Almost immediately after Jan. 6, Republicans began calling for unity and harmony — for reconciliation. If the world learned anything from the Truth and Reconciliation campaigns in South Africa and Rwanda, it is that there can be no reconciliation without acknowledging the reality that necessitates one.

If someone invades your house and assaults your family, they cannot hope for you to invite them to dinner — at least not that night! Given the resistance to the truth of what happened at the nation’s Capitol and Donald Trump’s gargantuan lie about the election that fomented it, there appears little chance of reconciliation of the deep division that rends our democracy. There must be a basic foundation for seeking reconciliation; a refusal to accept reality does not constitute one.

How can a divided Congress and a divided nation begin to establish that foundation? What might lead to reconciliation — or at least establish the hope of one — is a willingness of both parties to retreat from their fiercely defended fortresses and focus on those things with which they find agreement.

In the Bay Area interfaith work in which I am engaged, and the teaching I do at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, we find it helpful to set aside those things that may divide us to then focus on common values and common causes. Heaven knows, we face challenges in doing this because there is anything but agreement on many doctrinal beliefs and devotional practices.

Nevertheless, by identifying shared values and basic beliefs — such as the Golden Rule, the brotherhood and sisterhood of all peoples and, especially, the necessity of love — we succeed in working together to manifest these values in our often-divided communities. By working together across religious, racial, ethnic and even political divides, we address the most important and urgent issues in our congregations and communities.

Were Democrats and Republicans committed to seeing one another as potential partners rather than arch enemies, were they to put the critical needs of the nation above partisan politics, and, especially, were they willing to sacrifice being right in favor of being together, they might be able to focus more on the next generation than on the next election — or their most immediate personal or party grievance.

The chances of this happening depend on some acceptance that the election was fair and free and that Joe Biden — and not Trump — is president. It is discouraging that after all the votes were validated and verified, after all of Trump’s lawsuits rejected, even after the insurrection and attack on the chambers of Congress during the verification itself, eight Republican senators and 139 Republican members of the House refused to certify the election results.

As long as a third of citizens and a majority of Republicans continue to insist that the election was stolen and that Biden is an illegitimate president, there can be no real reconciliation. As long as a majority of congressional Republicans hold the view that encouraging the violent invasion of the nation’s Capitol with the intent of overturning the election is not an impeachable offense, there can be no reconciliation. As long as the Republican Party refuses to take action against its elected officials who have incited insurrection and threatened violence, there can be no reconciliation.

As long as Republicans insist on being the party of Trump, the consequence of the presidential election is that they are choosing disunity and disunion. If truth has no meaning, neither does democracy.

Robert Rees teaches at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.