By Pat and Chuck Wemstrom
Correspondents
In Christopher Marlowe’s play, Doctor Faustus sells his soul to the devil. He desires power and knowledge, even immortality. But he does not become an emperor, his Helen of Troy is but a shadow, and in the end he tries to repent. Devils drag him down to Hell.
Republicans in our modern country seem to have sold their souls. Donald Trump is an incompetent narcissist who is destroying our democracy from within and undermining our influence abroad. Republicans know that. They have to. And yet they support him.
Trump has destroyed the dignity of the office of the presidency. He’s encouraged violence, praised white supremacists and recently called a Democratic rival (Beto O’Rourke) a “poor bastard” who “quit like a dog.” And yet Republicans support him.
A Nov. 2 article in The Washington Post by Greg Jaffe and Josh Dawsey gives an example of how Trump’s policies are influenced by irrational dislike and revenge. He hates Ukraine. “In the end, most U.S. officials agreed that Trump’s anger with Ukraine, like many of his grievances, was connected with the 2016 election and his feeling that Ukraine was responsible for the humiliating fall of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman. Trump’s hatred, they concluded, was ingrained, irrational and possibly irreversible.” A senior U.S. official familiar with Trump’s Ukraine policy said, “It’s the epitome of impulsive, self-serving decision-making at the top that has undermined American power.”
Republicans complained that Democrats were pursuing impeachment “in secret,” even though 45 Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee were present and the procedure is supported by the Constitution and by precedents. Now public hearings have begun, but they still complain about an unconstitutional “witch hunt.” Not one Republican had voted even to investigate his offenses.
Trump is anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-women and anti-labor. Republicans have indeed sold their souls. They’ve sold them, like Faustus, for power. Trump will appoint conservative justices to help them pass their agenda and remake the country into Trump’s image for a generation to come.
Devils will not drag people like Mitch McConnell down to Hell. Their punishment will be the judgement of history. In a hundred years, if this country and the planet survive that long, writers will call this the beginning of the decline of democracy and the fading of America. If we recover, they will still judge Trump and his Republican enablers harshly, a blot on our history. And like Faustus, Republicans will soon find it too late to reverse this judgement.
We should mention that in Goethe’s version, Faust is saved. He managed to get an escape clause.
Do the Republicans have an escape clause? Yes. They can face reality. They can begin to put their country first and stop supporting Trump, who’s tearing our Constitution to shreds. They can agree that an investigation into impeachable offenses is necessary and justified. If Trump is innocent, their support will be vindicated.
But it’s unlikely that Trump is innocent. The hearings will almost certainly show a quid pro quo, that Trump offered financial and military aid in return for dirt on a political opponent. Many officials, and even Trump’s own words, would seem to verify this. And now, Republicans’ argument is that since Trump did not accomplish what he wanted, his offense was not impeachable.
Republicans will probably not give in. Even if the evidence is irrefutable, they will not vote to remove this dangerous fool from office. With their money and false ads, they may even get him re-elected. And in the end, like Faustus, they may finally ask: Was it worth it?
Originally published by the JournalStandard, 11.14.2019, under the terms of a Creative Commons license.