Doesn’t Nixon look like a piker now? Breaking and entering? Kids do that in High School. Sure, it steamrolled into a horrifically criminal cover-up, but when it finally spiraled out of control leading to the firing of people that would not comply, that was about it. It was over fairly quickly after that. The depths of the corruption were now obviously on display and a Republican entourage from Congress met with Nixon and told him the jig was up. They couldn’t protect him from being impeached.
What we don’t seem to remember, and what should give us all hope, is that in 1974 Congress was as divided as at any time since just before the Civil War. Lines divided Republicans and Democrats over the war, civil rights and now Watergate, but the latter proved the thing that could unite them in spite of themselves. In spite of intractable differences of policy and more, they were all still Americans, bled Red, White and Blue, and a domestic attack on the institutions and integrity of the country would not, could not stand. The Saturday Night Massacre was the end of the line.
They stood up and were counted. After their visit with the President, Nixon announced his resignation the next evening.
Skip ahead 46 years. Congress divided. Open warfare between the parties. A pandemic that was killing tens of thousands of our citizens was necessary to get any bill off of Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s desk, and even those bills were contentious. Nothing else was shaken loose and the sides remained just as divided as ever.
But then he started picking off Inspectors General.
Nothing happened right away, and it isn’t exactly a tsunami now, but there was a direction to what was happening. A chipping away. Maybe.
The Democrats immediately reacted with what I think was reasonable horror, but that was expected and mitigated the influence of their disgust. What did you imagine would happen?
Romney piped up. Not a big shocker but it was still inspiring to see a man with enough integrity to let something, anything, stand above a blind allegiance to party, even if it was a blind allegiance to a different god. At least he had a line. That was refreshing. Beyond the unique qualities of his chosen religion, it was ethics that had drawn the line, and he wouldn’t cross it.
Not bad.
Then there was Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) who said stridently that the reasons provided for the removal of the Inspector General did not satisfy the requirements of the statute governing removal of an Inspector General. Very direct. No nonsense. But we had been invited to the Sadie Hawkins dance by her a few times before. Not the big invite you brag about. She never shows up at the dance. A voice, sure, but a game changer? No.
The third break was Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). He had proven himself to be prone to support whistleblowers before and this was not an unexpected announcement, but then there were three.
During the Impeachment Mitt had stood alone. At the least, he didn’t seem to be completely alone now, which had the implication that there may be more support lurking in the shadows, waiting for the breaking point, when support meant the assassination of one’s own reputation and was no longer tenable. Was the rabble still controllable? Yet to be seen, but it was being carefully watched. There was grumbling on the home front.
This is a long and very gradual process, if it is afoot at all, but the signs have certainly been there. Leading up to the final vote in the Senate’s Impeachment Trial, many Republicans were not willing to sacrifice their reputations entirely, so many squared the circle by admitting Trump had done something very wrong, but it didn’t rise to the level of removal from office.They couldn’t really ignore the evidence, so they sold the idea that it was all true, but not all that important. Kind of how the Democrats spun the Clinton Impeachment. The crimes had been established, they were just little ones, so…
Then came the coronavirus and the inexplicably incompetent presidential response and the wisdom of having let him slide looked debatable. It didn’t take very long before the rift between the President and Dr. Fauci became clear and public, and the Dr. was far more credible than the President. Hydroxychloroquine was just the warm up for Trump. He let us know that everyone was so surprised how well he understood this stuff, because he had a “…really good…you know what”, pointing to his temple. He had taken over what had ostensibly been a very good idea, to have daily briefings on the virus, its progress and what we were doing to combat it, the same idea that Governor Cuomo had implemented.
The daily updates by the Governor were based in fact, empathetic but unapologetic in their recommendations, full of data. Opinions were given but identified as such. Science ruled.
The President of the United States had turned his daily infomercial into a campaign rally, but what he hadn’t calculated was the makeup of the audience. This wasn’t just his base watching like at a convention hall. No. People were scared and needed to know what to do. Everyone was tuning in, and not everyone liked what they saw. Then he suggested the injection of disinfectants and the internal application of UV light should be studied. He told Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Debbie Birx that such research might require medical doctors. This was too much for many in the GOP and they were quick to let their constituents know that this was crazy. Even Facebook and Twitter chatter from the right wing was reduced to mumbling. He had revealed something that was supposed to be a well kept GOP secret. The President was actually insane.
That effectively ended the briefings, and ending them seemed to satisfy his party peers for the time being. He might be nuts, but at least he’s off the stage. Out of sight, out of his mind.
But he wasn’t through. The Inspectors General began to fall, one after the other, in the most critical agencies of government; State, Health and Human Services, Intelligence and Defense. All gone inside of 45 days.
So here we are. There is a great deal of understanding on the Hill that we have a president who is incompetent and dangerous, even among Republicans. The difficulty lies in the fact that the worst instincts of Republican governance were being realized with this Administration. Rich people were gorging, the military was gorging, immigrants vilified, racism encouraged, guns protected, women attacked. So much voluptuous goodness! Who could have dreamed!?!
But the dream was being sullied. Crazy didn’t sell. Hatred did. Anger did. Arrogance was fine. Cruelty seemed helpful. Spite could be funny.
But crazy. That was a tough sell. It would have to be sold, because it was no longer deniable. How do you sell insane as a job qualification? He would listen to no one, so getting him to stand down and hiding his incapacity was not an option. It was out there. The briefings had done their damage.
Joe Biden was up by six points without having lifted a finger. It seemed you really didn’t need to run against crazy. It was redundant. What do you do if you are the representative on a Republican down ballot? What do you run on? What do you stand for? If you are as wild a reactionary as the President, would that all burn to the ground around you as the credibility of such a position explodes in fragments of idiocy? To be associated too closely could be mental disability by contact, and that could be fatal at the polls. Or would the President dodge and weave and escape once again, making standing up to him the fatal blow? What to do, what to do?
That question is a very real one as the campaign gets real. GOP strategy is unclear. Every option seems untenable in some way, unwinnable.
A Saturday Night Massacre was not helping.
There are at least three Republicans pushing back. Considering the current political climate that feels like a tidal wave. Will it be? Is this the moment of clarity, or are these the last gasps of a party that lost its way? What to do? Shockingly the answer is not clear.
Crazy is on the ballot this year, and the race is competitive.
Our responsibility is to not make it contagious.