История о Джозефе Уэлче и актуальность вопроса о совести в эпоху Трампа

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000. To help get a grip on the turmoil of the day, please repeat after me: “At long last, sir,” [At long last, sir] “Have you left no sense of decency?” [Have you left no sense of decency?] As many readers know, that was the question Joseph Welch asked of Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin at a Senate hearing on June 9, 1954. His pointed question was overdue. It was Welch—an Iowan born in Primghar, and a graduate of Grinnell College—who finally held a U.S. senator accountable for fomenting fear of Communism into a time of national divisiveness and hatred. McCarthyism fed on the lies and innuendo heaped upon those McCarthy and his supporters deemed un-American. Welch’s much-needed question came four years after Senator Margaret Chase Smith delivered her June 1, 1950 “Declaration of Conscience” speech on the Senate floor. The Republican from Maine targeted McCarthy and the fear, hate-mongering, and divisiveness that tore the nation apart in an anti-Communist crusade to make America great again. These words seem as fresh as when she delivered the remarks in 1950: “I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear.” (The Senate finally censured McCarthy on December 2, 1954. While still serving in the Senate, he died in May 1957 of illness compounded by alcohol abuse.) Getting back to Smith and Welch, their concerns sadly are relevant today, as Republicans in Congress, including the Iowa delegation, either echo or silently accept President Donald Trump’s unending lies and attacks upon those he calls “Dumocrats” or worse. Trump blatantly uses his office to seek revenge against political rivals and even former aides who criticize him. Making things worse, the Iowans in Congress remain Trump loyalists despite all he has done to harm democracy, as the Des Moines Register’s editors pointed out in an August 16 column. A harvest of irony and fear As irony and fear haunt us today, it’s time for Iowans to hold our representatives accountable and revive Welch’s important question, asking our Congressional delegation “Have you no sense of decency?” It is apparent there will be no “last straw” finally forcing Senator Chuck Grassley et al to stop putting up with, excusing, or ignoring the threats Trump poses to our constitutional system. They have dug in their heels in support of the president. Unending indignities could have been “last straws,” from Trump sneering at U.S. Senator John McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war more than a decade ago to the disaster of this year’s war with Iran. But it made no difference to the Iowa delegation. Given the president’s vitriol against Iran, one awaits the next threat to “nuke” the “scum” in any nation of his choosing. A senseless fear? Only if you’ve been ignoring or excusing Trump’s rhetoric and actions for the past 10 years or more. Trump has the Midas touch in reverse. Everything he touches turns to… Well, if you want an analogy, consider Iowans in Congress to be like the elephant keepers in the circus parade who dutifully followed the GOP symbols with pans and shovels in hand. Trump has already filled their pans and shovels in unaccountable ways. About Blanche, Hinson—and Nunn, too A recent dumping was the Senate’s confirmation of Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, as U.S. attorney general by a vote of 50-49. Iowa Senators Grassley and Joni Ernst were among the deciding votes, just as they were last year, when Republican senators confirmed anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services and Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. Vice President JD Vance had to provide the tie-breaking vote for Hegseth, who now prefers to call himself secretary of war, in accordance with Trump’s re-brand. The Blanche appointment was at least as controversial as those two. As a New York Times article summarized it: “Mr. Blanche is a champion of unbridled presidential power. Time and again during his turbulent nomination process Mr. Blanche made it unmistakably clear that he believes Mr. Trump possesses a nearly limitless right to directly control the actions of the justice department…” American historian and columnist Heather Cox Richarson noted that approval of the Blanche nomination “makes…Trump’s personal criminal lawyer the top law enforcement officer of the country. [But] The attorney general is supposed to be the lawyer for the people of the United States.” In the same commentary, she wrote: “Some Republicans, like 92-year-old Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley of Iowa, were enthusiastic about Blanche. ‘Mr. Blanche is a tough, fair prosecutor dedicated to the rule of law, and his leadership instills that same zeal throughout the entire Justice Department,’ Grassley said.” Grassley sounded euphoric in the August 8 edition of his weekly newsletter, THE SCOOP: Americans from coast to coast are waking up safer today. Overnight, the Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as our nation’s 88th U.S. Attorney General. I have full confidence in Blanche’s ability to lead the Department of Justice and was proud to lead his nomination through the Senate as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. […] He has demonstrated the legal expertise, leadership and integrity needed to serve. I look forward to working with him to uphold the rule of law and keep America safe. U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson, seeking to succeed the retiring Ernst, has made her shovel-and-pan commitment clear from the earliest days of her Senate campaign: “I’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with President Trump to reverse the woke craziness and put working families first. In the Senate, I’ll be President Trump’s strongest ally and deliver the America First agenda.” As noted in a previous Bleeding Heartland post, Hinson’s commitment becomes stronger as Trump becomes even more reckless. For his part, U.S. Representative Zach Nunn (a Republican in Iowa’s third Congressional district) says he deserves your vote because he has cut spending on the national parks, emergency relief systems, research on life threatening diseases, needed public works, Medicaid and many other pressing societal needs. Yes, I know, that’s not how Nunn would put it. He prefers bragging about his role in producing the biggest tax cuts and service cutbacks in U.S. history. Two points to consider regarding Nunn’s pride in sweeping tax cuts: 1. Over the years, the amounts and extent of waste in government spending have been greatly exaggerated. But tax-cutting rhetoric remains a vote-getting pitch by candidates at all levels of government, who vow to get government off our backs and out of our pockets. 2. We disregard too readily the dissent of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in a 1927 case involving the Internal Revenue Service: “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” A civilized society, of course, is one with a sense of decency. Joe Welch had a question about that.