Shamelessness and Disrspect.

All I'm askin'
Is for a little respect when you come home (just a little bit). . . .
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB
Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me
Sock it to me, sock it to me)
          Otis Redding "Respect," 1965; a breakout hit by Aretha Franklin, 1967

President Trump laid down a marker. His Truth Social video depicting him in a fighter jet, wearing a crown, dumping loads of poop on the heads of demonstrators sets a new low in presidential decorum. We can learn from it.

I have heard not a single tsk tsk from Republicans because the video is not a gaffe. It is intention. The glue that holds the GOP together is not policy on immigration, tariffs, taxes, health care, diversity, or anything else. It is cheering for the red team. It is getting Democrats to cry or sputter with frustration. That's the glue.

Do a thought experiment. Could Trump change positions on tariffs on a whim, and would Republicans go along? Yes, and indeed they have done so. Could he switch on Ukraine? Yes, and Republicans went along. Could Trump say that now he only wants to deport only 500,000 people a year, forget mass-deportation? Republicans would consent. GOP policy is whatever Trump wants. Policy is not the glue.

The glue is open contempt for Democrats.

What goes around comes around. Democratic politicians don't respond in kind, not exactly, but Democratic comedians do. South Park's animated characters show Trump with a tiny penis eagerly entreating Satan for more anal sex.

College classmate Erich Almasy seems almost old-fashioned as he bemoans the loss of shame and respect in our culture. He is right. But he reminds me of the Quaker wife of the sheriff in the movie "High Noon." She is morally right -- the killing should stop -- but the gang of murderers came on the noon train and the matter will be resolved with guns. She wants what she cannot have. (She ends up picking up a gun to save her husband. She bows to reality.)

Gary Cooper's sheriff character took off the badge and leaves town in the last scene of the movie. In the long run, she and Erich are right.

Trump's presidential style will end when we have the electoral version of a western shootout that resolved the issue in the movie; either the gang or the sheriff is shot dead. The way to get Trump-ism out of the American system is for voters to hand him decisive electoral defeat. Maybe we are better than Trump. 

I give Erich the last word, as did the movie.  He and his wife are retired business consultants, now living in Mexico. 

Erich Almasy and Cynthia Blanton

Guest Post by Erich Almasy

Two things worry me the most about the current state of politics today. The first is that “shame” has left our vocabulary and our psyche. Shame has Old English roots with a Proto-Germanic connection to the word “skamo.” Meaning disgrace, loss of esteem, and a feeling of guilt, the Germanic root also refers to “covering” oneself in it. 

Where has our shame gone? Do young Republicans (adults in 20s and 30s, not teens) feel no shame in using the N-word (and worse) to discuss Blacks? How do they ascribe good to Hitler without feeling something? Will anyone remember Joseph Welch’s famous riposte to Joe McCarthy, “Have you no decency, sir, at long last?” Note the use of “sir,” for even with Welch’s visible rage at the Wisconsin senator, this special counsel to the U.S. Army retained a sense of decorum. As a reminder of the cause, McCarthy had just named a young lawyer on Welch’s staff, Frederick G. Fisher, as a “subversive,” because he belonged to the National Lawyers Guild. The NLG was and is a national non-profit that provides legal assistance and technical support to immigrants, legal pratitioners, and advocates - sort of an ACLU comprised only of lawyers. Subversive was McCarthy’s dogwhistle word for “Communist,” and tarring someone with that brush in the days before social media (all Democrats in “No KIng” rallies are Marxists) was best done before House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) meetings. Of course, McCarthy had no decency, but, in those days, that actually mattered. Within six months, the Senate had censured McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22. The result for McCarthy was that his committee assignments were taken away, his influence waned, and the press ignored him. Within three years he was dead.

My second big concern, relates to respect. So much of how the United States’s government operates, is based on a precedence of respect. Manner, positive behavior, and “couth,” have traditionaly been reflected in the way people treat each other. I first became concerned about an erosion of these values, when, in September 2009, President Obama gave a speech before a joint session of Congress about health care. After Obama stated, “There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false—the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.” Before Obama could say another word, South Carolina Representative and Assistant Republican Whip, Joe Wilson, yelled out, “You lie!” Republican legislators quickly condemned the outburst, headlined by Senator John McCain’s comment, “Totally disrespectful, there is no place for it in that setting or any other and he should apologize immediately.” However, the die was cast and to this day, Republicans claim (falsely) that undocumented immigrants can apply for Medicare and Medicaid. 

My concern for respect cuts both ways. This past March, during President Trump’s State of the Union address, Texas Democratic Representative Al Green, shouted, “Mr. President, you don’t have a mandate,” right after Trump’s reference to cuts in Medicaid. Green was forcibly ejected from the chamber, and there was later discussion of his removal from office. Green’s outburst was no more acceptable than Wilson’s sixteen years earlier. Nor was the follow-up by Republicans with their shouts of "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

So where does this leave us? The loss of shame and the denigration of respect can both be traced to the approach Trump and MAGA take toward communication; communication that appears to bear no consequences. What happens next with the return of a Democratic Congress or president? Will this use of disgusting memes and abusive name-calling continue? Will Democrats choose “tit-for-tat?” Will we fire any civil servant who doesn’t swear to vote for Democrats? Will we fill the courts with ludicrous indictments? 

In the Godfather Vito Corleone says, “Revenge is a dish best eaten cold,” which is a paraphrase of the nineteenth-century French saying, “La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froide.” Will Democrats insist on taking vengeance later, because it will be so enjoyable? Can we ever again feel chagrin for our actions while respecting those who disagree with us?

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