Decency and Indecency
Mitt Romney does the right thing ... and Mitch McConnell does Mitch McConnell things.
I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you received this email - or you are a free subscriber - and you’d like to subscribe: you can sign up below.
I’ll be doing a quick Zoom chat today at 12:30, so please join me then. This will be an open conversation so let me know in the comments any issues you want to discuss.
Personal Update
So I wanted to provide a quick update on the Truth and Consequences publishing schedule for the next two weeks. A week from tomorrow, I’m traveling overseas to Paris for a long-planned family vacation, so I’ll be taking that week off (and hopefully will return with my sanity intact)
But I’m also going to step away from the computer next week. A ceaseless writing schedule over the past several months has left me, for lack of a better word, gassed. Even worse, it has caused me to ignore the other essential parts of this job — reading, talking to sources, and not being relentlessly focused on the current news cycle. Truth be told, I fear that my recent analysis and writing are not up to the standards that you should expect. When writing becomes more of a chore and less an imperative, it’s a reminder that a break is warranted.
In short, I need to recharge the batteries. I will try to send a few updates with links to good articles and a few stray observations on what’s happening in the news but expect a more spartan publishing schedule for the next two weeks. I appreciate your understanding, and if you have any questions or comments you want to send me over the next two weeks, please don’t hesitate to do so.
The Arc Of The Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Toward Justice
Yesterday was an important day in America. For the first time in this nation’s history, a black woman, Judge Ketanji Jackson Brown, was confirmed for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. Her ascendancy is a reason for cheer and a reminder that, even with our ceaselessly bitter politics, good things still occasionally happen.
Forty years ago, there had never been a woman on the nation’s highest court, today, there are 4 — one short of a majority. And a third of the Court’s members are people of color. Judge Brown will join the Court this summer when Stephen Breyer officially retires.
Though yesterday moved America closer to becoming a more perfect union, it was not without controversy. Forty-seven senators, all Republicans, voted against Brown’s nomination. They claimed that she was a liberal extremist who regularly coddled criminals, including child pornographers. It’s a charge without merit and made strictly for political reasons to appeal to Republican rank-and-file voters who are now conditioned to believe any horrible accusation made about Democrats.
To make matters worse, as Democrats rose to applaud and cheer Judge Brown’s historic confirmation, every Republican — ignoring the gravity of the moment — stood up and walked out of the chamber. Except one.
That’s Mitt Romney, who was one of the three Republicans to vote for Judge Brown’s confirmation, standing and applauding all by himself on the Republican side of the aisle.
To be clear, this is a day to celebrate a black judge, not a white senator who is doing what he is supposed to do. But even in the face of appalling Republican behavior, it’s nice to see that at least one member of the party’s caucus is capable of acting with integrity.
I’ve been fairly critical of Mitt Romney over the years — some of it justified, some that perhaps was unfair. While I still disagree with much of what he believes and with many of the votes he makes in the Senate, he has established himself as a man of courage and basic decency. In 2020 he voted to convict former President Trump in his first impeachment trial, and it was one of the truly most courageous political acts in recent history.
Now I’ll be the first to recognize that in praising Romney, I am lowering the political bar for good behavior to about an inch off the ground. In a normal political environment, Romney’s behavior would not merit hosannas. But we haven’t been in a normal political environment for a long, long time. In an era when political integrity is tough to find when it happens, it demands praise. So, well done Senator Romney.
On The Other Hand …
Speaking of a lack of political integrity, this video of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asked about his moral redlines is fascinating and instructive.
McConnell appears to be genuinely flummoxed by the notion that moral considerations should ever take precedence over near-term political concerns. I wish Jonathan Swan had gotten to ask if there’s anything Donald Trump could do that would cause him to lose McConnell’s backing in 2024, but of course, the answer is no. McConnell is not just a profoundly amoral person — he’s a man who revels in his amorality. Being a remorseless political figure devoid of a moral core or an ethical code is not a bug of his political personae: it’s a feature. In the modern GOP, tribe always trumps morality and for few individuals is that more true than the gravedigger of democracy, Mitch McConnell.
What’s Going On
Check out my latest piece in the New Republic on why the atrocities in Bucha are a significant turning point in the war in Ukraine.
This piece by Andrew Exum gets to something that I’ve noticed about the war in Ukraine: where the hell is the Russian officer corps in preventing their troops from committing war crimes? Exum’s answer is the lack of a non-commissioned officer corps in the Russian military and poor training. That point comes across in this Wall Street Journal report from Bucha that details how unit cohesion disintegrated as the war dragged on and Russian troops began taking out their frustrations on civilians. Again, that’s a by-product of bad leadership and lousy training.
An Associated Press report finds that states with the strictest abortion laws “are also some of the hardest places to have and raise a healthy child.” I’m shocked, shocked.
Alabama has become the latest red state to decide that government officials should control the health care decision-making of trans youth.
Fascinating piece in Politico on the Democrats’ latest organizing strategy.
Musical Interlude
Enjoy your time away. I swan my the time you return some one will have made mention of the Morgenthau Plan.
Enjoy a well-deserved vacation!