Profiles in Mendacity & Moral Cowardice

Mitch McConnell: A mendacious moral coward

After he voted yesterday to acquit the ex-president of guilt for inciting the Jan.6 coup attempt, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell made a short speech attacking Donald Trump as “practically and morally responsible.” McConnell said Jan. 6 attack happened because the mob “had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth, because he was angry he had lost an election.” Despite that, McConnell acquitted the ex-president on a false legal argument that a former president cannot be impeached. The Senate itself voted that it had the power to impeach the ex-president and legal scholars all believe that is constitutionally sound.

In his speech, McConnell lied by blaming Pelosi for delaying the Senate impeachment process. Immediately after his speech, Pelosi stated in public that the timing of the Senate impeachment trial was entirely due to McConnell. It is clear that McConnell always intended to protect the ex-president from impeachment. His delay in starting the Senate trial until one hour after Biden was sworn in helped solidify the bogus legal loophole he cited as his excuse to protect the ex-president.

McConnell's little speech was a propaganda masterpiece grounded in mendacity, moral cowardice and party self-interest.[1] He did not have to make any public comments at all. He did not have to lie and try to blame Pelosi for the timing of a proceeding he had complete control over. Attacking the ex-president now, was far too little and too late. There is no moral courage in truth telling when it no longer matters.

So why did he make that speech? A few commentators yesterday suggested a plausible explanation: Money, power and party loyalty. It had nothing to do with trying to set the record straight for the public. McConnell could have been doing that shortly after the Nov. 3 election when the ex-president was lying about an illegitimate election. What McConnell was doing was speaking to major republican donors. Some rich republicans had been making noises that they were considering stopping all cash flows to the fascist GOP in view of the 1/6 coup attempt and the ex-president's toxic effects on republican power and wealth. 

What McConnell was doing in that speech was a necessary attempt to save the party by keeping the cash flowing in. The fact that there was a violent coup attempt fomented by the ex-president was not McConnell's concern. Money and power for the republican party and politicians was his concern.

McConnell will not face the wrath of the ex-president's rabid supporters in the next election because he was just re-elected on Nov. 3 for another six years. He is 79 years old now and unlikely to run again. Even if he does run in 2026, GOP voters won't remember yesterday's attack on the ex-president. There was neither honesty nor moral courage in his speech. 

What is the GOP?

Since 44 GOP senators voted not guilty, one can believe that they are actual fascists, regardless of the excuse they may point to as the reason for their vote. Seven voted guilty, maybe leaving them as the radical right authoritarian wing of the GOP in the Senate. Or, maybe it just masks quiet fascism. None of the seven complain about the dozens of voter suppression laws that red states have passed since the Nov. 3 election.[2] That is tacit support for fascist single party rule.

What the party leadership is after the impeachment is the same as what it was before. A self-interested group of incredibly arrogant elites lusting for power and wealth. They work in service to powerful and wealthy people and interests. That policy and ideology comes at the expense of the public interest. The fascist GOP opposes free and fair elections. It's leaders lie whenever they deem it useful, even if their lies can be easily denied by evidence. These elites could not care less about democracy, truth, honest governance, competence or the well-being of the American people.

Footnotes: 

1. It is interesting that during the impeachment Schumer asked for and got Senate permission to read aloud George Washington's 1796 farewell address to the American people. I think that will happen when the Senate reconvenes after the impeachment. In retrospect, the reason for that makes a lot of sense. Washington's letter contains blunt, urgent warnings about the deadly danger to democracy of a vindictive, demagogic, authoritarian political party in power. Schumer probably foresaw how this would play out and what it meant in terms of power and politics. At least, that's how I see it now. At the time, I was baffled as to why Schumer mentioned the letter at all.

2. From a Jan. 24, 2021 article: 

Republican legislators across the country are preparing a slew of new voting restrictions in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s defeat.

Georgia will be the focal point of the GOP push to change state election laws, after Democrats narrowly took both Senate seats there and President Joe Biden carried the state by an even smaller margin. But state Republicans in deep-red states and battlegrounds alike are citing Trump’s meritless claims of voter fraud in 2020 — and the declining trust in election integrity Trump helped drive — as an excuse to tighten access to the polls.  

Some Republican officials have been blunt about their motivations: They don’t believe they can win unless the rules change. “They don’t have to change all of them, but they’ve got to change the major parts of them so that we at least have a shot at winning,” Alice O’Lenick, a Republican on the Gwinnett County, Ga., board of elections in suburban Atlanta, told the Gwinnett Daily Post last week. She has since resisted calls to resign.

