"Have you no sense of decency?"

[Joinfortmill]

https://america.substack.com/p/the-absence-of-shame?utm_source=substack&utm_medium

The Absence of Shame
Lacking decency, Fox pundits and the GOP continue their lying ways. Will they be held accountable?
Steven Beschloss

'“Have you no sense of decency?” On June 9, 1954, Boston lawyer Joseph Welch uttered those searing words about Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy that ended his virulent anti-communist campaign...The question hit like a rocket. McCarthy’s popularity evaporated. He was ostracized by his fellow senators. Soon, the media ignored him. Welch, in questioning McCarthy’s decency, had succeeded in shaming him. Within three years, Joseph McCarthy, a broken man and alcoholic, was dead...

But then there’s Fox "News” and Tucker Carlson. Then there’s George Santos and Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert and Kevin McCarthy. Then there’s the Grand Old Party. Then there’s the grand daddy of them all, Donald Trump, who showed them that shamelessness is a powerful weapon that immunizes you from the burden of morality and can enhance your grifting operation...Trump feels no shame in lying about winning the election (or any of the tens of thousands of other lies). Kevin McCarthy expresses no shame in exploiting lies and extremism to secure the speakership. Green and Boebert experience no shame in misusing their elected office to act with cruelty and incite violence. George Santos…well, I don’t even know how he gets out of bed and shows his face in public. And Tucker Carlson and his colleagues: They have shown no sign that they are going to be shamed into changing their lying ways.

As long as Republicans continue to vote into office people who either are not able to experience shame or who have learned the power of denying feelings of shame, the years ahead will continue to be fraught with danger. If this civilizing tool no longer can moderate the worst among us, then it puts that much more pressure on the justice system to do its job and hold the guilty accountable.'

[spanone]

1. NO. They have no decency. They have no shame.

[EYESORE 9001]

5. That line is merely rhetorical today

Even quaint. It takes more than rhetoric to defeat the adversary. Decency schmecency. Society needs to be smacked between the eyes with a metaphorical 2x4 just to get its attention.

[dalton99a]

2. Kick

[secondwind]

3. K&R for visibility.......

[2naSalit]

4. The answer is NO!

[Lonestarblue]

6. Today's Republicans cannot be shamed for anything because they have no honor, no decency, no morals.

People like DiSantis, Abbott, Boebert, Greene, McCarthy, and a very long list of others are seem to have no restraints on what they will do or who they will hurt to get elected. And unlike in the era when McCarthy was asked whether he had any sense of decency, the media today either helps Republicans spread their lies or do nothing to refute them, treating lies and fascism as a legitimate political viewpoint equal to democratic ideals. We are truly in a war, and so far the right wing has won a number of skirmishes.

[efhmc]

10. Qualities that were spoken of and drilled into me on a daily basis are no more. They are quaint

and belittled as unnecessary in present day America. Sadly, I do not ever see us returning to them again.

[WiVoter]

7. Those Words Should Be Resurrected When McCarthy

is in a press conference, or better yet when Congress in session, or everywhere.

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. They only care about 2 things...well. really 3

Money
Power
Owning the Libs

[Martin Eden]

9. They have no love for America or its people

Their intentional lies divide the American people, incite violence, and threaten our democracy and Constitional rule of law. This is exactly what Russia, China, and other enemies of freedom and human rights want.

They lie for money, power, and a poisoned ideology which has subverted Christianity and patriotism.

These liars are not patriots. Regardless of what they may or may not believe, they serve the cause of treason.

[Squeaky41]

11. McCarthy Down

As a teenager I saw Welch that day.

[PaulRevere08]

12. As long as there's $ to be grifted they will say/do anything.

There's no real ideology behind their actions only finding ways to make a buck today and grasp power to make a buck tomorrow.

[sarchasm]

13. The calluses over their shame and empathy are thick.

The question is, what to do about it. What possible salve can soften them?

[Hortensis]

14. Except the government and justice system cannot do it alone.

They're created by the people to serve the people. They're not created to deal with a national breakdown in the people of both decency and commitment to keeping the system able to serve. I've read that again and again.

The people play a huge, critical role in democracy.

[c-rational]

28. Well said. I do believe the dumb-ing down of the American people is part of the reThuglican

agenda. I just cannot fathom why any human being would want such a thing..

[Hortensis]

29. I'm sure you're right, c-rational.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Here's a 5 minute vid of that segment of the Army-McCarthy hearings.

The famous line begins at the :50 mark, and much of the rest is McCarthy trying to recover. It's interesting to listen to his voice affectation, as the way he speaks is most certainly forced, trying to give an air of superiority.

He was nothing more than the Gym Jordan/Josh Hawley type of his day. A grandstanding douchenozzle who glommed onto the "Red Scare" trope for political gain.

[grantcart]

20. thanks for posting. The spontaneous applause at the end came as a shock to McCarthy and was the

turning point as people started to stand up to the bully McCarthy.

[electric_blue68]

22. TY. What I found better in this Mix was 8 vids down "Have you no decency..."/McCarthy/The American..

Experience" PBS.

It gives for people like me too young to see it...

(I was around 1 yrs old, and if my mom was not too sick w asthma that day she was probably watching it aghast at McCarthy while keeping an eye on me [in a clip they say how people who don't normally watch daytime TV tuned in - showing a mom holding her baby looking at the hearing on TV])

...a bit more background as to what the particular situation at that moment was between Welsh, McCarthy, Cohen, and the man who was not supposed to be mentioned/named which is what triggered Welsh's iconic remark.

I know some things about the HUAC McCarthy hearings, and the quote, but either didn't know, or had forgotten this detail.


It sure scarred a lot of good people. 😔

[NNadir]

16. Welch's remark has been ringing in my brain continuously...

...over the last several years.

I watch the video over and over, not just in connection with the Repukes, although it certainly applies, but also in the issue that will outlast the United States, climate change.

I'm afraid appeals to decency have little play in these times.

[czarjak]

17. Badge of Honor

[Midnight Writer]

18. I'm always amused at click-bait headlines of Republicans being shamed, humiliated, exposed.

They are beyond shame and humiliation. The worse their behavior, the more their supporters love them, and they know it.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

24. It's not click-bait; there are millions of uninformed voters out there.

[grantcart]

19. Welch's actual quote was, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? . .

Have you left no sense of decency?"

Then as now the answer is "No".

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

21. and Gym Jordan.

[The Jungle 1]

23. Lying is now acceptable in the republican party.

[Skittles]

25. NOPE

they don't have any sense of decency whatsoever, which allows them to behave in the vile manner they do as SOP

[DallasNE]

26. This Afflicts Only People On The Right

Gandhi is attributed with saying I like your Christ, I dislike your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ and Lewis is credited with saying that when 6Fascism comes to America. It will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a Cross. It is in their genes and cannot be purged. They think that Putin is a great leader. You can throw in Jonestown, and Charlottesville and any of a number of heinous events that make McCarthyism look tame. To that, you can include Nixon and to a lesser extent, Reagan. And they are forgiven every single time.

[moniss]

27. Over the last several years

there have been several of the major GQP movers/shakers who have spoken glowingly about McCarthy and made attempts to gaslight people about him. He is now basically revered in the MAGA wacko-sphere as a glorious "commie fighter" who the liberals and the media were unkind to and destroyed him because he was exposing them. Has a familiar sound doesn't it?