Our Lost Sense of Decency

Before the election, it was unfathomable to me that Trump would win, that people would hear what he and his inner circle of operatives planned to do and still willingly, eagerly vote for him. Of course, many people did, and according to news reports, some of them are now shocked and dismayed that Trump’s doing exactly what he promised to do—among other things, dragging America back to the imperialist, protectionist policies promoted by President McKinley at the turn of the 20th century and destroying federal government institutions that have served as a literal safety net for our citizens, individually and collectively, for at least 100 years.

Watching events in Washington unfold these last few weeks, I haven’t been terribly surprised to see Trump executing many aspects of Project 2025; despite his efforts to pretend he knew little about that plan during the campaign, it seemed obvious what his intentions were. What has been profoundly disturbing, however, has been the lack of any opposition by allegedly moderate Republican Senators to even the most foolhardy or dangerous or cruel of Trump’s actions or appointments.

Not the lack of any meaningful opposition.

The lack of any.

And the one question I can’t get out of my mind is: how does this all end?

What will be the moment that breaks the spell and motivates Republican Senators (or Republican members of Congress) who disagree with the Administration’s approach—and I have to believe there are some who do—to have the courage to take a public stand?

In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy preyed on American fears during the Cold War by making the startling claim that Communists had infiltrated the State Department. Three years later, as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, he launched a witch hunt to ferret out those alleged Communists. With the Democrats on the committee having resigned and most Republicans not actively participating, McCarthy and his ferocious, eventually disbarred chief counsel Roy Cohn—also longtime counsel to Donald Trump—operated largely on their own for quite a long time, with little opposition.

But not forever.

In June 1954, during televised proceedings in what were known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings, McCarthy claimed that one of the opposing attorneys had ties to a Communist organization. That turned out to be the turning point, as McCarthy was finally confronted by the lead counsel for the Army, Boston attorney Joseph Welch. The Senate’s own website describes what happened next.

As an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness." When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"

I think of that line a lot these days watching public officials twist themselves into knots trying to promote or justify or even ignore obviously destructive or callous actions by the new Administration. Maybe in an era of social media and immediate death threats, it’s naïve to expect any Republican leader to exhibit the same character and indignation as Joseph Welch. But I can still hope. And until they do, all of us will just have to keep asking them that one, critical question: “Have you no sense of decency?”