On June 9, 1954, Joseph N. Welch asked this famous question of Senator Joe McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings, and it essentially ended McCarthy’s career.
Before this point, McCarthy was unstoppable. His ostensible object was to stamp out Communism in the US wherever it might be found. In his rampage, many careers and reputations were pointlessly destroyed. That was of no concern to McCarthy, who only cared about amassing more power. Anyone who disagreed with him could become a target, and so those who opposed him, who understood the damage he was doing to constitutionally guaranteed freedoms, remained silent to save themselves. Finally, McCarthy smeared a young lawyer in Welch’s firm, and Welch had had enough. With that single question, it was as though the entire country finally saw that the emperor was naked, and the witch-hunts had to come to an end.
I keep thinking that our current reign of chaos has to end similarly, with everyone coming to their senses all at once, that this absurd nightmare, metastasizing daily, will at some point result in some event so utterly horrifying that the American electorate will rise as one and demand that Trump be removed from his White House occupancy, and Pence be neutered (to the extent that he isn’t already) if not also removed, and that GOP members of elected bodies begin to behave as though they were sane. None of Trump’s antics on the campaign trail were sufficient. Neither were any of the shameful tweets he’s broadcast, the shameful treatment of serving military, veterans, and Gold Star families. Neither was his admission to sexual assault. Neither were his shameful unscripted tantrums on the international stage, which have weakened a western alliance that has kept peace for more than 70 years. Neither were the shameful insults that Trump has hurled at various vulnerable minorities, and the violence he has incited toward them, all the while providing aid and comfort to Nazis, the KKK and other white supremacists. Neither were the denouncements from members of his own party, such as Bob Corker, John McCain and Jeff Flake, which ended up not meaning a whole lot since they almost universally voted to give Trump whatever he wanted. In any case, none of them have caused the GOP at large to change its course with respect to its loyalty to Trump.
The media environment has evolved over the last two or three decades in such a way to make universal realization unlikely. One segment of the media serves to provide the reactionaries of American society the sort of “news” they want to hear, the sort of “news” they have always suspected was true, because it satisfies their prejudices. These disinformation sources have proliferated on TV, radio and the internet and feed the minds of wing nuts careening off the edge of sanity. Pizzagate? You bet! Obama is a Kenyan muslim? How could you doubt it? During McCarthy’s era, news sources were trusted by the public, and the news sources strove to live up to that trust. By and large, they corroborated each others’ reporting. Now, some news sources revel in hoodwinking their audience, and call their competitors “fake news.” Nowadays, the “Have you no decency?” moment would be reported and interpreted falsely in many quarters, to an audience ready to swallow those falsehoods whole.
And now we have Roy Moore as the GOP nominee in the Senate race in Alabama, an admitted serial child molester. Now can we ask “Is there no decency?” and get an honest answer? Nope. We still have not reached the bottom of Republican depravity, and it causes one to wonder precisely what horrifyingly monstrous acts must a GOP candidate be accused of before the GOP electorate will finally abandon him. (Let’s face it—such a person is always going to be a man.)
Our democracy faces its most mortal threat in its history since the Civil War. We are constantly told that GOP members of Congress admit privately that Trump is a dangerous and crazy idiot, but they won’t denounce him or break with him or the party because they fear for their own careers. At some point, the fever will break, but when it does, will there be anything left to save? Our nation very well might be pushed past the breaking point before that happens.
And so I continue to wait for the “Have you no decency?” moment. I hope it comes soon. We just can take much more of this.
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Top Comments (November 29, 2017):
From belinda ridgewood:
InfiniteThoughts wrote a diary congratulating Hillary Clinton for her most recent goading of Donald Trump. A thread by Tamar and PirateCafe wished him something a bit... less comfortable, when Ellid stepped in to point out the difficulty.
From MikeTheLiberal:
In my diary about Garrison Keillor, allergywoman had a classic response.
Highlighted by Mogolori:
This comment by clarknyc in Mark Sumner’s recommended post about Trump’s unhinged, racists tweets—er, the most recent ones.
Highlighted by raboof:
This comment by Laughing Gravy, from Jen Hayden’s recommended post on the details of Matt Lauer’s crimes of sexual harassment. (This will probably show up in Top Mojo tomorrow night.)
Highlighted by smoothnmellow:
This comment by Quicklund from the same post by Jen Hayden.
Highlighted by IndyGuy:
This comment by Fatherflot is actually a little late, but it’s too funny to ignore, from kos’ front page post from yesterday.
Top Mojo (November 28, 2017):
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Top Photos (November 28, 2017):