In search of a saviour
WHETHER HE IS CONFIRMED OR NOT, KAVANAUGH PROCESS IS A TRAVESTY
One of the impressive facets of U.S. history has been the ability to produce examples of superior leadership at just the moment it was needed most. Time and again, on the brink of seeming disaster, the country has managed to find the person able to pull it back from the edge.
Washington, Lincoln, the two Roosevelts and most recently Ronald Reagan all emerged at crucial points. It’s doubtful the U.S. would have won its freedom from Britain without Washington’s military skills, or survived long without his presidential stature and the political abilities of his immediate successors. It almost certainly would have broken apart in the 1860s without Lincoln’s stubborn determination to preserve the union, though at an appalling cost in lives. Theodore Roosevelt challenged the corruption of his own party bosses to battle the monopolists who were strangling the country at the turn of the 20th century; his distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt masterfully steered it through two crises, the Great Depression and the Second World War, ruining his health in the bargain.
Anyone who didn’t live through the national divide over Vietnam and the tumult of Watergate might have trouble appreciating just how divisive and debilitating it was to Americans’ sense of confidence in themselves; the time was arguably every bit as damaging to the national fabric as the hyper-partisanship we’re seeing now. Add in Jimmy Carter’s four years of hapless micromanagement and you had a country that seemed fated to a long, slow decline. Then Reagan declared “it’s morning in America again,” and the country took off on an extended period of growth and strength.
It’s one the most disheartening aspects of the circus that’s currently devouring Washington that no such saviour is anywhere in sight. In his early days Reagan was mocked in much the same terms as Donald Trump today — a B-grade actor not noted for his intellect and with a fixation on communists. Yet he had something about him that succeeded in uniting and inspiring Americans, and did, in the end, push communism to the breaking point. We can be pretty safe in affirming there’s none of that in Trump, whose greatest talent is in destruction. He’s great at breaking things up, bringing down institutions and undermining established practices. If it’s turmoil you want, he’s your man. Reagan brought out the best in Americans; Trump exploits the worst.
The divide that separates the country today seems every bit as deep and bitter as the Vietnam years. Certainly not since Watergate have Americans been so directly and disturbingly exposed to all that’s wrong with Washington — bitter rivalries, hyper-partisanship, moral decay and political corruption — as they were during the testimony of Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. Whatever outcome of the debate, the U.S. loses. If Kavanaugh is confirmed, Democrats will want revenge down the road; if he is rejected, the bitter fury of outraged Republicans will only grow. Democrats want Kavanaugh ruined; Republicans want Ford discredited and shamed. Neither cares much about the human carnage, other than to the degree it can be used for advantage. Should Democrats gain control of the House in November, watch for a quick start to the days of revenge. The new trade agreement with Ottawa could be an early victim.
Washington has been heading in this direction for a long time. Trump campaigned on a pledge to drain the swamp, instead he’s broadened and deepened it, accelerating rather than reversing the decay. Americans who doubted and distrusted the presidency and the Congress now have every reason to abandon faith in the country’s highest court as well. If Brett Kavanaugh — whom #MeToo deems to be guilty on the basis of being accused — can sit on the court, its credibility becomes a ready target for Democratic attack. If he can be rejected on the basis of uncorroborated allegations he vehemently denies, Republicans will ensure any future Democrat nominee gets the same treatment. It’s legitimate to wonder if any nominee can hope for confirmation unless the House, Senate and presidency all come under firm control of one party, in which case that party’s leadership will feel justified in bulldozing through whoever they see fit. The Supreme Court becomes just another prize in the competition for partisan one-upmanship, and the destruction of opponents.
If there is a potential leader in either party who might halt the corrosion, it’s not apparent yet. Jeff Flake, the Republican who forced the late-inning FBI investigation of the Kavanaugh allegations, set right off to reap the benefit of his burst of fame, heading to New Hampshire to complain of a “sickness in our system” and attend a booksigning where he was billed as “The Future of the Republican Party.” But he admits he’s a man out of step with his party and country, and wouldn’t have been re-elected if he hadn’t already declined to run again.
The Democrats are a party split between aging leadership — Dianne Feinstein is 85, Nancy Pelosi 78 — and a restless youth bloc eager to push further to the left. Some Democratic senators from conservative states are quietly hoping the GOP confirms Kavanaugh so they can cast their vote with the majority and protect their careers. Conservatives are cheered every time Hillary Clinton renders a comment, convinced reminders of the Clintons bolster their support. Trump has already ridiculed potential candidate Joe Biden as “One Per Cent Biden” over his performance in previous presidential bids. Biden would be 78 in November 2020.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell captured the prevailing spirit when he declared in 2010 that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” When Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016, Republicans simply refused to allow a hearing before Obama left office. The Democrats are getting their own back with Kavanaugh: prevent confirmation by any means necessary and hope to win House control in the midterms so they can handcuff Trump and hope to defeat him in 2020.
Whatever the events of the next few days, the cycle of destruction and decay is only extended. The U.S. is at a key moment and in need of a leader, but there’s none in sight.