It is not hyperbole, but deceit. It is not a “style,” but character assassination. It is not the new normal, but a degradation of discourse and decline in decency. Our increasing numbness, our loss of shock-ability by ethical and moral offenses is a key reason to impeach the President, rather than wait for an election.
One theme in the strident objections of Republicans over the past month has been that Congress should let the democratic process of national elections decide the fate of President Donald Trump. The impeachment was just a political ploy to discredit him, they claimed. This argument has grown out of the normalization of unethical behavior in our discourse, caused by dishonesty and assault on character, to the point we can not tell the truth from a lie or critique from character assassination.
The systematic degrading of discourse and civility has fogged the atmosphere in Congress so badly that legislators and concerned citizens alike can not remember how transparent, deferential discourse was carried on in the BT era (Before Trump). Legislators are more likely to claim it is a change in style, rather than contempt for ethics, to explain the Trump administration. They will claim that previous administrations, usually referring to the Obama years, conducted business with a different style, but the same disregard for ethics. That partisan blindness is why impeachment is necessary, rather than a political strategy.
Once we would be outraged if the President of the United States made this comment about legal proceedings: “. . dealing with human scum who have taken due process and all of the Republican Party’s rights away from us during the most unfair hearings in American History.” This accusation would better refer to brutal perpetrators of organized crime, rather than elected representatives of the people. No one bats an eye at this character assault, because it is the President’s “style.” Some euphemistically call it “hyperbole.”
When President Trump claims his famous phone call of July 25 was “perfect,” was that hyperbole or a lie? By now the alert reader of all forms of media would have to say the phone conversation was imperfect at the least, and evidence of bribery at the worst. Once if a President called it “perfect” to make a phone call in which he tried to pressure a political investigation by linking it to foreign aid we would say he was deluded if not deceitful. Today we call this a manner of speech. Indeed it is President Trump’s manner of speech, but it is dishonest, not a style of speaking.
What about using the word “coup” to describe a proceeding in Congress, which is institutionalized by the Constitution? Is that hyperbole or the implication that we are ruled by an absolute despot who can not be questioned? The President does compare himself to tyrants such as Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin and wishes out loud he could command the same obedience. Would we accept that language from previous Presidents without shock or outrage?
What about the President’s relentless character assassination of respectable public figures? For example, John McCain: “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said at a rally on July 18 [2015]. “He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” Name-calling is the President’s specialty, along with the ad hominem argument, which aims for the reputation of the speaker, instead of the substance of the argument. Some media outlets pick up his language and echo it for their carnivorous readers. Note the increasing use of the word “coup” in conservative media outlets.
Republicans may be right if they think that Democrats are merely trying to purge the President from government. His behavior is unacceptable, and it shapes the public discourse by normalizing savagery. The ability of the President to make dishonesty and character assassination ordinary renders his administration toxic. Yet none of it has descended to the level of “criminal” until now. It has always been a matter of “style.”
When contempt for ethics and professional rivals is normalized as “style,” then the political atmosphere is too polluted to make well-reasoned decisions. The discourse in Washington and in public media has gradually descended to a new “normal,” so we can no longer tell the difference between hyperbole and a lie. That is a dangerous place to do the nation’s business and a poor example to the next generation.
If it sounds like the Democrats have personally targeted this President, it may be true. The President has personally degraded our sense of honesty and civility, and any criminal basis for removing him from office legitimizes a campaign to clean the increasingly foul air of public discourse. That is why impeachment is necessary. By impeachment we have a chance to revise the “new normal” and stop justifying contemptible behavior.