Today we say farewell to an American hero and a great statesman, John McCain. I did not share his conservative political views, but he was a man of honor and integrity. I never doubted his commitment to the people of this country or to the Constitution.
Where are those virtues on today’s political scene? We have a president who lies incessantly and has destroyed the public trust in the nation’s intelligence community and the free press for personal gain. He and nearly every leader of his campaign is under investigation for fraud, tax evasion, representing foreign governments without registering, illegal campaign donations and the list goes on. * While this is likely the most corrupt administration in American history, I am not an idealist. I recognize that other administrations both Democratic and Republican have had their share of “crooks,” to borrow Nixon’s word.
I remember the Democratic Convention of 1968. I was in Chicago at the time for nothing related to the convention or the protests which spilled throughout the city, but I was caught up in one skirmish on the way back to our motel room. To this day, I bear a scar over my eyebrow where someone smashed a bottle into my face. (As an aside, I was similarly caught up in the anti-war demonstrations in Washington, D.C. in 1969, and again, my presence was unrelated to the protests going on.)
I remember the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974 and the Iran-Contra scandal a decade later, and of course, I remember the attempt to impeach President Bill Clinton more than a decade after that. Our government has always been less than perfect. “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
What is different today? Until this administration, both the House of Representatives and the Senate were governed by ethical rules and procedures that maintained order and civility. Mitch McConnell, President pro tempore of the Senate, chose to change those rules without the required 60 vote majority, and Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House, has failed to provide leadership or reign in committee members of his party who egregiously violate norms and rules. The leaders of both bodies fail to speak out against the worst of the President’s actions thereby failing to provide a check on the presidency. There is no check or balance, the single reason why power was invested equally in the three branches of government.
There is no honor, no dignity left in government. It died with John McCain, the last powerful senator willing to stand up to the president and against his own party. I cling to a childish hope that enough legislators look around at what they have destroyed and choose to once again reclaim their integrity. Ω
The number of indictments and guilty pleas two years into the Trump administration:
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