prideful, overly confident, and driven by ego. He states that “ethical leaders lead by seeing beyond the short-term, beyond the urgent, and take every action with a view toward lasting values” (Comey x). President Trump wanted Comey’s loyalty to him over his duties as the FBI director. But Comey’s higher loyalty is to lasting core values: the truth, integrity, and respect for others. “Ethical leaders choose a higher loyalty to those core values over their own personal gain” (Comey xi).

After reading parts of his autobiography, I’ve come to believe that his choice in reopening the Clinton email investigation, although badly timed, was just him upholding his “fundamental commitment to the truth.” He believes that “as a legal principle, if people don’t tell the truth, our justice system cannot function and a society based on the rule of law begins to dissolve” (Comey xi). However, without reading his autobiography, none of this understanding would have been possible because of the extensive negative media exposure of Comey and his actions. His influence in the election is a story that Democrats tell themselves, allowing them to justify criticizing and marring his name.

“America" by Jan van der Straet, c. 1875

Empire and conquest is similar in the way that it is a narrative that people tell themselves (O’Toole). During the colonial conquest, there were many myths of conquest both the Spanish and Inca told themselves. One such myth is the belief that the Spanish were Gods.

The Incas never thought the Spanish were gods or superior in any way. They simply believed the Spanish were different. Titu Cusi Yupanqui, a leader of the Inca rebel force Vilcabamba, explained that “They named the people as such because they differed much from us in clothing and appearance and because they rode very large animals with silver feet… each wears so different from the other, some having black beards, and other red ones, and finally, because they saw them eat out of silver dishes and using yllapas [lightenings]” (Yupanqui 60). The However, his story of the Inca and Spanish relationship from an Inca point of view was silenced because he was opposing the dominant power authority of the time.

Portrait of Don Marcos Chiguan, c. 1745

Jose de Acosta, a jesuit missionary to the Americas, writes that the Native Andeans “called the spaniards viracochas because they thought they were children of heaven and as it were divine, … , calling one Jupiter and the other mercury and trying to offer them sacrifices as though they were gods” (Restall 116). The Spanish believed that the indigenous Andeans were incapable of understanding the divine and thus unable to rule themselves. Thus, the Spanish must take care of them and teach Christianity and European “civilized” customs, taking in return the resources of the Andes. Although Acosta is an eyewitness from the time period, we cannot take his words as 100% true because his perspective only makes up a part of the entire story.

History includes the memories people choose to recall. Through studying history in school, I have learned that the academic context of history may not account for the views of historically marginalized groups. The lack of a full account of history continues the cycle of demoralizing the already marginalized. This one-sided story-telling method also translates to media portrayal and the news today. We need to see both sides of the coin. As with Colonial Spain and the Comey issue, one side justifies unethical and immoral actions through the narratives they tell themselves. Consequently, that biased narrative becomes widely propagated and spread, influencing how we understand the past and our beliefs in the present. However, the past is what shapes the future, thus we must consider who is telling the story, why, and what those stories are telling us about the time and ourselves.

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Acosta, josé de. Natural and Moral History of the Indies [1590]. Jane E. Mangan, ed. Frances López-Morillas, trans. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002.

Comey, James. A Higher Loyalty. MacMillan Publishers, 2018.

Restall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford University Press, 2003.

Yupanqui, Titu Cusi. An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru. Translated by Ralph Bauer, University Press of Colorado, 2005.