gracchusdixit

During the third and final presidential debate, Donald J. Trump took the unimaginable step of twice refusing to say that he would abide by the results of the election.  A day later, at one of his infamous rallies, he made matters worse by promising to honor the election only if he wins.  The threat was clear:  any outcome but his own victory will be denounced as the illegitimate result of an electoral process Trump deems to be “rigged.”

In the 227 years since George Washington became the first President of the United States, we have had many close and contentious elections.  The election of 1860, which put Abraham Lincoln in the White House, led to the secession of  13 slave-holding southern states and a bloody civil war.

Never, however, has a presidential candidate done what Trump has done.  Never before has any candidate declared war on the legitimacy of fair and free elections, which are foundational instrument of our republic.  Even the Confederate states didn’t dispute the outcome of the 1860 election; they simply wanted no part of it.

Within hours of Trump’s pronouncement, he was condemned, not only by Democrats, but also by a number of Republicans, including Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina.  Say what you will about their political opinions—and I for one have little good to say—these men were principled enough to stand up and denounce Trump’s assault on our democracy and our Constitution.

The leaders of the Republican Party, on the other hand, went into hiding.  It took Reince Priebus, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, almost a week to speak out, and when he did, it was to defend Trump with a series of exculpatory circumlocutions that convinced no one except Trump’s most ardent followers.   To date, we still haven’t heard a peep from Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader of the Senate, or Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House and the highest Republican political official in the land.

I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised by the cowardly capitulation of Priebus.  He is nothing more than a political hack, who early on hitched his wagon to Trump’s campaign out of pure self-interest, hoping to keep his job if Trump were to be elected.  Now, of course, he is well and thoroughly stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

All the while Trump’s campaign flails and fails, his supporters have become more rabid, ready to attack anyone in the Republican establishment who shows the slightest sign of deserting their candidate.  If Trump is defeated—which seems more likely than not—Priebus will probably go down with him.  For the present, however, he has no choice but to defend his man or face the all-consuming rage of Trump’s “base.”  Thus it has become abundantly clear that, for a craven careerist like Priebus, the question of principle is an irrelevancy.

The irrelevancy of principle has never been in doubt when it comes to Mitch McConnell.  For all his huffing and puffing about Constitutional checks and balances and the noble traditions of the Senate, McConnell’s entire public career has been—from the very first day, 40 years ago, when he entered politics in Louisville, Kentucky—an exercise in pure opportunism.  For McConnell, “principles” have never been anything more than convenient tools, designed to hoodwink the dumber-than-wood electorate that he has successfully manipulated throughout his public life.  “Dumber-than-wood” is not a gratuitous insult—Kentucky ranks 47th in the nation when it comes to high school and college graduation rates, which means that McConnell has always been able to count on, and exploit, the support of “low information” voters.  In any event, he has for weeks steadfastly refused to discuss Donald Trump, knowing that any statement about his party’s candidate is potentially lethal to his own interests.  Now, even when Trump threatens the foundations of our democracy, McConnell chooses to lie low, stay mum, and hide away.

The pusillanimous behavior of Priebus and McConnell is not surprising, because it is entirely consistent with who they are and how they have led their public lives.  When they prevaricate, obfuscate, and evade, they are merely doing what they have always done.  Often, they don’t even bother to pretend.  They don’t expect the rest of us to take them at their word, because they know that we know their word is worthless.

Paul Ryan is a different creature altogether.  Ryan would have us believe that he is, in the deepest and most essential sense, a person of high moral and intellectual principles, a public servant dedicated solely to the good of the nation, and a man above purely partisan motivation.  He is particularly fond of spouting off about “ideas” and presenting himself as something of a political philosopher—a notion that’s a bit ridiculous in light of the fact that one of the “philosophers” he most admires is the one-time novelist and Hollywood screen writer, Ayn Rand, whose ideas border on the juvenile.  Given Ryan’s public persona, given his claim to be a man of principle, how can he possibly justify a refusal to condemn Donald Trump?

Priebus, McConnell, and Ryan are hiding away, because they lack any shred of principle, and they know it.  They are hiding under the very same rock that, for years, sheltered the sad and deluded people who have now come out into the open to support Donald Trump.

This inversion is deeply ironic, because Priebus, McConnell, and Ryan are neither sad nor deluded.  They know what they have done but are too cowardly to admit it.  They are the moral equivalent of maggots and worms.  We can only hope that they will stay right where they are, hidden away under the very rock they turned over.  Which is precisely what they deserve.