It is currently 03/28/24 6:27 pm

All times are UTC - 6 hours




  Page 1 of 1   [ 6 posts ]
Author Message
 Offline
PostPosted: 02/15/21 7:03 pm • # 1 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 02/09/09
Posts: 4713
This was from a year ago


By Sherrod Brown
Mr. Brown is a Democratic senator from Ohio.

Feb. 5, 2020


Not guilty. Not guilty.

In the United States Senate, like in many spheres of life, fear does the business.

Think back to the fall of 2002, just a few weeks before that year’s crucial midterm elections, when the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq was up for a vote. A year after the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of members of the House and the Senate were about to face the voters of a country still traumatized by terrorism.

Senator Patty Murray, a thoughtful Democrat from Washington State, still remembers “the fear that dominated the Senate leading up to the Iraq war.”

“You could feel it then,” she told me, “and you can feel that fear now” — chiefly among Senate Republicans.

For those of us who, from the start, questioned the wisdom of the Iraq war, our sense of isolation surely wasn’t much different from the loneliness felt in the 1950s by Senator Herbert Lehman of New York, who confronted Joe McCarthy’s demagogy only to be abandoned by so many of his colleagues. Nor was it so different from what Senator George McGovern must have felt when he announced his early opposition to the Vietnam War and was then labeled a traitor by many inside and outside of Congress.

History has indeed taught us that when it comes to the instincts that drive us, fear has no rival. As the lead House impeachment manager, Representative Adam Schiff, has noted, Robert Kennedy spoke of how “moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle.”

Playing on that fear, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, sought a quick impeachment trial for President Trump with as little attention to it as possible. Reporters, who usually roam the Capitol freely, have been cordoned off like cattle in select areas. Mr. McConnell ordered limited camera views in the Senate chamber so only presenters — not absent senators — could be spotted.

And barely a peep from Republican lawmakers.

One journalist remarked to me, “How in the world can these senators walk around here upright when they have no backbone?”

Fear has a way of bending us.

Late in the evening on day four of the trial I saw it, just 10 feet across the aisle from my seat at Desk 88, when Mr. Schiff told the Senate: “CBS News reported last night that a Trump confidant said that Republican senators were warned, ‘Vote against the president and your head will be on a pike.’” The response from Republicans was immediate and furious. Several groaned and protested and muttered, “Not true.” But pike or no pike, Mr. Schiff had clearly struck a nerve. (In the words of Lizzo: truth hurts.)

Of course, the Republican senators who have covered for Mr. Trump love what he delivers for them. But Vice President Mike Pence would give them the same judges, the same tax cuts, the same attacks on workers’ rights and the environment. So that’s not really the reason for their united chorus of “not guilty.”

For the stay-in-office-at-all-cost representatives and senators, fear is the motivator. They are afraid that Mr. Trump might give them a nickname like “Low Energy Jeb” and “Lyin’ Ted,” or that he might tweet about their disloyalty. Or — worst of all — that he might come to their state to campaign against them in the Republican primary. They worry:

“Will the hosts on Fox attack me?”

“Will the mouthpieces on talk radio go after me?”

“Will the Twitter trolls turn their followers against me?”

My colleagues know they all just might. There’s an old Russian proverb: The tallest blade of grass is the first cut by the scythe. In private, many of my colleagues agree that the president is reckless and unfit. They admit his lies. And they acknowledge what he did was wrong. They know this president has done things Richard Nixon never did. And they know that more damning evidence is likely to come out.

So watching the mental contortions they perform to justify their votes is painful to behold: They claim that calling witnesses would have meant a never-ending trial. They tell us they’ve made up their minds, so why would we need new evidence? They say to convict this president now would lead to the impeachment of every future president — as if every president will try to sell our national security to the highest bidder.

I have asked some of them, “If the Senate votes to acquit, what will you do to keep this president from getting worse?” Their responses have been shrugs and sheepish looks.

They stop short of explicitly saying that they are afraid. We all want to think that we always stand up for right and fight against wrong. But history does not look kindly on politicians who cannot fathom a fate worse than losing an upcoming election. They might claim fealty to their cause — those tax cuts — but often it’s a simple attachment to power that keeps them captured.

As Senator Murray said on the Senate floor in 2002, “We can act out of fear” or “we can stick to our principles.” Unfortunately, in this Senate, fear has had its way. In November, the American people will have theirs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/opinion/trump-senate-acquittal-impeachment.html?fbclid=IwAR32Nk_pvMbW5Gbea16ESET61xnEEHP86zb72YSLfow6R7Hs6GkC9cvlExE


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 02/15/21 8:40 pm • # 2 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 01/22/09
Posts: 9530
In many other cases the push back the Republican Senators fear would be realistic. However no president ever has tried to overthrow the government. For them to take the cowardly position that the only reason they were voting to support him and his actions is because the trial was unconstitutional is bull shit. Most conservative lawyers agreed the trial was constitutional. Instead of abandoning what little patriotism they still had they should have voted to convict Grabem. If he felt they were being unconstitutional, he could have gone to the courts. He would probably have lost, but, at least, the Senate would have brought home the message that there are limits beyond which it is not acceptable to go. As it is, they've opened the door to unlimited power for a president including forcibly shutting the government down.


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 02/16/21 1:13 am • # 3 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 01/16/09
Posts: 14234
this is how terrorism works.
it is quite effective.


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 02/17/21 12:30 pm • # 4 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 01/20/09
Posts: 8188
They've wasted no time attacking the handful of GOP members who did vote to convict.

So they were afraid of themselves?


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 02/17/21 1:38 pm • # 5 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 01/22/09
Posts: 9530
So they were afraid of themselves?

Very much so. Their votes were strictly a matter of self-survival. Right, wrong or the future of the nation had nothing to do with their decision. They were only concerned with whether they would get nominated again.

(Something I've noticed this past few days is that media like CNN, the Washington Post, etc. have started treating Republicans not just as one of the two political parties but as an entirely different species. It's like they can't believe the Republican reaction of the Republican party to having their national government attacked and their elected representatives lives threatened. As one commentator said today "Republicans are rallying behind Trump not in spite of the insurrection but because of it".)


Top
  
 Offline
PostPosted: 02/18/21 6:31 am • # 6 
User avatar
Editorialist

Joined: 12/27/16
Posts: 10841
jimwilliam wrote:
Right, wrong or the future of the nation had nothing to do with their decision. They were only concerned with whether they would get nominated again.

The first duty of a politician is to get re-elected.


Top
  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  

  Page 1 of 1   [ 6 posts ] New Topic Add Reply

All times are UTC - 6 hours



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
© Voices or Choices.
All rights reserved.