I knew something had changed when I found myself agreeing with Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson.
It seems Donald Trump truly believes he can do whatever he wants, and the mute and prostrate Republican Congress has enabled him in that belief. But when he crossed the line protecting the First Amendment to the Constitution, even some of the die-hard MAGA folks had to squawk a bit.
In case you haven’t read it lately, the First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
One of the time-honored methods for getting under the skin of leaders who rely on dominance as a means of control is the use of humor, especially mockery. (Comedians also mock more democratically oriented leaders, but these leaders are usually as amused as the rest of us.) Trump, needless to say, provides an abundance of material for comedians but can’t seem to laugh off their barbs.
By now most of us have learned of the chain of events leading to the removal and eventual reinstatement of Jimmy Kimmel, whose best line was describing Trump’s level of grief after the murder of Charlie Kirk as “how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish.” Kimmel also commented that the GOP was pointing the finger at everyone but themselves.
But Trump had already set the tone of outrage towards anyone who “politicized” the death of Kirk, as opposed to nominating him for sainthood, so Kimmel, along with numerous other private citizens whose social media posts were monitored, had to go. That is, until the public backlash from we, the people, convinced the Disney corporation, Kimmel’s employer, that they were going to lose lots of money for bending the knee this time.
When even the two well known Trump groupies, Carlson and Cruz, pointed out that violating someone’s freedom of speech so publicly might not be a good idea, the cracks in the MAGA foundation that have deepened due to the Epstein files seemed to widen a bit more. Perhaps even Republicans can say out loud that Trump has gone too far!
As you read this, we will know whether the US Government has shut down due to the Republicans failing to find enough support for a continuing budget resolution. Though Trump will undoubtedly blame the Democrats (and Joe Biden!) for the shutdown, it is clear that he could have orchestrated whatever outcome he desired due to his control of Congress. Yet he refused to meet with Democrats to try to work out a solution, saying such a meeting could not possibly be productive. All the Democrats wanted was the reinstatement of health insurance options for millions of Americans, but Trump doesn’t care about that.
Trump himself will not be touched by the shutdown; he has already declared that he will fire thousands more government employees rather than furlough them as is typically done in such a case. His slash and burn approach to governing will soon be felt by a rapidly increasing number of Americans who voted for him because they believed that he would lower grocery prices. Have you been to the grocery store lately?
Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and active in politics for many decades, recently wrote that he believed Trump, in his blatant suppression of free speech in the Kimmel situation, had crossed the line that would awaken the sleeping giant of American public opinion, and that the swift reinstatement of Kimmel supported the idea that there is in fact a point where Americans will push back with great effectiveness.
History buffs may recall the fate of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who, in 1954, was at the peak of the power he built through televised accusations of communism against government officials, intellectuals and artists. However, when he began claiming the Army was harboring communists, the Army fought back, and the Senate held public hearings that were broadcast live on television. For the first time, millions of Americans saw McCarthy’s bullying tone, evasive tactics, and reckless accusations. And they heard Joseph Welch, the Army’s attorney, utter the famous line, “Have you no sense of decency?”
This very public moment, when a person with considerable moral authority shifted the focus to the decency of McCarthy’s actions rather than the details, proved to be the turning point in McCarthy’s momentum and power. Almost overnight, his approval both in the Senate and in the public plummeted and his influence and standing was basically destroyed; the Senate censured him by the end of 1954, and he died of alcoholism in 1957, at the age of 48.
The next act of the Trump tragedy could play out differently, but he is getting dangerously close to a similar McCarthy moment, when a highly regarded public figure, most likely a Republican, steps up with the moral condemnation that has been so conspicuously absent from our Republican representatives as the nation watches.
Or else it will start with Kimmel, Carlson and Cruz, as Trump becomes more blatant in his illegal, unconstitutional and self-serving actions, and the lack of even basic decency finally leads the sleeping giant to show the world what “woke” really means.
Susan Hull is a retired clinical psychologist, a horse trainer and an Independent voter. She knows how hard it can be to admit being even a little bit wrong, but she also knows how great it will feel to finally move forward together, in a direction that we can all be proud of.
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