Is This the Man Who Can Bring Down Trump?

By John Woodford / Ann Arbor, Mich.

Republican State Senator Greg Goode from Terre Haute, Indiana

There’s an old maxim that great crises in history can repeat themselves, replays usually degenerate into farce. But sometimes, I hope my readers will agree, the recurrence of a historical drama can reinforce the virtues of its predecessor.

First, we’ll return to those thrilling but troubled days of yesteryear known as the McCarthy era, when a demagogic bully got his political comeuppance after a mild-mannered courageous man stood up to him and inspired our nation to say, “Enough is enough!” 

Then we’ll look at a contemporary conflict in the Trump era with similar characters in a similar setting. It’s a conflict whose resolution is still unknown, but one that we, the people, can play a part in bringing about a heroic rather than a farcical finale.

I was just about to become a teenager in 1954 when Sen. Joseph McCarthy a Republican from Wisconsin, launched his Red Scare hearings against supposed Communist and non-Communist “leftists” and “progressives” who were accused of being involved in our country’s political, cultural and academic life.

Although I knew next to nothing about political repression, censorship or the constitutional issues involved in the scourge nicknamed “McCarthyism,” I occasionally watched the televised Senate hearings with my parents. McCarthy, the leader of the hearings, struck me as nasty and creepy, not because of his politics but because he looked and behaved like a villain in a cowboy movie or a film noir.

I happened to be watching the hearings on June 9, 1954, when Joseph Welch, an Iowan who had advanced to the top ranks of a prestigious Boston law firm, unforgettably rebuked McCarthy in a plain-spoken way. It was as devastating and thrilling as the words of that little boy in Hans Christian Anderson’s story, "The Emperor's New Clothes," who looks at the naked emperor and cries out, "But he hasn't got anything on!"

The U.S. Army had hired Welch as its chief counsel after McCarthy and his servile Senate posse had opened hearings on the supposed presence of 130 Communists or other “subversives” in the American military industries. That accusation had been made by future Donald Trump mentor Roy Cohn, who was the chief counsel for McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, then in its third month. Numerous citizens had already lost their jobs because of their political beliefs or affiliations during that campaign and in its wake.

When Welch challenged Cohn to provide the Army with a list of the 130 “subversives,” McCarthy interrupted by suggesting that Welch did not want to expose subversives because Welch was protecting Frederick Fisher, an attorney in his own firm. Fisher had once been a member of the left-wing National Lawyers Guild but was no longer and was not participating in the hearings.

Stunned by McCarthy’s unethical move of damaging the reputation of his young colleague, Welch replied in part:

“Fred Fisher is a young man who went to the Harvard Law School and came into my firm and is starting what looks to be a brilliant career with us...I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think I am a gentleman, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.”

McCarthy, however, began to renew his attack on Fisher. That led Welch to interrupt him with the words that are credited with rousing the nation to recognize that McCarthy and his colleagues were attacking our country’s finer principles. Welch stared McCarthy in the face and said:

“Senator, may we not drop this? We know he belonged to the Lawyers Guild ... Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency?"

The throng present at the proceedings burst into applause after Welch’s remarks, and historians credit him with rousing public and press opinion against McCarthy overnight. That July, Republican U.S. Sen. Ralph Flanders of Vermont introduced a motion, which passed later that year, censuring McCarthy for acts that “tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute, to obstruct the constitutional processes of the Senate, and to impair its dignity.” 

Now let’s fast forward to the present, December 11, to be exact. Like the members of several other state legislatures, Indiana Republicans, who enjoy a big majority of their state Senate, were being pressured by President Trump and his more extreme supporters to redraw voting districts so as to ensure GOP victories in elections. Most Hoosier Republicans, however, wound up opposing the redistricting plan as unfair, unconstitutional, unethical, immoral or otherwise objectionable. They rejected the measure by a 31-19 vote, in which 21 of the 40 Republicans joined 10 Democrats on the “no” side. Goode was among that majority. Here’s how the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported it that day:

“Sen. Greg Goode, R-Terre Haute, had not announced a position before Thursday’s vote but told the chamber that ‘overwhelming feedback’ from his constituents–‘regardless of political leaning, or party affiliation’—influenced his decision. He ultimately voted no on the bill. 

“I’ve done my very best to quietly and respectfully listen to the people I represent,” Goode said, “and I’m confident that my vote reflects the will of my constituents.”

At least a dozen legislators, many Senate Republicans — including Goode — have publicly disclosed being targeted in swatting attempts, bomb threats and more. Swatting is a form of criminal harassment that involves deceiving an emergency service into sending a police or emergency response team to another person's location. The incidents have prompted an ongoing investigation led by the Indiana State Police.

“Whether we realize it or not — whether we accept it or not — the forces that define these vitriolic political affairs in places outside of Indiana have gradually, and now very blatantly, infiltrated the political affairs in Indiana,” Goode continued. “Misinformation, cruel social media posts, over-the-top pressure from within the Statehouse and outside. Threats of primaries. Threats of violence. Acts of violence. Friends, we’re better than this, are we not?”

Goode’s remarks were covered on television, radio and online. When I heard him deliver them in his calm and righteous voice, I thought, “Aha! Here is the quotation, the news clip, the meme, the voice that can awaken the country to the political peril we now face!” I eagerly waited to see and hear Goode featured in liberal, even some conservative news media, throughout the land.

And I’m still waiting. The pro-Democratic media talking heads pretty much ignored Goode. Instead, their own commentary was the main story. Pundits seized on the Indiana vote as an occasion to editorialize and analyze as if they themselves were the main story. Some outlets interviewed various policy wonks to pontificate about how the episode showed “the people have power” and how “this shows how we can save and protect our democracy.” Nice sentiments. But to most citizens, if they’re like me, it all sounds like “yadda-yadda." There’s no drama, no heroes and no plain-spoken display of–or appeal to–common decency.

Our news sources can be better than this, can they not?

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John Woodford lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he retired after two decades as the executive editor of Michigan Today, a University of Michigan alumni/ae publication. His career in journalism includes editing and/or reporting duties for Ebony magazine, Muhammad Speaks newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New Haven Register, the New York Times and Ford Motor company publications.