Budding Politician
I spent much of my late adolescence and earlier twenties around politicians. I was one myself, stepping onto the first rungs of the ladder that led to a political career. At fourteen I was helping to strategize a local judge election. By eighteen I worked to orchestrate a Congressional “Get Out the Vote” operation. At twenty, the Carter/Mondale Campaign “handed me the keys” to six counties in Southwestern Ohio, and gave me major responsibilities in Cincinnati as well. I went from there to work “on the Hill” for a Congressman in Washington and then again back at home in Cincinnati. Four years later I was managing a Cincinnati City Council Campaign.
So I was around politicians a lot. And while all of them did what they had to do to win the next election, many were looking forward to “making things better” when they got the opportunity to govern. Even the folks “on the other side” seemed to be serious about improving the lives for their constituents, though they might have very different ideas about how to do it.
Divisiveness
Politics could still be divisive. I “cut my teeth” at the end of the Vietnam War era. One mentor campaigned for Ed Muskie in New Hampshire of 1972, and another learned his job from the Humphrey general election campaign in 1968. There was nothing so divisive as Vietnam and Civil Rights, and both of those issues were still part of the environment when I started.
Surrounded by politics and those that practiced the art from both sides, I grew to believe that most (not all) were indeed patriots. Sure they wanted to win and would do almost anything to succeed. But they also wanted to help “their people”. That included the folks that voted for and against them. They cared about our history and traditions, and knew which lines to cross and which ones to respect. And they ultimately saw themselves in the tradition of the Founding Fathers: trying to continue and improve the American Experiment.
In today’s polarized world, that view sounds antiquated and naïve. But I still cling desperately to it.
Denial
But the current actions of many of our Congressmen and Senators are challenging my view. They are purposely furthering a world where facts are no longer important, only fanciful stories of their leader. It’s been going on for five years. Before we ever got to the 2020 election, we ignored Robert Mueller. His report was convoluted and afraid to reach conclusions. But a plain reading of the four hundred some pages lead to two undeniable conclusions: the Russians were involved in the 2016 Trump campaign, and the President and his men engaged in a two year campaign to obstruct that fact.
Whether it was enough to “convict” or “impeach” might be arguable – but the facts Mueller presented were clear to read.
That those same “respected” and “old school” Republican politicians would echo the Trump theme of “Russian Hoax” was saddening. And the same was true with the Impeachment. Again, the facts were clear, we all knew exactly what the President wanted Ukraine to do, and how he was going to get them to do it. Some of the Republican Senators at least acknowledged the plain truth of that and then simply said it wasn’t enough to remove the President. But others fell in line with the Trump “perfect call” defense.
It’s Over
And now there’s the election of 2020. In the United States, we measure our winners and losers in terms of Electoral votes. We were reminded of that again in 2016. Who wins the majority of popular votes really doesn’t matter: ask Hillary Clinton or Al Gore. But “them’s the rules that we play by”: that’s what we were told in 2016 and 2000. And Gore and Clinton swallowed hard and did the “American thing”. They stood in front of the nation and acknowledged their loss. Bothdid what the folks I grew up with would do. They were “pros”; good politicians, even though it was the hardest thing they would ever do.
That Donald Trump refused to do so isn’t a surprise to anyone. And that he would create a false narrative of widespread fraud isn’t surprising either. He set that fake scenario up from the beginnings of the 2020 campaign. Americans, and politicians, should look at him and see him for what he is: an amateur.
Not Just Politics
What is incredibly concerning is that so many other Republican politicians have made the decision to go along with this rank amateur for one more time. It’s not about being “true believers”. They aren’t all stupid (though Congressman Gohmert might be the exception). Those Congressmen and Senators understand the facts, but they reached a political conclusion making their career more important than the course of the nation. They are more afraid of losing their “seat”, than the fate of the American experiment.
These “politicians” are the antithesis of patriots. Their self-interest is more important than their country. Instead of “leading” their followers, they are following them. They have more in common with Benedict Arnold than George Washington (and yes, I just called them traitors).
And it’s not just in statement and tweets. On Wednesday they will actually stand for something that they must know is false. They will question the results of the American election – the core basis of our Constitutional system. And they will do it in the full knowledge that they are lying.
It won’t change the outcome – Joe Biden will be the next President. But it will damage the fabric of our nation once again. What else is a better definition of treason?
