Courage or Experience?

As the collective blood starts to boil among conservatives for the unprecedented raid on the home of former President Donald Trump, we need to think about who is responsible for the leadership of both the Department of Justice and the FBI. And we must demand that Republicans investigate and clean out these agencies.

It is not just because of this latest caper. It is necessary because of a long line of abuses and selective enforcement of the laws. From the very beginning, the DOJ and FBI were involved in the Russian hoax, they ignored the BLM riots and labeled parents who objected to school curriculum as terrorists. They bought into and promoted the lie that white supremacists were the chief national security threat and allegedly permeated the military.

This latest outrageous event has the potential to unite a rather fractured conservative movement. As we see the comments coming in from various conservative media, most all are strongly condemnatory. Even National Review, a consistent Trump skeptic says:

“The most common defense of the search has been circular: to wit, that the FBI would not have taken a step this dramatic unless it really needed to. But this, of course, will not do. Not only does such an approach accord carte blanche to the government, it rests upon a presumption that has been severely undermined by the developments of the last six years. In 2015, Americans might have been forgiven for assuming that, if the Department of Justice was looking into a president, it must have an excellent reason. But after the Steele dossier, the FISA surveillance of Carter Page, the Mueller report, and the near endless web of implications and insinuations that tied up American politics for the first two and a half years of Trump’s presidency, one can no longer fall back on such reflexive credulity. If the government has a case, it must make it as bluntly as it can — and it must make it now.”

The main editorial of the usually hostile to Trump Wall Street Journal, on August 10, suggests this raid sets a very bad precedent, ripe for political payback, and likely will turn Trump into a martyr. The initial tally of fundraising numbers indicates this act of prosecutorial misconduct has united the conservative forces in this country.  The distance between MAGA Republicans and establishment Republicans has been narrowed. 

If victory comes for Republicans in the fall, they need to hold those responsible to the severest form of governmental correction.

No doubt deep state Obama era holdovers in both agencies are part of the problem. But there are plenty of Biden appointees involved as well.

Moreover,  many Republicans are to blame.  A fairly large swath of the party just does not understand that while they played the standard game of political bean bag, the other side was taking their cues from Saul Alinsky and were playing with clubs and knives.

Republicans often just don’t seem to recognize who they are fighting. They think this is the Democratic Party of the 1960s.

The New York Post on March 10, 2021, mentioned that:

“The Senate voted to confirm Judge Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general with a strong bipartisan vote Wednesday with 20 Republicans crossing the aisle in support of the one-time Supreme Court nominee.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — who prevented Garland from becoming a Supreme Court justice in 2016 when he blocked his nomination — said he was voting to confirm Garland because of “his long reputation as a straight shooter and a legal expert” and that his “left-of-center perspective” was still within the legal mainstream.

Along with McConnell (R-Ky.), the Republicans who crossed over were Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Ia.), James Lankford (R-Ok.), Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Joni Ernst (R-Ia.), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Thune (R-SD), Mitt Romney (R-Ut.), Rob Portman (R-Oh.), Jim Inhofe (R-Ok.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Cornyn (R-Tx.), Jerry Moran (R-Ks.). Thom Tillis (R-NC), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Susan Collins (R-Me.), Richard Burr (R-NC), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Lisa Murkowski (R-Ak.), and Mike Rounds (R-SD).”

So, Mitch McConnell thinks Garland is a “straight shooter.” How is that working out for ya?

Only about three Senators on the list, Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham,  and Ron Johson have become vocal and articulate opponents of the Democrat juggernaut.It will be interesting to see if any more can bother themselves to fight after this latest outrage.

In the Wall Street Journal on August 9, 2022, Gerard Baker opines that many nonexperienced and never before elected Republican candidates are “not ready for prime time.” He accuses many of these never previously elected candidates such as Mehmet OZ, Blake Masters, Herschel Walker, and J.D. Vance of peddling “quack conservatism.”

His theme is somewhat garbled in that in one sentence he criticizes outsiders with little political experience while at the same time admitting that President Joe Biden is arguably the most experienced, and at the same time, the most incompetent President we have ever had. And if experience alone is the measure of political wisdom, how do explain the fawning Republican support for the appointment of  Merrick Garland, who promptly turned out to be our most dangerous Attorney General in history? 

It would seem that “experience” in Washington means knowing your way around the Swamp.

Baker fears, with some justification, that these neophytes cannot compete against hardened and ruthless Democrats. If that is what he means about “experience”, we concur.

But we would also note, that Trump and his MAGA platform have had tremendous political appeal, and in fact have reshaped a political party. We just had a primary season where many MAGA candidates were victorious.  It has brought many working-class people into the party and the MAGA movement.

Democrats are rabid against Trump in some ways because of his personality, but more likely because they fear his electability and his political appeal. He threatens their hold on power.

However, from today’s perspective, experienced and seasoned Republicans have been one of the major problems. They can’t seem to win any battles on our behalf, even when in the majority. In fact, the desire of many MAGA supporters is precisely to find people with experience in other fields besides politics, because the “pros” have been responsible for a 50-year retreat.

They don’t want people who are comfortable and at home in the Swamp, they want people to drain the Swamp.

They want candidates to go to Washington not to make millions, but to represent the interests of the people.  Hence the strong undertow of populism in the MAGA movement.

What many find attractive about Trump was that he was indeed from the outside, did not have “experience”,  but was willing to fight, even using the new tools of social media.

He didn’t run for office to make money, he already had money, and hardly needed to take a perfectly wonderful life as he had, and have it torn to shred by swamp dwellers.

The willingness to fight must take priority over political experience. You can hire political strategists but you can’t “hire” courage, principle, and tenacity.  You either have it or you don’t, and many of our most esteemed Republicans in the Senate make the surrendering Italian Army appear brave.

It will be interesting to see which of the 20 Republican Senators named above will get behind the movement to reform the Department of Justice and the FBI. If they can’t find the courage now, when will they ever find it?