Federal forces have been removed from D.C. President Donald Trump tweeted that they were withdrawn but could return in an instant if necessary. He suggested that their job was done, that the number of protesters had dwindled and the violence stopped, that they had squashed the rebellion.
As is typical of collisions of Trump and Twitter, it was mostly untrue. The Feds were gone, but the protesters weren’t, and the mayor of D.C. had made no secret of where her sympathies lay. The curfew had been lifted on Saturday and protests continued into the night in almost total order. BLACK LIVES MATTER was emblazoned on 16th Street like a spear pointed at the White House. There was little likelihood it would pierce the heart of the President as it was simply too small a target, but it eviscerated his resolve.
The President was defeated in the Capital. He had made his play for domination and was driven back by people of all colors, all races, genders and preferences. Bull Connor had been revealed before the nation and was revealed to be an unfit representative for the country. He had been humiliated when it was revealed he was hiding from the unwashed masses in a bunker five stories below the White House, and this after installing more barricades around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He had sent out a massive Federal force against unarmed, peaceful protesters to clear an area he needed to do a photo op for a campaign video. This was followed by lies about the event, that the forces advanced because they were under attack by frozen water bottles and bricks, that no gas had been employed. As veteran journalists were part of the crowd that was dispersed, the lies were quickly identified as such, and it was very hard to imagine a humiliation so complete, a revelation of cowardice and peek that would make the Fox denials clownish and pathetic.
Attorney General Barr held the line, insisted they had been attacked, insisted force was used only after asking the protesters politely to move back another block, an order they did not comply with. No one can corroborate the requests having been made, but it really is irrelevant. The Feds had no more right to that tiny piece of real estate than the people did. They were within their rights to gather peacefully and protest. The AG’s faux justification was just that. Even if you swallowed the lies necessary to create the fiction, it didn’t create a legal justification to remove the people from LaFayette Square.
Across the country we saw the Feds draw down and violence nearly disappear. It turned out that the cancer in the Oval Office was not metastatic. It would not spread wildly, would not define a nation. It could be defeated by a localized surgery. It could be removed. Excised.
Exorcised really.
Lest one think this is simply a partisan screed (it is, I suppose, but not “simply”), the GOP made a parade out of their walk of shame. In Congress, as Senators walked through the halls and were confronted about the President’s methods and operations by curious reporters, they could not respond. Never a defense, just head down and keep walking. Most did not respond at all, as if they hadn’t heard the journalist standing four feet away. Just walked by with their head down, thankful for the mask they had vilified until then. Others were late for lunch, or a phone call, or hadn’t heard about Lafayette Square, was that in D.C.? One game chap stopped and said the American people were more concerned about actual civil rights violations like those taking place in Hong Kong, a moment of hilarity in an era of disgrace while not mitigating it in the least.
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska decided that someone from the party had to stand up and be counted. Someone had to make a stand. True to her history, she would quickly prove it would not be her. When asked about the comments former Defense Secretary James Mattis made about the President, a brutal take-down that held nothing back and characterized the President as an enemy of the Constitution, she thought that the party may have reached an important breaking point.
“When I saw General Mattis’ comments yesterday I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up.”
At first blush that kinda sounds courageous. In actuality it is an admission of their crimes. Let’s break it down. By saying that they might be able to be honest now, she is confirming two things simultaneously. They have not been honest about their actual perceptions of the President, and there is no guarantee that they will be now. Perhaps, she said. Maybe. She confirms that internally they have serious misgivings about the competence of the party’s leader, but they damn sure aren’t going to share that with you. The health of the party is paramount. This seemingly harmless quote is only saying that the damage to the party is getting to the point that a break may have to take place. Behind closed doors the discussions have been ongoing it seems. They have known he is insane for a long time, but they were getting what they wanted out of it, so the country could be sacrificed for the gutting of regulations and enormous unfunded tax breaks. The money was flowing, the Constitution could wait.
This is where a Republican Senate was in the summer of ’74. To the public they were standing up for the “Law and Order” president, that the kids on the street were out of control, that we were going to have peace with honor in Vietnam. They were mostly in lockstep with the party line for all the world to see, while internally they were watching the presidency unravel and wondering how they could survive.
In the end, there was only one way. They had to cut the president loose, and they did. They would not allow the clumsy criminality of Nixon to drag them all down with him, and they told him so. President Nixon understood that he was not an island. He couldn’t survive alone, and he resigned.
Murkowski speculated that the party was looking at such a crossroads. Perhaps. Every portion of her statement was qualified. They wouldn’t be honest about anything, they would be “…more honest…”. About what? “…with the concerns that we might hold…”. Nothing that could be confirmed, plausible denial cooked in, even now, and all of it preceded with “Perhaps…”.
She was the brave one, the moral stalwart of the party. The rest, while not defending the President, would still refuse to be counted. It was very early in the summer. The winnowing heat of July and August had not arrived yet. Would they follow the lead of their predecessors of 46 years ago?
Speculating, I think it is possible. No sure thing of course, but possible. Why? Because leaving it up to the election, they could get thrown out with the rest of the trash. That seems more and more likely. Polls are crashing, not just for the President but for the GOP down ballot as well. The decision was starting to become clear. Live or die with the President or let him die alone? Up until now that decision had been made. Senators and Congresspeople were riding the coattails of an enigma. They couldn’t quite figure out how he did it. Most, when trying to mirror his tactics were ludicrous imitators, embarrassing themselves to all but the very most hard core of the base, but it was worth a shot.
Right now there are very few that seek to emulate the President, few that can figure out a party line to justify the Administration’s actions. Deafening silence is the current strategy, praying it will all just go away.
It’s not. The people aren’t backing down and the Administration, while ignominiously retreating, is declaring victory due to its application of overwhelming force. He had lobbied for the role of strong man leader and he was not letting it go now. He would continue to play the part until the show was closed. The reviews were very, very bad. Strong arm tactics had backfired all across the nation, in Buffalo, in Fairfax,VA, in Brooklyn and famously in LaFayette Square, and many other locations. The time to speak up and be counted had arrived.
Perhaps.
The time for honesty, for stripping back the curtain to reveal concerns that any party would have to have at such a moment had arrived.
Perhaps.
Murkowski had inadvertently become the poster child for the problem. No one was willing to walk out on the limb alone. She knew it was a problem, but she damn sure wasn’t going to be the solution. Hell, even Mitt Romney had dodged and weaved when approached over the Mattis comments, saying he hadn’t heard them yet, and he had voted to impeach! The first senator in the history of the country to vote for impeachment of a member of his own party, that Mitt Romney was running for cover, and if he was there was no possibility that Murkowski would be the voice of integrity.
But just maybe this is what was going on in 1974. The discussions had begun, they were ongoing and they were changing. Just maybe the vertebrae of the GOP was stiffening, once again being able to support a person upright, standing in the light. Maybe the hunched bodies slinking down the corridors of Congress, unable to look in reporters eyes, would rise up, reclaim the pride they once had if never deserved, and confidently stand for … something.
Perhaps.