Free to Be Their Worst Selves

Trump and his cruel regime are proud to be "not so innocent." The response cannot be tame.

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images)

I often think back to the 2017 Fox interview of newly elected Donald Trump by Bill O’Reilly, aired just before the Super Bowl. Trump tells O’Reilly that he respects Russian President Vladimir Putin, then gives one of his usual non-answers when asked why: “I respect a lot of people.”

But it was Trump’s reply to O’Reilly’s followup that has stuck with me.

O’Reilly: “But he’s a killer though—Putin’s a killer.”

Trump: “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?”

I’ve often dwelled on Trump’s efforts to defend Putin by asserting equivalent murderousness in America. At the time, various Democrats and Republicans rejected Trump’s remarks, including Sen. Mitch McConnell. “Putin’s a former KGB agent. He’s a thug,” McConnell said, adding, “The Russians annexed Crimea, invaded Ukraine and messed around in our elections. And no, I don’t think there’s any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does.”

What I’ve come to understand is that Trump’s comments had less to do with defending Putin or condemning America than giving voice to our country’s worst impulses—and his desire to inflict chaos and harm with reckless abandon.

Several nights ago, Rep. Jamie Raskin summarized how far Trump has come in achieving his American dream by trashing the rule of law. “This is a gangster state. This is not basically a legitimate government that is sometimes doing corrupt things,” Raskin told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “This is an essentially corrupt enterprise. It's like watching The Sopranos. Every day, they get up and they try to figure out how to plunder and pillage the people.”

The evidence of Raskin’s clear-eyed assertion grows by the day: The vicious attacks on judges that cross him; federal agents turned into terrorizing, gestapo-style operatives to round up migrants without due process and flouting judicial orders not to deport them; the pocketing of hundreds of millions from crypto investors, Middle East princes and cowardly corporate billionaires; the dismantling of government agencies created to provide security and address inequality and criminality; the illegal collection of Americans’ personal data; the destruction of foreign aid that limited starvation, disease and death, particularly among children; the effort to cut Medicaid and Medicare to fund more tax cuts for billionaires. The list goes on and on.

As the incisive New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof concluded recently, Trump’s administration “is not only authoritarian but also reckless; this is vandalism of the American project. That is why this moment is a test of our ability to step up and protect our national greatness from our national leader.”

The response would be obvious if the leaders in the party in power were not terrified of their gangster boss. The vibes are reminiscent of the McCarthy era when high-profile Americans were frightened of Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s hunting for communists under every bed.

In her Substack column yesterday, historian Heather Cox Richardson recalled the “Declaration of Conscience” delivered by Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith on May 31, 1950 on the Senate floor. Smith, a Republican, described “a serious national condition…a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear.” Smith decried “selfish political opportunism” and the fact that the Senate, “the greatest deliberative body in the world,” had become “debased to the level of a forum of hate and character assassination sheltered by the shield of congressional immunity.”

While referencing the “basic principles of Americanism”—including the right to criticize, hold unpopular beliefs, protest and engage in independent thought—Smith said, “Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.”

She began her declaration by saying, “I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States senator. I speak as an American.” And she hoped that her party would not achieve political success “on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”

Sadly, it took four years and U.S. Army counsel Joseph Welch’s emotionally packed question to Joe McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency?” before the ugly spell was broken. Sadly, the recklessness and cruelty that Welch confronted seven decades ago is alive and flourishing now.

“Well, we all are going to die.” You may have heard Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst utter those callous, recklessly indifferent words several days ago at a town hall when a resident expressed her fear that Medicaid cuts would cause people to die.

That was bad enough, but she followed that up—not with an actual apology for causing offense, but—by doubling down and mocking all the people who didn’t grasp that we all are going to die. Standing in a cemetery, the senator said, “I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.” And if that wasn’t enough, she concluded her video with this: “But for those who would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”

Nothing of the pain her constituent felt. Nothing of the fear and distress felt widely among senior citizens. Just selfish, arrogant mockery intended for anyone that would dare to criticize her words.

“What do you think?” Trump asked. “Our country’s so innocent?”

That’s the thing: Beyond Republicans’ fear of their gangster-in-chief, they have learned the lesson well. Never apologize. Never admit a mistake. Never admit guilt. Never show weakness by actually being sorry. Never acknowledge the pain and suffering your regime’s policies will cause real people.

Now and then we hear that Republicans privately recognize and oppose the cruelty and recklessness of Trump, that they fear the consequences of his assault on basic American principles. Maybe they do…behind closed doors.

But we shouldn’t devote one damned minute to hoping that their private fears will lead them to act with courage and principle. They have become complicit—the keepers of the gangster state where Republicans are free to be their worst selves.

One last thing: Anyone who reads these essays knows that I believe in the necessity of kindness and compassion to build a civil, decent and democratic society. But I was pleased to see the words of Minnesota Gov. and VP running mate Tim Walz from Saturday when speaking to delegates at a South Carolina Democratic Party convention. This is “a weak, cruel man that takes it out and punches down on people,” he said of Trump.

“Maybe it’s time for us to be a little meaner, maybe it’s time for us to be a little more fierce,” Walz said. “Because we have to ferociously push back on this…the thing that bothers a teacher more than anything is to watch a bully.” While a teacher hopes to teach a child bully why they are wrong, Walz explained, when the “bully is an adult like Donald Trump, you bully the shit out of him back.”

Tough times demand tough responses. And cruel, arrogant leaders constructing an authoritarian state cannot be treated lightly. We need to see millions of Americans around the country confirming they’ve had enough by participating in the “No Kings” protest on June 14.

To put it less gently and more profoundly than Gov. Walz, I leave you with the words from 1852 of the great orator, thinker and former slave Frederick Douglass arguing for slavery’s end: “The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.”

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $50 a year or just $5 a month, if you’re not already. This helps sustain and expand the work of America, America, keeps nearly all the content free for everyone and gives you full access to the comment sections. Building our community has never been more important.