The chair of the Texas Republican Party has called on the legislature there to make “election integrity” the top legislative priority in 2021, calling, among other things, for a reduction in the number of days of early voting. .... Trump plans to remain involved in “voting integrity” efforts, keeping the issue at the top of Republicans' minds.

How Close the 2020 Election Really Was

On Feb. 9, the Washington Post published this analysis of how close the election was. It was very close. WaPo writes:

Republicans came within 90,000 votes of controlling all of Washington

In fact, Republicans came, at most, 43,000 votes from winning each of the three levers of power. And that will surely temper any move toward drastic corrective action vis-a-vis former president Donald Trump.

The Democrats’ narrow retention of the House is surely one of the biggest surprises of 2020. In an election in which most analysts expected the Democrats to gain seats, they wound up losing 14, including virtually all of the “toss-ups.” While the GOP lost the presidential race and control of the Senate, we very nearly had a much different outcome.  

Biden won the three decisive states — Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin — by 0.6 percentage points or less, which was similar to Trump’s 2016 victory. If you flip fewer than 43,000 votes across those three states, the electoral college is tied 269 to 269. In that case, Trump would probably have won, given that the race would be decided by one vote for each House delegation, of which Republicans control more. 

So, 43,000 votes for president, 32,000 votes for the House and 14,000 votes for the Senate.[1] Shifts of 0.6 percent for president, 2.2 percent for the House, and 0.3 percent for the Senate.

That is how close it was. That result came despite the ex-president's shocking incompetence, corruption, harsh divisiveness, cruelty, tens of thousands of lies, his racism and his clear anti-democratic authoritarianism. An overwhelming majority of republicans in congress support him and so does an overwhelming majority of rank and file republicans.

That says something about American democracy, politics and society. They are all seriously poisoned.

Footnote: 

1. The Senate vote was based on the margin of Ossoff's win in the primary election, not the general election.

Pledges, oaths, vows, promises, etc.*

 

*I am collectively calling these OP title actions “personal commitments.”  How seriously should they be taken?  Are they important?  Are they a matter of taste, interpretation?  Reflective of personal integrity?  For example, let me tell you a personal story regarding how I feel about commitments.  Then we’ll get to my OP questions.

I’ve been thinking about the Pledge of Allegiance again.  I see the Senate group all say it in unison, each new day of the Impeachment Trial, after a prayer is offer up by the Senate Chaplain.  The last time someone requested that I say the Pledge of Allegiance, it was at the judge’s request during my jury duty, about 3-4 years ago.  At the time, I just stood there; I didn’t do it.  I’m sure those around me, in my VERY “red” district, figured I was a communist or something.  But I just couldn’t do something that didn’t sit well with me at the time.  It still really doesn’t.  I’ve still got too many questions.

When I was a kid, I remember how we used to “pledge allegiance to the wall,” a la Simon and Garfunkel (“My Little Town”).  Heck, I didn’t know what allegiance meant; all I knew was that we were supposed to face the wall, put our hands over our hearts, look at the flag, and “just do it®”.  I’m guessing I couldn’t even pronounce some of the words correctly.  The “Republic” for which it stands?  Indivisible (that sounds like arithmetic)? Liberty (I think I saw that word on money)?  Huh??  Just big words that sounded important.  But such is the indoctrination of kids.  Get ‘em early. :D

Now that I’m an adult, and with a lifetime of bigger words under my belt ;), let’s take a look at what that Pledge actually says, in more detail:

I pledge allegiance

-What is “allegiance” anyway?  Webster defines it as “loyalty or commitment of a subordinate to a superior or of an individual to a group or cause.”  Synonyms, “faithfulness, loyalty, obedience, fealty, etc.”  As a free-spirit type, I’m not really one to mindlessly “obey,” etc.  I don’t even like the sound of that word.  I understand commitment, and I am committed to many things in my life.  I’m committed to my marriage.  I’m committed to my vegetarianism.  I’m committed to my personal “principles” (which is what brings this question up here in the first place).  But am I committed to the flag?  Well, sort of; I mean, it’s the flag of my home country.  Can someone be “sort of” committed to something?  And if so, is that really “commitment?”  Let’s stick a pin in this, as Rachel would say.  Moving on…

To the flag of the United States of America.

-Yeah, it’s the flag of the U.S. alright.  That part is definitely true.

And to the Republic

-Republic.  What is a “Republic?”  Wikipedia defines it as “A republic (Latin: res publica, meaning "public affair") is a form of government in which "power is held by the people and their elected representatives". In republics, the country is considered a "public matter", not the private concern or property of the rulers.

