Have You No Sense of Decency, Mr. Trump?
On June 9th, 1954, a Boston attorney – Joseph Welch – decided he’d had enough of Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
For years, McCarthy had conjured up Commies out of thin air.
He’d abused his position as the chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to elevate himself, while brow-beating anybody who came before him.
McCarthy had – and without any proof – accused one of Welch’s fellow attorneys of having ties to Communists.
Welch exploded in anger.
“You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?” Welch asked, in an exchange that startled the national television audience that watched the proceedings.
Until that day in June 1954, Democrats, and McCarthy’s fellow Republicans had largely remained silent about the renegade Communist-hunting senator.
Many historians claim that Welch’s six-word question about McCarthy’s decency led to his demise.
No longer could he feel free to sit in judgement of his fellow Americans without any proof of their wrongdoings.
Last week, a number of Republicans, without using the word “decency,” announced they were just as fed up with President Trump.
Arizona’s junior Senator, Jeff Flake, had much stronger words to describe Trump.
“Unstable, venal, immature, dangerous, reckless and undignified,” were just some of the words that Flake used on the floor of the U.S. Senate when he announced he isn’t going to run for a second term.
Before that speech, Flake penned a commentary in the Washington Post, in which he used phrases like “childish insults,” and “disgraceful public feuds,” to define Trump’s frequent self-made controversies.
Meanwhile, Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee took his tirades about Trump to the nearest television cameras.
“I think the debasement of our nation will be what he’ll be remembered most for. And that’s regretful,” he told reporters.
He also accused Trump of having “great difficulty with the truth on many issues.”
(That’s a common accusation. But it’s never been made by a Republican in Congress)
Ironically, Corker and Flake took their stands against Trump on a day when he’d left the confines of the White House and joined his fellow Republicans in the Senate for something they called a “Unity Lunch.” Corker and Flake weren’t the first Republicans who’ve shown they’ve had their fill of the president.
His own secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, called him a “moron” a few weeks ago.
Former president George W. Bush uncharacteristically gave a speech that was aimed at the perils of “Trumpism.”
And Arizona’s senior senator, John McCain, who’s never had much good to say about Trump, issued a blistering rebuke of him and his policies. According to McCain, Trump engages in, “Half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.”
Flake and Corker aren’t the first Republicans to step away from the Republican plantation. They’re just the loudest and most direct.
I don’t expect that their heated words will open a floodgate of Republicans who’ll join them in questioning Trump’s “decency.”
Therein lies a problem.
While there are many Republicans in Congress who feel exactly the way Flake and Corker do, their courage is in short supply.
Flake and Corker have freed themselves of the burden of publicly allowing Trump-to-be-Trump, but only because they’ve announced they’re not running for re-election.
In the words of Janis Joplin, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”
Democrats, who’ve remained silent while some Republicans have come out against Trump, shouldn’t look for an avalanche of Republicans who’ll follow suit.
That’s not going to happen.
Washington, D.C. has no shortage of political cowardice.
The Republican senators who attended that “Unity Lunch,” claimed (for the cameras) that they’re quite pleased with Trump’s plans for the future.
There are many reporters who say that when there no cameras present, many Republicans in Congress find Trump’s behavior very troubling.
That his Twitter-happy penchant for name calling, and self-aggrandizement, present obstacles they’d rather not have to overcome.
But he’s still their man.
A man whose bad behavior is easy to overlook, while you’re looking out for your own well-being.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.