But this era of tawdry, shabby lack of morality has got to end… because what we need at this juncture in our history is a certain sense of morality and a certain sense of decency,” he wrote in August 1974. “I want to make damn clear the lie is something we can’t support. In the midst of the Watergate crisis, Bush, who at the time was GOP chair (the same position now occupied by McDaniel), wrote in his journal that he was making a clean break with Nixon over Watergate. It was the summer of 1974, after the scales of devotion to disgraced Nixon had fallen from his eyes. He showed precisely that kind of fortitude during a history-making moment when he shrugged off his usual reticence. What’s needed now is full-throated condemnation of the former president from members of his party.ĭoling out criticism to others was difficult for Bush, but I am convinced that in a moment as critical as the one in which the party finds itself, he would have found a way. And too many Republican officials to count have been echoing the refrain. Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen from him is the shadow that hangs over the party. On Thursday, court records showed that Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, ahead of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He is who he is - twice impeached and thrice indicted, with perhaps more counts coming in the future. The fault is not entirely Trump’s, to be fair. It may take a generation or more for the party to recover from the looming disaster - if it recovers. The collective leadership of the GOP appears willing to stand by, hands on hips, witnessing the party’s descent into the loutishness of Trump and his acolytes. The GOP’s elected and appointed leaders have decided - either by design or default - that voters must remain sheeplike as they ignore the moral dangers of Trump’s antics.

It was as egregious as missed opportunities go - but it was just one of many by leaders of my party. In the end, the best answer she could come up with was “ It’s not up to me. The GOP chairwoman fumbled, stumbled and diverted so much that she sounded like a toddler trying to explain an advanced calculus problem. Wallace asked McDaniel whether the Republican Party would have a problem nominating a presidential candidate who is under federal indictment or who is a convicted felon. To my mind, one incident that perfectly illustrates the party’s identity crisis when it comes to morality was the recent exchange between Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and CNN journalist Chris Wallace in the July 14 edition of the “ Look Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” program. Yet, for some reason - either by design or default - the GOP is failing to hold him to account. How unlike Bush is the severely morally challenged GOP of today, with failings that eclipse even those of former President Richard Nixon. We are where we are largely because of former President Donald Trump, with his history of sex abuse, shady corporate business deals, abuse of presidential office to attack his perceived enemies - and other transgressions too numerous to name. But there may be a high price for ignoring the moral high ground, as Republicans may discover at the ballot box a little more than a year from now. These days, the party values polls and raw power more than principle and probity. A GOP that once welcomed character, decency and morality is sinking quickly into an abyss. I was Bush’s minister for the last 11.5 years of his life, and had occasion to witness the rectitude with which he approached governing and that guided his views on politics. But I now find that the GOP leadership of today is unrecognizable when compared to the party I supported enthusiastically during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. I will leave their criticism to someone in their own house).įor most of my life I have identified myself as a Republican and, with few exceptions, have voted the same. (Before I go too much further, I should say that I am keenly aware that Democrats have their own moral troubles, but I am not a Democrat.

Thomas bell master debater