IOW, I think this means “government representatives” of/for/in the stead of the people to do the “peoples’ business.”  You know… senators, representatives, I guess even the judicial and the executive branches would qualify.  These all (except for the judicial) are elected representatives.  And the executive (duly elected POTUS) is our proxy for nominating the judges.  So in a way, he (it’s always been a he so far) is the/our elected rep for naming judges. 

So yeah.  I wouldn’t dispute this as not being a truth.

For which it [the flag] stands,

-Again true.  The flag stands for the Republic.  We got a lot of other flags (state flags, city flags, flags people put on their cars when their sports team wins, etc.).  But the U.S. Flag is the one that is supposedly the ultimate unifier.  Again, I’d say this statement is true.

One nation

-Geographically, again true.  We are all connected, as least in name, as a “United” States.  Or as Obama called it, “We’re not the red states, or the blue states, but the United States.”  So, I can philosophically accept this.  That could be a way of “getting around” the claim; to look at it philosophically.  But this is NOT the end of the “one nation” story.

Under God

-Oops, Houston we got a problem.  Someone is trying to skew the pledge and infiltrate it with religion.  I guess it was just to put that Final Authority Figure (The Chairman of the Board and Final Decider) behind the power of the Pledge; a Seal of Approval.  What happened to separation of church and state?  That’s supposed to be a truism also.  I’m still Oops-ing here.  The peoples’ Pledge is beginning to crack, even though it’s ironically and disingenuously attempting to be bolstered by Almighty God. :-O  We needed to call in God as a Reinforcement?

Indivisible

-Indivisible?  No that’s NOT really true.  We are very divided.  In fact, that “division” is supposed to be one of our so-called strengths; a beautiful coalition of races, creeds/ideologies, colors, ethnicity/heritage, etc., all coming together toward one end: a majestic melting pot of commradory and community.   All for one and one for all.  E Pluribus Unum.  So, this indivisible adjective does not fly here.  It barely walks.

With liberty and justice for all.

-Ok, now we’re really pushing the envelope here.  We all know that such (liberty and justice) is a goal, but too often just a dream, a hopeful dream we wanna believe; that the “moral arc of the universe is long, but it [should/will] bends towards justice.” But… often not the case.  Sorry, no can do.  I can’t give this phrase a pass either.

Wow.  That’s a lot to lay on a person; some heavy stuff.  So I ask myself, how committed am I to this Pledge?  Some of it is right and true.  Some of it is not right and not true.  Do I just say the parts that are true and stay silent on the parts that I believe are not?  Do I say it all, knowing it is a false Pledge I’m making/committing to?  *Should* the principles behind pledges mean that much/be that important?  I can rote-ly recite it, even though it is so disingenuous, faulty?  Am I just too touchy/feely about what I will compromise on, and what I won’t?  Should I swim with the rest of the fishes (no mafia reference intended ;) and just, as mom and dad finally insisted… “because!!”?  How does this whole thing work exactly?  Where are my “lines” drawn?

Well, I hope I typed that out OK and that it was coherent.  I'm going to quickly peruse it but don’t want to go back and polish it up, as I’m running a bit late and want to catch the Trial again today.  I put this out on the fly as I “typed out loud.”  Anyway…

Now for the questions:

- Are commitments important?

- How seriously do you personally take them?

- Do you discriminate/compromise between those you take “half-heartedly,” and those you “really mean?”

- Finally, regarding the Trial of Impeached President Donald J. Trump, do you trust that the senators took their impeachment oath** seriously?  Or was it just some kind of blithe formality?

Let’s discuss.  And thanks for recommending.  BBL.

____________

**“solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of (the president’s name), President of the United States, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: so help me God.”

'We shouldn't have followed him': Nikki Haley turns on Trump after MAGA riots

 Former Trump United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley has turned on former President Donald Trump for his role in stoking the United States Capitol riots on January 6th.

In an interview with Politico's Tim Alberta, Haley said that she didn't think Trump would be a significant figure in the Republican Party going forward, and she admitted it was a mistake for the GOP to help him in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

"He went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him," she said. "And we can't let that ever happen again."

Haley insisted that she was proud of the work she had done for the former president, and claimed that something fundamentally changed in him after he lost the election.

"I mean, I'm deeply disturbed by what's happened to him," she said. "Never did I think he would spiral out like this... I don't feel like I know who he is anymore... The person that I worked with is not the person that I have watched since the election."

https://www.rawstory.com/we-shouldnt-have-fallen-him-nikki-haley-turns-on-trump-after-maga-riots/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6552

"I mean, I'm deeply disturbed by what's happened to him," she said. "Never did I think he would spiral out like this...??

