Decency in the Time of Trump

FOTP News in Review for . . . Sunday, October 6th, 2024

From senate.gov

In the spring of 1954, McCarthy picked a fight with the U.S. Army, charging lax security at a top-secret army facility. The army responded that the senator had sought preferential treatment for a recently drafted subcommittee aide. Amidst this controversy, McCarthy temporarily stepped down as chairman for the duration of the three-month nationally televised spectacle known to history as the Army-McCarthy hearings.The army hired Boston lawyer Joseph Welch to make its case. At a session on June 9, 1954, McCarthy charged that one of Welch's attorneys had ties to a Communist organization. As an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness." When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"

Were Joseph Welch alive today and were he to ask Mike Johnson, “Have you no sense of decency?” for being so gelatinous in service to and glorification of Donald Trump, a man who is unapologetically reckless and cruel, Johnson would no doubt have answered, “Have you seen the size of his rallies?”

Which brings us to Johnson’s truly unconscionable performance on Sunday morning, which is saying something because Johnson is the unconscionable performer to which garden-variety unconscionable performers aspire.

From This Week