Watching the folly play out through two impeachment hearings and the J6 committee hearings, makes the sane among us wonder–why does trump engender such devotion from politicians we used to consider sane with at least some small modicum of ethics and principles.
At first they said it was to make sure the adults stuck it out to keep trump from pursuing his reckless and ignorant policies.Then it was "we like his policies just not his tweets. And then it was "he hasn’t done anything wrong and the partisan witch hunt needs to be refuted by a show of solidarity and strength from his supporters.January 6 didn’t happen. And now it’s he was the best president and he is still President–the election was stolen from us.
We look for a complex answer to a simple problem–power is everything and no cost is too great. Betrayal of oaths and ethics do not weigh against becoming Speaker of the House or getting a Senate seat. Just ask Kevin McCarthy and Lindsay Graham why they continue to ignore the corruption, the lies and the crimes that have pushed America off the rails–a twisted wreckage of what used to be a functioning democracy. It’s plain and simple need for power and political positioning.
It’s a motive as old as time and it never fails to make me recall the final scenes from A Man For All Seasons.
Thomas More was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher and served Henry the VIII as Lord High Chancellor. He was born in 1478 and beheaded in 1535. He was executed for his principled position that Henry could not divorce and remarry and retain any spiritual validity or authority. He refused an order to vow allegiance to the Parliamentary Act of Succession citing the Church’s supremacy exceeded Parliaments.
Now days this question of state and religion are (for th time being) firmly separated, but setting that aside, More’s steadfast hold on his principles is the lesson we should take home from this excellent portrayal of a principled Justice and politician.
In the end, his protege, Sir Richard Rich’s perjured testimony served to convict More of treason and More was beheaded. Rich testified More had openly discussed the Act of Succession’s illegitimacy. More had never voiced an opinion relying on legal precedent and the maxim “qui tacet consentire videtur” (“one who keeps silent seems to consent”, understanding that he could not be convicted as long as he did not explicitly deny that the King was Supreme Head of the Church, and he therefore refused to answer all questions regarding his opinions on the subject.
Richard Rich sold his lie for a position as Attorney General of Wales.
https://thedispatch.com/p/-but-for-wales
At the start of the film, Rich is a young man hoping for a political appointment from More, who declines to help him, recognizing that power would have an ill effect on the ambitious Rich. Rich makes friends with More’s enemies, and rises up the ranks of government, eventually agreeing to perjure himself by giving false testimony to ensure More is executed for treason in exchange for being named attorney general of Wales, prompting one of the most famous lines in cinema history:
“Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world … but for Wales?”
Some things never change. We have a lot to learn from history. We need look no further to find motive for the reason Graham and McCarthy and most of the GOP leaders unwavering support of trump–rewards of position and power if only they will continue to lie and accept Speaker of the House and Senator as a just reward for betrayal of their oaths of office and their duty to America.
Off with their heads.