The Fascist Tyrant Wannabe Will Be Acquitted: What That Probably Means

The face of the fascist GOP

All the punditry and journalists are predicting that the ex-president will be acquitted in the next few days. His attorneys met yesterday with some prominent fascist GOP senators, in an open display of contempt for the proceedings. In the real world, that would have led to sanctions, maybe a mistrial and criminal prosecutions. But, since an impeachment trial is political, anything goes. One can reasonably presume that the Senators told the attorneys not to worry about losing the case and just give the fascist senators a fig leaf they can rely on to acquit their fascist leader.

Other signals of open contempt for the impeachment came in reports that up to 15 GOP senators at a time were simply not present. For some of the time Ted Cruz was in a separate room messing around with his cell phone. Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio were looking at their papers and paying no attention to the House managers. Some others who were in the room simply sat in stony faced silence. Nothing the House was saying made any difference in the already made-up minds of enough GOP senators.

The House argued that the proceedings were unconstitutional because the Senate voted to say it was constitutional. That did not make one iota of difference. Neither did the argument that the ex-president have been priming his supporters for violence even before the election when polls showed that he could lose the election. None of the House arguments fazed most of the republicans. 

Consensus observer opinion is that most the fascists will rely on the unconstitutionality argument as an excuse to acquit. That seems quite possible. It sees to be what defense attorneys will focus on, despite that being a loser argument in the real world outside of partisan politics.

The January Exception: Down in flames

House arguments that letting a president off the hook creates a precedent of allowing a president to do whatever he wants near the end of his term also fell on deaf ears. The House managers called it the "January Exception" to impeachment. 

IMO, that characterization is off the mark. In fact the precedent it will set is this: At any time during a republican president's term, he can break laws and commit impeachable offenses with impunity if the republican party controls the House and/or enough Senate seats to acquit. If not, then one can presume the other might try an impeachment. That analysis is based on how blatant the offenses the ex-president committed and how irrelevant they have become for the republican party. The facts are that, despite a blatant coup attempt openly incited by a republican president on Jan. 6, most House members would never have impeached and most republican senators would not impeach. 

If the shoe was on the other foot

In other words, impeachment is now a matter of exercising pure partisan power. If the democratic party alone does not have the power to impeach and convict a republican president, impeachment is politically impossible. What could be more impeachable than fomenting a violent coup attempt? 

There is no reason to believe that the democratic party is nearly as anti-democratic and authoritarian as the republican party has become over the last four years. A majority of Democrats in congress could still vote to impeach and convict a democratic president, e.g., for what the ex-president did on Jan. 6. Maybe time will tell if that analysis is correct and a future democratic president goes off the rails like the ex-president did. That scenario is contingent of there ever being another democratic president and at least some democrats in congress.

Stepping back

What does all of this mean, other than the ex-president will have gotten off with inciting a violent coup attempt? I think quite a lot.

1. By acquitting, the GOP openly rejects impeachment as a restraining option against future republican presidents. It also, rejects an opportunity to defend democracy, making the label fascist reasonable.

2. It signals the party's turn to embrace the ex-president's brand of corrupt, authoritarianism. It also signals the weakness of republicans in congress who wanted at least this impeachment. But in view of their track record of mostly supporting the ex-president, it was not the case that they were all that far off in their politics or tactics. The GOP is truly anti-democratic and fascist, or some close variant of it.

3. In this impeachment, the republican senate intentionally delayed the start of the senate trial until about 1 hour after Biden was sworn in. There was no compelling reason for that other than partisan defense of the ex-president. It was done to strengthen the defense that the president was out of office before the trial started. That is reminiscent of what the republican senate did to subvert the supreme court nomination of Merrick Garland to the supreme court after Scalia's death. The republicans delayed for months in the hope of partisan advantage from the 2016 election. That tactic paid off handsomely.

From that, I conclude that once the republicans regain control of the House, Senate and White House, the Senate will immediately get rid of the filibuster and ram through oppressive anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian laws. They will make political opposition impossible to the fullest extent they can, maybe more than that. They will suppress democratic and minority votes as much as possible. With the adoption of fascism, the GOP will have no qualms about trying to go all the way to gut democracy, the rule of law and whatever restraints on presidential power and party power that are left. That moves to America close to or at the permanent single-party rule status the GOP intensely lusts for.

Based on that analysis, the democratic Senate should get rid of the filibuster immediately and ram through as much legislation as they can before they lose control of the House and or Senate in 2022. That legislation should make it as hard and slow to undo as can be conceived of, e.g., legislation passed with a proviso that it cannot be repealed except by a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate. 

