However this shakes out, the damage is already done
What we’ve been witnessing in real time over the past several years is akin to the proverbial bull in a china closet.
The bull does not care about anything of value that he damages or destroys. The bull cares solely about his own interests and survival. The bull is not capable of introspection or critical self-reflection.
The bull operates almost entirely on impulse without regard for the safety, rights, dignity, or integrity of anyone or anything else. It should come as no surprise, then, that the bull’s primitive and unrestrained behavior brings about great, lasting harm.
The bull makes no consideration for order, discretion, deliberation, norms, rules, or laws. To the contrary, the bull strives to sow chaos and calamity, because disorder benefits the bull, and again, the bull is capable only of pursuing his own profit. His surroundings are immaterial to him.
Those surroundings, by the way, bear great value both materially and symbolically. They’re also immensely fragile, meant only to be entrusted to the care of one who respects the solemn duty to which he has been called.
It’s true that the bull should never have entered the china closet. But in this context, it’s really important to consider how and why he got there. He wandered in knowingly and of his own volition, supported by many who knew he didn’t belong there and yet facilitated his entry anyway.
When the bull finally leaves, he’ll leave behind a shattered mess — broken fragments of something that cannot simply be pieced back together. Most likely, as with an expensive or perhaps priceless set of glassware, whatever is lost will just have to be replaced, if it’s replaceable at all.
Over the next several weeks and months, we’ll probably hear the merits of impeachment debated ad nauseam. (Just a cursory look at Sunday’s talk shows is already bearing this out.) Lost in the din, I’m afraid, will be the reality that the most recent revelations are nothing more than the culmination of a long series of outrages that we have known about all along but for which there have thus far been no consequences at all.
Tax schemes and hidden tax returns. Violations of the Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution. Ignored subpoenas and stonewalled investigations. Obstruction of justice. Trivialized sexual assault allegations. Hush money paid to a porn star. Flouting of the rule of law and the system of checks and balances in order to achieve what he couldn’t get through legal means. Thousands upon thousands of lies about matters both big and small. The enlistment of foreign powers for the purpose of digging up dirt on domestic political rivals. Attacks on the free press. A political party committed not only to protecting its standard-bearer from the ramifications of his transgressions, but enabling and embodying many of them.
The list goes on and on and on; any attempt to produce a comprehensive or exhaustive one on this front is an exercise in futility, as far as I’m concerned. It’s just too much.
And when I infer that the damage wrought by these scandals was already extensive and likely permanent, even long before Ukraine hit front-page headlines, here’s exactly what I mean: More than any other elected office in U.S. government, the presidency has the power to set precedent — not just through the signing of laws and executive orders, but merely through the way he or she conducts the office.
By allowing the bull into the china closet, so to speak, we’ve shattered the norm that this officeholder should disclose his or her personal financial records for public scrutiny, or that he or she should divest from any potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise. We’ve utterly crushed the idea that the executive branch should work in good faith with the other branches of government and recognize and respect the limits on power of its own. We’ve dismantled any notion of the presidency as a purveyor of truth, trustworthiness, or measured leadership. We’ve obliterated the idea that the officeholder should espouse at least some degree of character and embody and defend the higher virtues of democracy. We’ve killed the concept that this office should place loyalty to country above all other considerations, most especially personal gain.
At this point, we’ve even destroyed the fundamental principle that the holder of this high office should follow the law — or be accountable to it.
What remains intact? Anything?
Sure, previous administrations have certainly treaded on these ideals, but none in modern American history — arguably none at any point in American history — has shown such universal and dismissive contempt for them the way this one has. (Anticipating the “oh yeah, but what about…?!?” responses.)
Let that all sink in for a moment, and then consider the implications of it relative to the future of this country, even decades from now. Consider a future candidate for the presidency who has a temperament similar to that of the current incumbent, or maybe even just a few of the same unsavory traits. He or she will have a much easier time achieving a wide range of illicit or ignoble objectives because what was once unthinkable has, in the course of just a few years, become the new normal. The china closet, if you will, is already pretty well ravaged. What we’ll do about it remains anyone’s guess.
But make no mistake: Regardless of what happens with impeachment or the 2020 election, the damage has already been done. Even under the very best of outcomes, no one should suffer the illusion that we’ll wake up on Wednesday, November 4, 2020, and everything will be back to the way it was before this nightmare started. No, we’ll be picking up the shattered pieces of the past four years for years to come.
Impeachment and upcoming elections notwithstanding, we’ve already made our bed on this one; I’m afraid now we have to lie in it. And I’m even more afraid of what that might look like.
