John T. Broderick, Jr. is the former dean of UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law and the founder of the Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership and Public Policy.
As time passes and America’s dysfunction becomes more alarming and its risk to America’s future more obvious, I wonder and worry what has happened to the country I remember, to the country my Irish grandparents crossed the ocean to join as citizens to create new opportunities for themselves and those who followed, and to the country whose courageous sons and daughters lay as silent sentries to freedom beneath the soil at Normandy.
When did we become so oblivious to everyday truth and view compromise as a weakness? When did we start to believe that withdrawing from the world was in our national interest? When did we decide that decency, fairness, integrity, and honor were not immutable but only situational? When did hate and coarseness become OK and antisemitism a “context “question? Where did our values go? What are they now? When did we fall in love with baseless conspiracy theories that undermine our government? What do we believe in anymore? More importantly, who are we as Americans?
Did you ever think a president of the United States would ask the father of a deceased soldier while standing at his son’s grave in Arlington why American soldiers would lose their lives in war; “What’s in it for them?” he asked. I didn’t and neither did General John Kelly. Did you ever think that same commander-in-chief would describe American soldiers as “suckers and losers?” I didn’t. Neither do their families.
Did you ever think a person could be under four indictments with 91 separate counts facing the prospect of a lengthy prison term and be the leading candidate for the presidential nomination of a major political party? I didn’t.
Did you ever think the leading candidate for the presidential nomination of a major party could have been found by a jury in a civil suit to have sexually abused a woman and also have been found by a judge in another civil case to have committed “massive fraud” in his business dealings with banks and insurance companies and still be leading? I didn’t. Maybe we now consider the justice system to be passe or just another point of view? I don’t and neither did our Founders.
Did you ever think that you would see all but two candidates in the race for the presidential nomination of a major political party raise their hands on national television when asked if they would support the then-leading candidate even if he was convicted by a jury of a felony for trying to subvert a presidential election to stay in power? I didn’t.
Did you ever think you would see a president sit silently by as a mob attacked the U.S. Capitol in an effort to interfere with the confirmation of a presidential election and the peaceful transfer of power and then tell the mob on national television that, “We love you.” I didn’t.
Did you ever think that millions of members of a major political party could still believe that the most recent presidential election was stolen because of massive voter fraud when 60 impartial state and federal courts said “no” because there was no evidence to support those claims? None. I didn’t. Even the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a voter fraud appeal from Texas and the sitting Attorney General of the United States appointed by the losing candidate unabashedly declared that the election was not stolen. Even guilty pleas are ignored.
Did you ever think a major political party could get behind a candidate who said publicly that he believed Vladimir Putin over America’s highly regarded intelligence community? I didn’t.
Did you ever think the leading candidate of a major political party for president of the United States could remain in the lead after stating publicly that he wanted to win the election to exact revenge on those who slighted him, to use the U.S. Justice Department to go after his enemies, to make all appointed federal employees take a loyalty oath to him above our Constitution, and to be a “dictator” on his first day in office? I didn’t.
Did you ever think we could lose our democracy to applause, misinformation, propaganda and lies and not to the canon blasts of a foreign power? I never did, but I do now unless we all stand up, speak up and vote. Silence is acquiescence. We need to get it right or prepare ourselves for a very different, less open, less tolerant and less just and inclusive America. The choice is stark and we get to make it once. It will define who we are or perhaps who we have become.