4. Some commentators are starting to openly state what I have been arguing here since 2017. Specifically, they see that the ultimate goal of the republican party has been excluding racial minorities, women, non-Christians and ideological opposition from power in government and society. I have pointed out the bigoted nature of Christian Nationalist ideology in several discussions. 

Yesterday was the first time I recall hearing that point being made by responsible professional commentators on broadcast media. And, there was real anger in that commentary. An wakening by wider society about just how dangerous and anti-democratic the republican party has become is finally starting to sink in more widely. I just hope it isn't too little, too late.

5. Senate acquittal of the ex-president puts the GOP squarely on the road to some form of a bigoted, kleptocratic tyranny-Christian theocracy. Fascism seems a reasonable label for what the republican party has degenerated into, although experts disagree about that. 

A major is problem how to try to deal with the threat. Inconvenient facts, truths and sound reasoning are ineffective. This impeachment has once again proved that point. A more effective way to communicate and persuade is needed. The best path forward for American anti-fascists is not clear. Sinking to the same immoral, divisive and mendacious level as the fascists is tempting but too dangerous. Then the opposition becomes too like the fascists for democracy and the rule of law to likely survive.

Some see the danger

Conservative Lies and Hate Reached and Deceived Millions

Most people here know this, but it bears repeating. Conservative propaganda is spewing poison that reaches millions of listeners every day. The poison foments baseless fear, anger and an appetite to avenge the illusory liberal onslaught and all the imagined horrors and moral outrages. The New York Times writes:

Shows hosted by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other talk radio stars promoted debunked claims of a stolen election and urged listeners to “fight back.”

Two days before a mob of Trump supporters invaded the United States Capitol, upending the nation’s peaceful transition of power and leaving at least five people dead, the right-wing radio star Glenn Beck delivered a message to his flock of 10.5 million listeners: “It is time to fight.”

“It is time to rip and claw and rake,” Mr. Beck said on his Jan. 4 broadcast. “It is time to go to war, as the left went to war four years ago.”

Mark Levin, who reaches an estimated 11 million listeners a week, said in a Christmas broadcast that stealing elections “is becoming the norm for the Democrat Party” and called on his listeners to “crush them, crush them. We need to kick their ass.”

Bill Cunningham, a syndicated host in Cincinnati, told listeners on Jan. 4: “I will never surrender and collapse and act as if it’s OK when hundreds of thousands have voted illegally.” On Jan. 5, as Trump supporters started to converge on Washington, Dan Bongino, the host of a popular podcast and nationally syndicated radio show, said that Democrats “rigged the rules to make sure that any potential outcome would go their way.”

Leading radio anchors did not explicitly urge an assault on the Capitol, and Mr. Trump often spoke more brazenly than his media counterparts, including in a speech to his supporters in Washington just before the riot. But it was no accident that regular listeners to Mr. Limbaugh and others believed that a grave misdeed had occurred in the 2020 vote count.

On Dec. 16, Mr. Limbaugh — the country’s No. 1 radio host, with an audience of about 15.5 million a week — told listeners that Mr. Biden “didn’t win this thing fair and square, and we are not going to be docile like we’ve been in the past, and go away and wait till the next election.”  

This type of push-and-pull — stoking listeners’ anger, then pulling back and disavowing the more extreme views voiced by callers — is typical of corporate right-wing radio hosts, whose success relies on provocation but whose multimillion-dollar paychecks depend on staying within the bounds of their publicly traded distributors.

Ellul died in 1994, years before the rise of social media 

as a powerful source of propaganda 

Well, if Limbaugh tells millions to not be docile and don't go away, and Beck tells his listeners to “crush them, crush them. We need to kick their ass.”, what on Earth are these propagandists telling people to do? Be nice and respectfully talk through the problems to reach a compromise? 

Hell no that is not what these far right wing fascist leaders are saying. They are directly fomenting anger, hate civil strife, not respect, discussion of grievances or democratic compromise. They helped foment the coup attempt on Jan. 6. Because of their immoral behavior, they bear some responsibility for the coup attempt.

Why do these people do such bad things? Maybe some actually believe their own lies. More likely, most do it mostly for the money, with or without believing the lies. Once when Limbaugh was heavily criticized, he defended himself by saying that he was just an entertainer, implying that nothing he said should be taken seriously. Either way, these propagandist-entertainer-whatevers act as lying, anti-democratic fascists. What they believe or what their motives are is beside the point. That makes them deeply immoral at least, but more plausibly evil because their words convey malice. These people are epistemic terrorists.

Is that analysis unreasonable or not supported by facts or sound reasoning?