I’m a little puzzled by Megan McArdle’s plea to Democrats:
“Don’t make it hard to be good.”
By this, he meant that a repentant scofflaw should be offered kindness, not your residual anger. If you want kids to do the right thing, make being good more pleasant than the alternative. Corollary: Democrats, you should impeach only if yougenuinely want to remove the president from office, not just to position yourselves for 2020. And because you’ll need 20 Republican senators to accomplish that, you should make it as easy as possible for conservatives to join the effort.
Don’t shower invective on conservatives; if anyone must be denounced, let it be Trump and Trump alone. Greet each new convert to Team Impeachment with a warm “Welcome, brothers and sisters!” rather than a grudging “What took you so long?”
Trump is not the problem. Trump is the symptom, the symptom of a soul-destroying rot at the center of the Republican soul. The tendency of Republicans to talk to themselves, thus confirming their positive biases towards themselves, is a key part of the problem.
If the Democrats, in the name of expediency, refuse to put the blame on unrepentant Republicans, then what have they gained beyond one convicted President and a new President Pence? Is there any gain worth having?
Going back over the last, oh, 25 years, it’s not hard to point at numerous individual Republican activities that were not caused by Trump, but presaged him.
- Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) urging the Republicans to give up cooperative, responsible governance in preference to making the Republicans “win”.
- Impeaching a President over a blow-job.
- The gross financial irresponsibility of the three Republican-controlled Congresses of the aught-years, which served to put on display Republican hypocrisy concerning budgetary responsibility.
- Mismanagement of the economy in the belief it’d be self-regulating, i.e., Glass-Steagall repeal.
- Refusal to work on the children of immigrants problem, which resulted in Obama’s “Dreamers” solution.
- The embarrassment and humiliation of the letter written to Iran by most of the Republican Senators during JCPOA debates.
- The utter mendacity surrounding the passing of Justice Scalia and the refusal to consider a candidate recommended by Republicans, Judge Garland Merrick. While Senator McConnell (R-KY) may have been the leader of that particular emission of bald-faced lies, it wasn’t just him, nor was it then-candidate Trump, but instead it took the concerted effort of all the Republican Senators to deny the nation the wisdom of a Justice for more than a year, break the Constitution by not fulfilling their duties, and then laughing about it later.
Welcome them within open arms if they disown someone they palpably haven’t like for his entire Presidency, their little pawn that has been so satisfactory when it came to judicial selections, regulatory actions, and tax reform (which has been such a disaster)?
No, it’s a systemic problem in the heart of what passes for American conservatism these days, and ignoring it by patting on the head disaffected Republicans who’ve finally admitted that Trump has abused his position at this late date will do a greater disservice to the Nation. Only by making our dissatisfaction and disappointment with their behavior, ideology, and even theology (think: craven Evangelical behavior) apparent can we hope for necessary improvements.
A little salty sandpaper on their open wounds is only appropriate. Otherwise, it’ll just keep on happening.
