Have You No Sense of Decency?

Friends keep asking me whether there is ever going to be a "no sense of decency" moment for President Trump. I don't think so, and the reasons are after the jump.

For those who don't remember, this exchange occurred at the Army-McCarthy hearings when Sen. Joe McCarthy pointed out that one of attorney Joseph Welch's assistants, Fred Fisher, had briefly belonged to the National Lawyers Guild at Harvard Law School. Pretty tame stuff by today's standards, but it was enough to potentially derail Fisher's career, and it provoked Welch into a stinging rebuke. The hearing were covered live on all three networks, so the Welch-McCarthy exchange was seen by many millions of people. I was only five at the time and not yet interested in politics. My parents were among the few who did not watch the hearing that day, but only because my middle brother was being born just as it was happening on June 9, 1954.

The event is remembered today as the beginning of McCarthy's downfall, although the impact of the moment as been much exaggerated. McCarthy's grip on the American imagination had already been significantly weakened before his encounter with Joe Welch. In any case, nothing like that is likely ever to happen to President Trump, and here's why not:

·       MCarthy was a senator and Trump is president, meaning that he has almost infinitely more power to inflict pain and cost on any Republicans who break ranks.

·       Eisenhower had already signaled his disapproval of McCarthy, which made censuring him almost costless among Republicans.

·       McCarthy lost the media; Trump has Fox News, Twitter, Breitbart, and lots of other right-wing media that will not abandon him (yes, there will be a few mild criticisms, but that’s it).

·       McCarthy had no favors to distribute; Trump will continue to nominate Federalist Society vetted judges, cancel regulations, and push tax cuts, which is what many Republicans care most about.

·       McCarthy was the target of homophobes (Joseph Welch called Roy Cohn a “fairy” on the record); the homophobes think Trump is their guy.

·       There were liberal Republicans in the Senate in 1954; there are none today.

·       McCarthy was an alcoholic and lost the ability to defend himself; Trump is cold sober.

·       And perhaps most importantly, indecency is Trump’s brand; he regularly labels his critics "enemies of the people" and "traitors," and calls for treason prosecutions; his base loves him for it; the more insulting he is, the more entrenched he becomes.

 

There is one reason to think that Trump's dominance in the Republican Party might be weakened:

 

·       McCarthy attacked the army, which had recently won WWII; Trump had long refrained from attacking the military, but the troop withdrawal from Syria, and his subsequent ridicule of Gen. James Mattis, may change things "at long last."

 

Here is a longer clip of the Welch-McCarthy exchange, with a closeup of Trump's mentor Roy Cohn:

 

 

Comments

[anymouse]

There should be a "no sense of decency" directed toward the Democrats.

[anon]

Does accusing one current Democratic candidate for president and one past independent candidate for president of being Russian agents, without any public evidence to prove these allegations presented, seem to you more akin to the "sense of decency" to which you allude, or McCarthyism?

[anon]

You claim that Roy Cohn was "Trump's mentor."

According to Wiki, Cohn also represented New York Yankees baseball club and New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, Aristotle Onassis, Mafia figures Tony Salerno, Carmine Galante, and John Gotti; Studio 54 owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Were all these other persons also "mentored" by Cohn because he represented them?

What is the basis for the claim that Cohn was "Trump's mentor"?

Did we not ask for a sense of decency when McCarthy sought to tar people with "guilt by association"?

[anon]

"the homophobes think Trump is their guy."

Who are "the homophobes"? How many? What is the evidence "the homophobes" support Trump? Do "the homophobes" have an association, that took a vote and endorsed Trump? What are you talking about?

Did we not ask for a sense of decency when McCarthy sought to tar people with baseless charges?

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

This is worth reading again: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/politics/donald-trump-roy-cohn.html

[anon]

This sentence from the hit job cited above (the usual sort of advocacy that passes today as "news" -- stitching together a few facts, gossip and opinion, while scrupulously omitting evidence refuting the conclusions) really sums up the point of the piece:

"Mr. Cohn had returned to New York, starting a boutique practice in his shabby but elegant townhouse on East 68th Street."

The "shabby" part is what we are to take away.

"The prominent figures whom Mr. Cohn summoned to testify on his behalf included Barbara Walters and William F. Buckley Jr."

Wonder if they were "mentored" by Roy Cohn as well? And, all the other prominent NY persona, who regularly engaged his services?

Of course, it is easy to attack a favorite whipping boy for the Left (remember to forget and ignore JFK and RFK on McCarthy and his cause), but how does anything in the hit piece establish that Roy Cohn was Trump's "mentor"?

Are you trying to make the case that Trump is brash and full of bravado because Roy Cohn taught him to be brash and full of bravado? Or, are you asserting that the fact that Trump is brash and full of bravado and hired an aggressive attorney proves that attorney "mentored" Trump?

The use of the term "mentor" above was to connote "train (someone, especially a younger colleague)." That assertion remains unsubstantiated, despite a NYT hit piece on the two.