Thanks for Doing Better
Try, try again....
Last week, I made a mistake.
A small one, perhaps, but not small in spirit. And certainly not in keeping with the season, nor with the ethos I try—on my better days—to bring to the Wide World of News, to 2WAY, to “Next Up,” and to the daily civic practice of paying attention with goodwill.
It came the day after the president, the White House, congressional Republicans, and much of conservative media launched a full-throated denunciation of the video by Mark Kelly, Elissa Slotkin, and four of their House colleagues. I took one look and assumed it was the usual Washington pageant: crocodile tears and choreographed outrage, a familiar kind of Student Body Right of modern politics, designed to rouse the base, raise the money, and tilt the battlefield to terrain where MAGA feels most at home.
My intellectual premise then is the same one I hold now on one key point: that to claim members of Congress who say “active duty service members cannot follow illegal orders” are actually urging them to defy legal orders is an Orwellian inversion—an up-is-down, black-is-white contrivance that deserves little more than a shake of the head and a tip of the cap for sheer organizational audacity.
But here is where I erred: I assumed bad motives. I assumed people were pretending to be outraged.
They weren’t. Many — most — were genuinely upset by the words spoken in that video. And that genuine upset deserves more than my glib dismissal.
If we are to reclaim something softer and more generous in the American conversation—if we are to reverse the coarseness that has hardened our national town square for far too long—then that work must include Mark Kelly & Co. pausing long enough to hear why so many of their fellow citizens felt alarmed, even affronted. Instead, the six members of Congress and their backers simply display defiance, fueled by endless cable TV hits and fundraising appeals.
I’ve spent the past few days doing the opposite. Not waving away the concern, not judging it, but sitting with it. Grappling with the ways two sets of sincere Americans can look at the same words and see not merely different interpretations but different realities.
And I would ask those who are outraged by the video to make the reciprocal effort—to understand why millions of their fellow citizens are alarmed by the reaction to that video.
Those reasons include:
a. the real possibility that illegal orders could come from a president whose past conduct makes it imprudent to assume otherwise
b. the apparent lack of faith in our service members—the belief that a simple video could persuade them to abandon their duties or confuse right and wrong
c. the president’s own social-media posts about killing members of Congress
d. the lack of respect for the First Amendment
e. the threat of investigations into members of Congress for speaking their minds, no matter what their intentions
If we could all take a breath, step back, and attempt—not perfectly, but honestly—to understand the nature and intensity of the upset on both sides, we might give our children and grandchildren a Thanksgiving gift more precious than any feast: a glimpse of a kinder civic future. Not to take the politics out of politics, but to endeavor to appreciate another point of view, deeply held.
Two writers today try to do just that.
Karl Rove, in a column lamenting our politics of performance over purpose, wrote:
The person most responsible, however, for accelerating the drive by political figures to focus on social media is the president. Given Donald Trump’s online domination, even generally sensible Democrats and Republicans have stopped being serious and started seeking more retweets and followers. Take the six Congressional Democrats, all veterans of the military or the CIA, who released a video last week encouraging active-duty service personnel to “refuse illegal orders” from Mr. Trump.
One problem: None of the six could name a single illegal order issued by Mr. Trump in the video. So embarrassing. But implying there had been “illegal orders” was enough to give the Video Six their moment to expand their social-media followings.
The need for and wisdom of their video is highly debatable. But what is certain is that Mr. Trump’s response was outrageous. He attacked the video on Truth Social: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???”
Oh my. The penalty for treason can be death and for sedition up to 20 years in prison… A commander in chief calling for the execution or imprisonment of members of Congress over a video is mind-blowing… By doing so, the president also missed a valuable opportunity to talk about things that affect real families… He’s smart enough to know that but, apparently, couldn’t resist the temptation.
And Kevin Dowd, filling in for his sister Maureen with his trademark astringent wit:
Six congressional Democrats released a shameful video without giving any context encouraging service members to disobey illegal orders, thereby threatening the foundation of our military: the chain of command. But instead of shaming them, Trump posted on Truth Social that it was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” causing the oily Senator Chris Murphy to warn that the life of every Democratic congressperson was in jeopardy.
Let’s all make a vow—quiet, unshowy, but real—to look at every side of an argument, especially the ones that provoke us most. To listen even when we want to roll our eyes and clench our fists. To make room, even an inch more, for views we resist.
Bari Weiss put it plainly in a recent panel: we need a public square where all voices can be heard, not because all are right but because democracy falters when any are silenced.
If you want a clear statement of my own priorities on this point—on the imperative of bringing and keeping all voices under one roof—listen to Bari’s grand and good aspirations for CBS News:
Happy Thanksgiving.
I’m grateful—for your support, for your encouragement, and for the chance, every day, to think out loud with you.
Mark
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ESSENTIAL READING
* The latest from the Associated Press on the horrible National Guard shooting near the White House.
* My new Daily Mail column on the tragic burning of Bethany MaGee in Chicago and the need for such violence to be deterred.
* The Wall Street Journal with a pair of stories on the biggest of Big Casinos: How Trump still struggles for leverage over Xi and Putin and how Trump’s need to deal with Xi could strain relations with Tokyo.
* Writer and Grandma Peggy Noonan reminds us all how to be grateful (and happy).
* NFL today:
