This era is not the first time in our history that Senate Republicans have failed to act in the best interests of the country — in this instance supporting a president accused of bribery to enhance his reelection.
In 1919, President Wilson returned from a postwar European visit during which he had been elaborately celebrated for accomplishing defeat of Germany. He outlined actions he believed would eliminate causes of war — reduction of armaments and colonial claims, self-determination for national minorities, free navigation of the seas, and others — his “14 Points.”
Central for Wilson was establishment of a governing world body, a League of Nations. His peace plan was realized in the Treaty of Versailles.
Long out of power, Republicans had just then regained Senate control, where treaties are approved. Wilson made a bold effort July 10, 1919, but Henry Cabot Lodge’s Republicans led the effort to reject the treaty.
We know this allowed Hitler’s rearmament of Germany, unchecked aggression in Europe, Axis powers enabling General Franco’s invasion of Spain from Morocco, as well as troops and bombing to overthrow Spain’s elected government. It can be forcefully argued the senators’ power play, and the US isolationism they created, were major causes of World War 2.
Bear with me a moment while I summarize the case with which the reader may be familiar. A group of well-placed officials and diplomats have borne witness to elements of an attempt to bribe Ukrainian President Zelensky. While Ukraine awaited Trump’s release of military aid approved by Congress, these two had deliberations by phone. In his own summary of a July 25 conversation between the men, Trump admits saying to Zelensky, “I would like you to do me a favor.”
Through compelling testimony, the public has come to understand that the “favor” asked was for Zelensky to announce on CNN he intended to conduct an investigation of the Bidens. Note that issues regarding any Biden misbehavior have been thoroughly discredited.
It became clear that in return for this favor, military aid would be unfrozen and Zelensky would obtain a coveted White House invitation. Their actual conversation was hidden on a high security White House server.
Clearly, if President Trump wished to prove no bribery occurred, he could release White House documents, allow his personnel to testify, and release to the public the entirety of the Zelensky conversations. Their content is likely as incriminating as that of Nixon’s secret tapes. When exposed, those demonstrated that Nixon would be impeached, then convicted by the Senate.
Decades ago conservative foundations, aided over time by conservative Supreme Court decisions and the flow of money, began a very deliberate Republican Party effort to control state legislatures. At heart this has to be termed a “racist” strategy. State office-holders managing elections began determining outcomes. Methods were found to replicate the Jim Crow South, to limit the ballots cast in districts where blacks and Hispanics dwell.
In 2000, a conservative Supreme Court took the extraordinary step of ending the Florida recount, thus declaring the Republican, Bush, the winner. In Florida in 2000 and critical Ohio in 2004, Republican secretaries of state managed and distorted election outcomes. In this moment of tension between House Democrats framing the evidence they’ve gathered into “Articles of Impeachment” and Republican voices challenging the process, there is no clear path forward. The approaching election is looked upon as a public test of who will govern a year from now.
Alas, it is not as simple as that.
We have experienced a presidency during which Donald Trump has distorted the truth with the public, on average, every single day. His followers have little problem with that. He’s their guy. His lies are their truth. In his book “1984,” George Orwell anticipated this exact political circumstance in which lies are truth. That hour has come for us.
Given the fact we have in office a president who is openly immoral, considered sexist and racist, and appeals largely to a nationalist minority who don’t care about his demeaning of the presidency, there is little reason any Democratic Party candidate chosen should not win a free and fair election. But will Republican state officials allow a fair vote. Will Russians again meddle? Recall that in 2016 Trump claimed Michigan by 10,000 votes, while In largely black Detroit, 70,000 votes went uncounted.
Contemplate a scenario of an illegitimate Republican victory or a Democratic triumph, challenged by Trump’s refusal to leave office. America’s vast cache of guns may be brought to the streets.
Charlemont resident Carl Doerner is an author and historian currently at work on a re-examination of and challenge to the prevailing “American narrative.”