“At long last, have you no sense of decency left, sir?” Such was the question asked of Sen. Joseph McCarthy during a Senate Committee hearing he was conducting. The questioner was the U.S. Army’s Chief Counsel Joseph Welch, and to his credit, it appropriately began McCarthy’s ignominious crash to the dustbin of hateful and unworthy politicians who have first earned our trust and then violated every aspect of their oath of office.
And yes, the same question could be appropriately asked of President Donald Trump. With him, the decency air has long been out of the bag. After all, his lack of integrity, untrustworthiness, misogyny, narcissism, deceit, racism, selfishness, ignorance and maniacal xenophobia have been on full display for the world to see virtually every day since he took office.
But no, the overarching decency question is not for President Trump. Rather, it is more appropriate for the cowards in the Republican Party who continue to look the other way in the hopes that history will forget their enabling complicity and reward them with additional opportunities to fail at meeting the standards of honesty and integrity that uniformed military service members regard as sacred truths.
Shame on you, as it is you, not him, who are destroying the very fabric of this great nation.
Major General Don Loranger
USAF, Ret.
Bigfork