A turning point…who knows?

Jonathan J. Prinz
Sep 3, 2018 · 5 min read

When Michael Cohen pled guilty and Paul Manafort was convicted some weeks back one had the sense that a turning point may have begun to take root. That said, in light of what we have experienced since January 2017, it seemed more than foolhardy to make any such prediction. If for no other reason than the lowlife character of these two, hardly better than the man whom they both had served. Things felt quite different in watching the two hour plus National Cathedral funeral service for John McCain. Hearing his daughter Megan’s fiery declaration that “America was always great” juxtaposed against the image of Trump decked out in his “Make America Great” cap heading off to his gilded private golf course said it all. Trump was pointedly not invited to the memorial and, in that image, he has never looked more alone and isolated. The seat-filling who’s who audience in the pews was broad and politically mixed so its spontaneous applause to Megan’s declaration was no less than stunning. Coming not at the conclusion but in the midst of her eulogy, it was a thunderous exclamation point if there ever was one. It must have been jarring for John Kelly sitting stolidly in the second row but one can only imagine what it felt like for first daughter Ivanka who was present but not seated in any place of special honor.

The story of these many painful months has not merely been the tasteless performance of the con man living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue but the utter leadership silence and acquiescence of the party that, in its formative years, had brought Abraham Lincoln to that same address. There they were, all of them, now listening to McCain’s daughter and the two former presidents — Republican and Democratic — who had locked horns with, but never lost respect, and indeed affection, for the man whose coffin lay before them. They were there at his personal invitation made months before cancer took his life. Indeed, McCain had carefully orchestrated the whole event — who would speak and what music would be heard — with an intent that was palpable throughout. Even in death, he was sending an unambiguous searing message. Unlike what was seen in court rooms weeks before, the primary players in the cathedral were people of distinction including three men seated together who understand the weight, responsibility and, yes, dignity demanded of the nation’s highest office. If nothing else, it was a reminder of what was and should be, standing in sharp relief against what is.

The drama enfolding was surely a test for those present in the hall, but far more important a challenging test for us, the citizens who will cast our ballots in November and beyond. What kind of leadership do we want, what kind of country do we want to inhabit. Perhaps the courtroom dramas signaled some sort of turning point but it will have been of the most negative kind, from the nation’s underbelly. What happened in the cathedral was quite different, not merely a declaration of what we seem to have lost but positive direction of what we can and need to be. McCain was a complex man with a mixed record who never claimed to be flawless. But his honest intentions and the integrity of his beliefs, even those with which many of us hardly disagreed, was never in question. He believed strongly in “regular order”, certainly for his beloved Senate, but I think more broadly. It’s something that too many in public and private life seem to cavalierly disregard. His very traditional funeral service, attended by Washington’s formally clad establishment —the kindexpected by the nation at the passing of a leader — was in itself a powerful expression of that regular order.

Tears came to many an eye in listening to a pained daughter, but tears, albeit of a different kind, came to mine in listening to both George Bush and Barack Obama. Both, in their own way and style, conveyed the gravitas of the office they once held including an uplifting healing tone. It’s what we have always counted on from our presidents. Not merely the words they spoke but the contrast they represent, the optics, that expressed beyond their own, the departed choreographer’s message. John F Kennedy was assassinated on a Friday and that evening two-thousand people filled our synagogue for Sabbath. Still stunned, most of them spontaneously felt compelled to gather in community. Officiating together with my father who delivered the sermon that evening, I read a passage to the assembled from the Bible recounting the words of the future King David. He spoke in eulogy of his best friend Jonathan whose young life had been brutally cut short much like JFK’s had that morning. “I am distressed for you my brother Jonathan”, it reads, “how the mighty have fallen it the midst of battle.” It’s the way I feel about our mighty presidency these days which seems to have fallen in some ill begotten battle. If we learned anything from McCain’s funeral it is that we can’t let that falling stand.

Talking and writing about the president’s hardcore supporters, some commentators point to his campaign statement that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and pay no price. Perhaps, but the more troubling question is not some far fetched hypothetical. Why have the Republican Party leaders and the Evangelical clergy who gathered in the White House last week fallen so into lockstep line. Clearly they have made the classic Faustian Bargain with the man, all aimed at furthering not so much his autocratic objectives but their own agenda. Look at the record. They have gotten a huge self-serving tax cut, have weakened the healthcare safety net, and most importantly are in the process of remaking the judiciary including, but hardly only, the Supreme Court. That may lead to overturning, and most certainly weakening, Roe. Can they look themselves in the mirror? Apparently, to ironically quote the president they sought to undermine, “yes they can”. Will they ultimately pay a price? Probably yes, but the damage will largely be done, especially with regard to the courts. Think about that, all those who couldn’t get themselves to vote in 2016. Maybe you too should take a look in the mirror and rethink your approach to democracy and its demands. One would hope so.

Are we at some turning point? Who knows.

Jonathan J. Prinz

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