“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
- Constitutional foreshadowing: “We ought to have our government so shaped that even when in the hands of a bad man, we shall be safe.” That was Frederick Douglass, reflecting on life under Andrew Johnson, America’s previous worst president.
- “The importance of American engagement has never been higher. If the United States does not lead, there will be no leadership. … If we fail to live up to our responsibilities, if we shirk the role that only we can assume, if we retreat from our obligations to the world in indifference, we will one day pay the highest price once again for our neglect and shortsightedness.” That wasn’t Joe Biden—or some wistful, idealistic Democrat. No, that was the late Republican President George H.W. Bush in the late 1990s. What he said then was a real-world foreshadowing. What we are living now is the dark reality. Engagement, leadership and global respect cannot be politically partisan issues.
- How could a man who has so blatantly and repeatedly violated his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States expect to be re-elected? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.
- We all get that justices nominated for the Supreme Court since Robert Bork have followed a playbook of prudence and equivocation during a confirmation hearing. Whatever the question, some of them of the gotcha variety, responses have to be non-ideological, non-specific and non-committal to anything other than an open legal mind. The occasional “I don’t recall” is also in play as is a declaration of non-“pawn” status.
That said, Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s responses to climate-change questions were disappointing—and unnecessarily non-committal. The role of “originalism” and “textualism” in the saving of the planet seems almost oxymoronic. Playing it safe on climate change—such as describing settled science as still in dispute and confirming that she is “certainly not a scientist”—is more than a confirmation strategy. It’s existential-threat enabling—not taking one for humanity and civilization. And it made Barrett, who had the support of Charles Koch, sound like the daughter of the oil executive that she is.
- “Prohibiting the open carry of firearms in areas where citizens cast their ballots is necessary to ensure every voter is protected.” That was Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson saying what few used to think ever needed to be said.
- On more than one occasion the Defense Department has had to make it clear that it does not respond to commands over Twitter. It’s beyond indefensible to have a Twitter-in-chief, especially on matters of national defense.
- “Normal life; that’s all we want.”—Trump disingenuously doubling down on his normless message at The Villages rally.
- “You know why we have (COVID) cases so much? Because all we do is test.” Obviously not true/false.
- China: One of three foreign nations where Trump maintains a bank account. The other two: Britain and Ireland.
- “I am the least racist person in this room. … Not since Abraham Lincoln has anybody done what I’ve done for the black community.” Who else believes this other than Ben Carson and Kanye West?
- Call it the elephant in the room. Only this elephant is the all-too-familiar GOPster pachyderm. Even if Trump loses—and the result doesn’t prompt fraud charges and a “Seven Days in May” scenario—there is a stark reality looming. Those who voted for Trump—again—are still here. Four years removed from dispatching the vilified Hillary Clinton and after four years of carnage mismanagement, they’ve been further emboldened. White grievance, xenophobia, misogyny, demonized media, gun culture, politicized federal law enforcement, militias, science disparagement, the deep state, perverted libertarianism, the normalization of lying, revanchism et al aren’t likely to go away with the formal exit of this cult-craving, faux-populist president. He’s tapped into something that resonates, however deplorably counterproductive. America, alas, is not exceptional. Autocracy happens.
No, this isn’t the John McCain or Mitt Romney, regroup-and-get-‘em-next-time crowd. There were never intimations of incompetence, narcissism, meanness or a grifter’s mentality. There was never a need for an autocrat’s playbook with those Republican establishment types, who prioritized family values, limited government, global trade, deficit-spending restraints, treaties and respect for military and national intelligence professionals. That was the Republican Party then and its regard for alliance-honoring, country-first ideology. It knew it was demographically-challenged and wanted to address it with a wider-appeal outreach. Remember Reince Priebus’ electorate “autopsy”? Priebus, the former RNC chairman and Trump’s first chief of staff is now as relevant to Trump and his base as Omarosa Manigault Newman or Michael Cohen.
What is regrettably relevant is the base identification with the 21st century version of George Wallace’s law and order agenda and a Joe McCarthy-like approach to anyone labeled a “socialist.” Outreach has been replaced by divide-and-conquer.
- “Take a very good look at.”—That’s how Trump recently responded to an inquiry about whether he would consider a pardon for Edward Snowden. Recall that Snowden is the former American intelligence contractor who leaked top-secret documents. Snowden has been living in exile in Moscow since 2013.
- “(Trump) can’t want (black people) to be successful more than they want to be successful.”—Jared Kushner, sending an inimitable Trump message to black voters.
- “He can be a handful. He can get in the way of his own success.”—That was Sen. Lindsey Graham, being as Trump-candid as sycophancy permits.