Jonathan Bernstein said that the worst part of Robert Mueller’s testimony was hearing Republican conspiracy theories. That’s not the worst part.

The worst part is a political press that can’t or won’t say that House Republicans did little but repeat conspiracy theories they had heard from the right-wing media.

The worst part is a press corps that can’t or won’t recognize the amazing fact that a former FBI director said amazing things about the president, for instance:

•  That Donald Trump welcomed Russian interference and lied about welcoming it.

•  That Trump hoped, as a candidate, to profit from a real estate deal in Moscow.

•  That Trump is not exonerated of obstruction of justice

•  That Russia’s interference is not a hoax or “fake news.”

•  That the office of the president shields Trump from indictment (according to 40-year-old DOJ guideline) but he could be charged with crimes after leaving office.

•  That Russia interfered to help Trump win; that foreign interference as well as presidential candidates asking for foreign help may be the “new normal.”

Most of this isn’t news. There was important news, though: Mueller said all this before Congress under oath for the entire country to see. And what’s news depends on who you are. If you’re a normal person with normal worries and normal responsibilities, what Mueller had to say might be new, and for that reason alone, it was news.

But the worst thing of all was the reaction of many in the political press, and by this, I mean the highest-profile reporters from the most influential outlets and publications, so-called professional truth-tellers who listened to Robert Mueller not with concern or worry or even fear, but with indifference. Everything is as good or bad as everything else in Washington, so nothing truly matters. Welcome to moral relativist hell.

1 The Post’s Aaron Blake said the star witness wasn’t much of a star.

2 Politico’s Kyle Cheney and others called his testimony a flop.

3 The Times’ Glenn Thrush called it “a yawn.”

4 The Times’ Maggie Haberman said it would be quickly forgotten.

5 NBC’s Chuck Todd misrepresented the goal of Mueller’s testimony. When he did not rise to that false standard, Todd called it “a disaster” for the Democrats.

Trump does not need a Soviet Politburo. He does not need a Nazi Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. He does not need an army of Russian saboteurs. He doesn’t even need House Republicans repeating conspiracy theories. All this president needs to make war on the truth, break the law, profane the US Constitution and undermine the will of the people is a press corps as aggressively anti-moral as ours.

However much he doddered, make no mistake that Robert Mueller was saying to the Congress that the president committed crimes; that future presidential candidates might not be as loyal to this country as we want them to be; that future presidents, as a result of getting foreign help, might be vulnerable to blackmail; that Mueller can not, and should not, be the sole person holding a president accountable; that only Congress can perform that duty; and everything lawmakers need is in his impeachment referral.

And yet the political press saw more of the same. This is like saying hurricanes don’t matter. This is like saying you’ve seen one natural disaster, you’ve seen them all. Sure, people are killed and injured, property is destroyed, local economies are damaged, but who really cares? The story is always the same so why bother paying attention to it?

No reporter would ever say such a thing. Indeed, saying such a thing about disasters of any kind in any newsroom in any part of the country might be a firing offense, because saying such a thing would reveal an utter lack of professionalism, and it would reveal an utter lack of character and morality. No one would ever say “why bother?” to people in need of information to rebuild their lives. Yet elite reporters were looking last Wednesday at the political equivalent of a once-every-hundred-years flood and doing what?

They were shrugging.

I explained last week what’s wrong with fascist politics in a republic. Fascists sort society into in- and out-groups. Within this structure and hierarchy, nothing matters, not even morality, except who’s in and who’s out. So even when the out-group does the right thing, doing the right thing is the wrong thing because the out-group did it.

I do not suggest that the press corps sorts society into in- and out-groups, but it clearly sorts society into political parties. Within this structure and hierarchy, nothing matters, not even morality, except who’s in which of the parties. So even when the Republicans do the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing doesn’t matter, because it’s all politics. Conversely when the Democrats do the right thing, it’s all politics. Everything is as good or bad as everything else, so nothing matters. This anti-morality is deadly.

