Douglas Rooks has been a Maine editor, columnist and reporter for 41 years. He welcomes comment at [email protected].
Sometimes the best way to figure out where we are is to remember where we’ve been. I recently came across two seemingly unrelated pieces written in 2019 that speak volumes.
One, a Washington Post op-ed by William Cohen, was titled “When will Republican silence on Donald Trump end?” Cohen, a Republican who was a member of the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, and later secretary of defense, also served on panels investigating presidential misconduct in Watergate and Iran-Contra, including a vote for President Nixon’s impeachment in 1974, who ultimately resigned.
The second was by Democrat George Mitchell, making a broader case in the Maine Municipal Association magazine that “At a time of ‘profound discord,’ listening should be top priority.” Mitchell, who served six years as Senate majority leader and many other important roles, including brokering a lasting peace agreement in Northern Ireland, served with Cohen — the best bipartisan Senate team Maine has ever elected, with Ed Muskie and Margaret Chase Smith perhaps a close second.
They wrote during the first Trump administration, when the relentless march toward unitary presidential power by any means had yet to begin, and when something might have been done to change our national trajectory.
Cohen was calling attention to Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, which he said raised more questions than it answered, and urged Congress to investigate, as it had with the two other presidential scandals; Mueller had been appointed by the Justice Department.
With the exception of Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, no Republicans favored an investigation, and none took place. Impeachment inquiries involving Donald Trump occurred later, the first when he withheld military aid to Ukraine and attempted to force President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Hunter Biden, son of candidate Joe Biden, who defeated Trump the following year.
The second Trump impeachment occurred after he urged followers on Jan. 6, 2021, to defy an already certified election, leading to the storming of the Capitol and conviction of some 1,500 rioters — all later pardoned by Trump.
Just seven Republican senators voted to convict Trump in the second trial, while Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — ironically now described as a “Trump critic” — told Republicans that conviction, which would have barred Trump from running again, wasn’t necessary because the courts would take care of it.
McConnell had also guaranteed a Republican supermajority on the Supreme Court first by withholding confirmation of President Obama’s last nominee for nearly a year, handing the appointment to Trump, then rushing through confirmation of Trump’s last appointment eight days before the 2020 election.
That set the stage for the court, which has never before been so obviously partisan, to first prevent Trump’s trial on federal criminal charges, then make an extraordinary grant of “absolute immunity” for official actions that has no basis in the written Constitution. Without Trump’s three Supreme Court appointments from his first term, these decisions never would have been handed down.
Cohen’s question about the silence of the Republicans looms larger than ever as the president continues to purge any party member not absolutely loyal. Cohen wrote then, “Members are reluctant to speak publicly even in the face of behavior they would find intolerable by any previous occupant of the Oval Office.” Seven years later, few dare question a president who launched a war entirely on his own, unwilling to end it now that he faces defeat.
The message of Mitchell’s essay, however, may offer a tougher challenge, for “profound discord” could well continue long after any particular presidency. Mitchell told the once familiar story of how he engaged Republican Leader Bob Dole, who had a notably stormy relationship with Mitchell’s predecessor, by promising he would never surprise or embarrass Dole, despite the often testy nature of Senate debate. The two became genuine friends, leading to enactment of the last burst of bipartisan legislation Congress has produced to date.
Noting the already rising decibel levels in 2019, Mitchell observed, “No person, group, movement or political party has a monopoly on truth and integrity. We all have to listen more and better to those with whom we disagree, to accept the reality that we may wrong. That means more humility and less hubris in our public debates.” Characteristically, he sent the essay to Dole, who said he agreed.
That these roads were not taken, these voices not heeded, should not discourage us as we consider, once again, what to make of the elections that provide the only lasting way for democracies to change and correct course. When leaders fail us, Americans — unlike many nations around the word — can make better choices.