WHERE COURAGE GOES TO DIE

The United States is no longer “the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” In the age of Trump, Congress is where courage goes to die.

Newspapers (those that still exist) and TV have spent weeks and months detailing the rancor between Democrats and Republicans; first in the House of Representatives and now in the Senate. It is a process whose outcome was largely predetermined. The United States Senate has traditionally been a place where grand argument and debate has taken place and all sides were heard. More importantly, it has been a place where Senators of both parties have been able to stand up for what is right, even in dissent from their own party’s position. They were even known to “cross the isle” to make our government work and our nation a beacon of what democracy could be. When the nation was founded, most expected that the “Great Experiment” of government of and by the people would fail because the “masses” could not govern themselves. It’s been 244 years since our founders declared independence from Britain and it appears that they were ultimately right; our Great Experiment is finally failing.

We have all spent the last three years watching Donald Trump be an autocrat, cozy with other autocrats, who clearly stated that, in his opinion, Article II of the Constitution gives him the right to do anything he wants; a statement that would have been political sacrilege only a few years ago and political suicide only a few years before that. Today, we are at a nexus point in our history; a test which, as Lincoln so succinctly put it, will see “whether this nation or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” Others have failed this test, from ancient Athens and Rome to modern Germany, with large numbers of the population and legislators falling into lockstep behind an authoritarian figure. Today’s American legislators appear to be doing the same. While there is enough blame for both major parties, the Republicans have now effectively become the Trump party and appear to feel that their sole job is to protect and defend the president, not the Constitution. With all that is known about Donald Trump and his dealings, there does  not appear to be even four Republican senators, out of fifty-three, who are willing to stand up and just say that they would be willing to hear what first-hand witness have to say. I hope I am wrong.