Trump is wrong in calling the press the enemy of the people. But they aren’t his enemies either. Power is all that matters. Fascists have a way of finding each other.

 

Copyright ©2019 John Stoehr — distributed by Agence Global

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Released: 26 July 2019
Word Count: 850
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Mitch McConnell once sent liberals into a tizzy. If a Supreme Court justice died in 2020, an election year, the majority leader said the Senate would confirm a nominee.

This was in direct contrast to what he said after Associate Justice Antonin Scalia died suddenly in 2016. McConnell said the Senate would not confirm Barack Obama’s nominee. Why? Because it was an election year. He said the people should decide.

Liberals complained mightily about that, accusing McConnell of hypocrisy. But from his point of view, there was no hypocrisy. One is hypocritical only if one holds values that are higher than power. If power is one’s highest value, voila! No hypocrisy!

I thought of McConnell while reading about the current president’s claim this week that four citizens of color whom he said “hate America” should consider leaving it.

This would appear to be another example of hypocrisy. After all, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton with a message of “American carnage.” Yet no one has suggested that he leave. Only when four citizens of color complained about historical institutional racism in this country did anyone demand that they love it or leave it.

This, of course, was racist. This, of course, was hypocrisy. But we should not leave it there. What Mitch McConnell did and what Donald Trump is doing are not only hypocritical. Both men are illustrating a vision of American democracy.

A horrible vision.

In complaining about McConnell’s hypocrisy, liberals were in essence mad that he did not play according to a set of agreed-to values. McConnell never had any intention of doing any such thing. That’s what Democrats would do. But he’s a Republican.

This is not to say liberals were naive. It’s to illustrate the depth of McConnell’s betrayal. Liberals tend to think of society in universal terms, meaning what’s good for one person is good for all. This universalist mindset jives well with a democracy in which the nationalist ideal, per the Declaration of Independence, is equality.

Equality is the political expression of what Jesus taught his disciples. Along with loving God with all your heart and soul, Jesus said that everyone should treat everyone else as they would be treated. He was of course teaching the Golden Rule, which is the ancient value system that now informs our notion of the social contract. Though we are individuals, we are also a society. We’re all in this together. We are one nation.

McConnell and the Republicans do not believe we are all in this together. They do not believe in equality. They do not believe we are one nation. They do not believe even in the Golden Rule. They do not believe what’s good for one person is good for all.

They therefore do not recognize your legitimacy as a citizen or your legitimate claim to the American franchise. They therefore reserve the right to fool you into thinking they are willing to participate equitably in collaborative democratic effort. They therefore reserve the right to erode or even sabotage that effort. Indeed, if the Republicans’ policies are any indication, your death would be their preference.

Once you understand this, you understand why equality—the Golden Rule—is so very dangerous to the Republican program. Do unto others as I would have done unto me? Don’t be ridiculous! I want to command and control what others do. I want to be the richest, the strong, and the most powerful. I want to screw people over. I don’t want them screwing me over! I’m going to do everyone I can to prevent that from happening.

Getting mad at McConnell for hypocrisy is like getting mad at your cat for not understanding English. He does not hold values higher than power, so expecting him to respond to charges of hypocrisy is like expecting your cat to talk. The proper response therefore is to stop giving McConnell, Trump or the Republicans the benefit of the doubt. Expect them to sabotage democracy. Democracy threatens them.

If liberals stop at hypocrisy, they aren’t going to reach people they need. Liberals must meet a horrible vision of American democracy with a moral vision of their own.

John Stoehr is the editor and publisher of The Editorial Board, a contributing writer for Washington Monthly and the former managing editor of The Washington Spectator. He was a lecturer in political science at Yale where he taught a course on the history of modern campaign reporting. He is a fellow at the Yale Journalism Initiative and at Yale’s Ezra Stiles College.

Copyright ©2019 John Stoehr — distributed by Agence Global

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Released: 22 July 2019
Word Count: 693
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