And there it is, folks.
We and others have long asked when Trump’s Welch-McCarthy moment would finally come.
Earlier today, we suggested that Jeff Flake might have just delivered what, in retrospect, will be remembered as a speech that marked a turning point for lawmakers’ collective willingness to put up with the President’s antics.
Well on Tuesday evening, Jeff is “going there,” invoking Joseph Welch for an Op-Ed in the Washington Post…
By Jeff Flake for WaPo
As I contemplate the Trump presidency, I cannot help but think of Joseph Welch.
On June 9, 1954, during the Army-McCarthy hearings, Welch, who was the chief counsel for the Army, famously asked the committee chairman if he might speak on a point of personal privilege. What he said that day was so profound that it has become enshrined as a pivotal moment in defense of American values against those who would lay waste to them. Welch was the son of a small prairie town in northwest Iowa, and the plaintive quality of his flat Midwestern accent is burned into American history. After asking Sen. Joseph McCarthy for his attention and telling him to listen with both ears, Welch spoke:
“Until this moment, senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness.”
And then, in words that today echo from his time to ours, Welch delivered the coup de grace: “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
The moral power of Welch’s words ended McCarthy’s rampage on American values, and effectively his career as well.
After Welch said his piece, the hearing room erupted in applause, those in attendance seemingly shocked by such bracing moral clarity in the face of a moral vandal. Someone had finally spoken up and said: Enough.
By doing so, Welch reawakened the conscience of the country. The moment was a shock to the system, a powerful dose of cure for an American democracy that was questioning its values during a time of global tumult and threat. We had temporarily forgotten who we were supposed to be.
We face just such a time now. We have again forgotten who we are supposed to be.
There is a sickness in our system – and it is contagious.
How many more disgraceful public feuds with Gold Star families can we witness in silence before we ourselves are disgraced?
How many more times will we see moral ambiguity in the face of shocking bigotry and shrug it off?
How many more childish insults do we need to see hurled at a hostile foreign power before we acknowledge the senseless danger of it?
How much more damage to our democracy and to the institutions of American liberty do we need to witness in silence before we count ourselves as complicit in that damage?
Nine months of this administration is enough for us to stop pretending that this is somehow normal, and that we are on the verge of some sort of pivot to governing, to stability. Nine months is more than enough for us to say, loudly and clearly: Enough.
The outcome of this is in our hands. We can no longer remain silent, merely observing this train wreck, passively, as if waiting for someone else to do something. The longer we wait, the greater the damage, the harsher the judgment of history.
I have been so worried about the state of our disunion that I recently wrote a book called “Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle.” I meant for the book to be a defense of principle at a time when principle is in a state of collapse. In it, I traced the transformation of my party from a party of ideas to a party in thrall to a charismatic figure peddling empty populist slogans. I tried to make the case for the sometimes excruciating work of arguing and compromise.
This was part of the reason I wanted to go to the Senate – because its institutional strictures require you to cross the aisle and do what is best for the country. Because what is best for the country is for neither party’s base to fully get what it wants but rather for the factions that make up our parties to be compelled to talk until we have a policy solution to our problems. To listen to the rhetoric of the extremes of both parties, one could be forgiven for believing that we are each other’s enemies, that we are at war with ourselves.
But more is now required of us than to put down our thoughts in writing. As our political culture seems every day to plumb new depths of indecency, we must stand up and speak out. Especially those of us who hold elective office.
To that end, and to remove all considerations of what is normally considered to be safe politically, I have decided that my time in the Senate will end when my term ends in early January 2019. For the next 14 months, relieved of the strictures of politics, I will be guided only by the dictates of conscience.
It’s time we all say: Enough.
thought full!!
H please create an instrument so that I can short it
I was only a child at the time, but i watched the McCarthy hearings on what was then the new invention of television. i was somehow fascinated trying to figure out just what was going on. Even though i didn’t really know what it was, I did somehow know that McCarthy was being nasty to everyone just because he could be. That’s what seems to be happening now. The party in power and the administration seem to be locked in a contest to see who can hurt the most people every few days. It’s “let’s take away millions of peoples’ health care today.” Then it’s “let’s make our water dirty again” or “let’s kick out some citizens who happen to be the kids of illegal immigrants.” (Though it was nearly 100 years ago my dad was probably technically one of those kids. His father was illegal back in the early 1900s and all he did was provide food and shelter for thousands of mill workers who couldn’t otherwise pay for it in the MA mill towns. In those days we still thought it was OK to make 10 or 12 year old kids work 12 hour days. Then we fixed that.) Now today it was “let’s take away the rights of people to sue big companies who harm them” day. It’s just never ending these days and Sen Flake was right today, enough is enough. The time to hurt people, often without their even knowing it, is over. And it’s time for the “loyal opposition” to stand up on it’s hind legs and stand for the rights of all of us to live proper lives unafraid of someone taking more of our rights away every day. As Teddy Roosevelt said, and I was reminded of in an earlier post today, the job of the president and Congress is to govern in a way that benefits everyone, not just the “base.” Government is for (all) the people, not just the few. Enough!
Please let this be the turning point, when a conservative Republican says enough, please let this be the turning point.
Hard to believe we are re-living history. I was not yet double digit years old during the McCarthy period, ten years, 1947-1957, but I have recently had reason to refresh my memory. As disgusted as I was during that research I did come across an article from The Atlantic, July 2015, “The New McCarthyism of Donald Trump, His opportunistic demagoguery was indulged by Republican Party leaders…” So, please read this article and thank the Lord it has only been 2 years and it is still “only matter of time”.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/donald-trump-joseph-mccarthy/399056/
Questions I asked myself during the Primaries, I still ask today! The day before the above piece was published, The Atlantic published this article: “Why It’s Hard for the GOP to Discredit Donald Trump, The Republican establishment struggles to control a candidate whose success is built on factors it finds convenient to ignore”. My questions as to how and why would anyone support him … “farcical candidacies are difficult for the GOP to avoid or end quickly because the party is averse to certain truths that would help inoculate it against demagogues” and then they listed 6 reasons.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/6-reasons-why-its-hard-for-the-gop-to-discredit-donald-trump/398951/
Again, thank the Lord it’s only been two years and a man with integrity and pride and after long consideration and support of his family and friends, made a decision on behalf of his country over party. Of course I have already heard jerks likes Hannity rant that Mr. Flake is a loser and had no chance to win re-election and that is the real reason he is resigning and all that total crap. Clearly Flake is not afraid of a good fight or he would never have taken center stage yesterday and made the awesome speech he made! So Hannity and his crowd of horrible people can go to hell.
I ask you to read this final article published today and hear him tell you of the how and why of his decision.
“The Tragedy of Jeff Flake,The Arizona senator gambled that voters would choose civility and responsible governance over Trump…”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/jeff-flake-interview/543912/
In the last sentence there is a link to a preceding article (Sept 2017) that further explains how it all came down to his discussions with family and friends and it may be the most interesting of all. Please take just a few more minutes and follow that link too.
I thank Jeff Flake for his comments yesterday and I hope it will have an impact on the Republicans of our government. Donald Trump should not continue as President of The Unites States of America. True, there are millions of Republican voters who continue to support The Party but I can tell you this for damned sure – your constituents will most likely vote for you again even if you step up and do the right thing for America and they won’t be holding their nose this time!
Enough!