The voices we lost in politics
Who’d replace them in Age of Trump?
It’s hard to imagine what kind of president Donald Trump will be. But it’s also hard to imagine a world of politics without those we lost this year. Pardon this bit of melancholy for 2016. I just can’t help but feel wistful over those who left us: a Supreme Court justice, a first lady, presidential hopefuls, members of Congress. Each departure made all of us a little worse off for it.
How could you have a President Trump and not have Justice Antonin Scalia watching over how he interprets the Constitution? Scalia, the larger-than-life pre-eminent conservative intellectual on the current court and its longest-serving justice, died Feb. 13. Little could he have imagined how his death would be made into a political football. The Republicans took a chance in their battle with President Obama over a successor, and it paid off. Whether the tactic was good for the country is another matter. RENO VS. SESSIONS Speaking of justice, we also lost the head of the Justice Department under President Clinton, former attorney general Janet Reno. She died on Nov. 7. When you think of the controversies of some of Trump’s Cabinet nominees, such as Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama for attorney general, you’ll be reminded about what a safe choice Reno was in 1993. She was confirmed unanimously.
Of course, Reno will be remembered for controversies of her own: the raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, that resulted in the deaths of at least 80 people; and the decision to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba after his mom drowned in the escape attempt.
There were other former Cabinet members who died this year, including Melvin Laird (Nov. 16), President Nixon’s first secretary of Defense who oversaw the beginning of the end of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and Drew Lewis (Feb. 10), the Transportation secretary under President Reagan who helped settle the 1981 air traffic controllers’ strike. SENATE CONFIRMATION For the record, the number of “no” Senate votes cast on the confirmations for Laird, Lewis and Reno combined was … zero. Trump’s Cabinet nominees should be so lucky.
Speaking of President Reagan, his beloved Nancy died this year as well. Their love affair was one for the ages, but Nancy Reagan was far more than the adoring and protecting wife, or the fashionable first lady.
She was a close and trusted adviser with canny political instincts, as well as an agenda of her own: a voice on behalf of those afflicted with Alzheimer’s and a voice reminding people of the scourge of drug abuse. She was never more valuable than when Reagan’s presidency was thought to be imperiled, such as after the attempt on her husband’s life in 1981 or during the Iran-Contra scandal that crippled his administration in his second term. Nancy Reagan died on March 6. NEW ADMINISTRATION It’s always melancholy at the end of the year, reflecting on those who have left us forever. One always wonders how these men and women would have responded to the new president … or any new president.
Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio (June 12) never hesitated battling his fellow Republicans over tax and social issues. How would he have fared in the Age of Trump? No one was more conservative than Sen. Bill Armstrong of Colorado (July 5). Would he have gotten along with Trump’s brand of Republicanism? ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT What about the left?
With progressives in a bit of disarray in the aftermath of the Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton struggle, how would a Tom Hayden (Oct. 23) — who stood up to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and others in his party — cope with the Democratic establishment of today?
And what about the news media?
It’s going to be tough enough to report on a new president who has such disdain for the press; it’s going to be even tougher doing it without Gwen Ifill (Nov. 14), the ground-breaking journalist who spent years as a print reporter at
The Washington Post and The New York Times before coming to PBS in 1999.
A large number of people are discouraged and dismayed by the lack of political civility these days. One thing we all could probably use, maybe more than ever, is someone, regardless of party, we can all rally around. A hero, even.
Alas, we lost John Glenn on Dec. 8 as well. Ken Rudin is the former political editor at NPR. He is the host of Ken Rudin’s Political Junkie radio program.