I applaud former Attorney General Eric Holder for calling out William Barr in such bold moral truth-telling, as is reported today in this article on Huffington Post.
“As a former U.S. attorney general, I am reluctant to publicly criticize my successors. I respect the office and understand just how tough the job can be,” Holder began his op-ed. “But recently, Attorney General William P. Barr has made a series of public statements and taken actions that are so plainly ideological, so nakedly partisan and so deeply inappropriate for America’s chief law enforcement official that they demand a response from someone who held the same office.”
I applaud him because the conduct of this Attorney General — from his thwarting of the Mueller Report, to his contradiction of the report of the DOJ’s Inspector General (who legitimated the investigation of the Trump campaign that led ultimately to the Mueller Report) — is so appalling, such a complete betrayal of the oath of office Barr took, and all in service to a lawless President — that it must be attacked in every way that helps beat down that force of lawlessness Barr represents.
(Whatever can stop Barr, and his dictator, Donald Trump, from advancing lawlessness in every way that serves their political purposes and their lust for power.)
It is appalling beyond anything we’ve ever seen in American history— as is, by the way, the whole conduct of the Republican Party in this time. The behavior of the Republicans during this impeachment hearings has made it clear as can be that there is apparently no limit to what they will say and do to maintain Trump in power, and maintain their own position for getting re-elected.
It is the job of the Democratic world, and those allied with it against Trump and the Trump Party, to use all the tools that will serve the cause of defeating this criminal and corrupt and dishonest force. Like using impeachment to take power away from Trump. Like putting out letters signed by hundreds or thousands of people whose views the public should trust. And like the power of plain, strong, morally grounded speech (like Holder’s here) to the American people to help them to see just how unthinkably bad this Republican power has become. (A blow struck in the hope that — when they see what has been shown — the American people will know that they must withdraw their support from that Republican power, from Trump in impeachment, and with every Republican on the ballot in 2020.)All available weapons should be used to save American democracy.
So I applaud Eric Holder for doing what he can to help the American people see the ugly truth about William Barr: this is a man who is just playing the part of the Attorney General of the United States, so he can wield the power of that office, while actually working, with a complete lack of scruple, to prop up this President who absolutely must be impeached.
I applaud Holder for helping people notice that we’re seeing things here that are absolutely unacceptable, and that must be rejected in whatever ways make sense.
Would it make sense for Barr to be impeached? If so, impeach him. (Perhaps it all could have started there, and been used as a way to prepare the public mind to see Trump’s criminality and corruption. For all of Barr’s clearly impeachable offenses have been attempts to help Trump keep his power despite his criminality and corruption.)
But at the very least it makes sense to speak as Holder does here— with prophetic voice. As the prophets spoke moral truth to evil power, so Holder has done here.
And as the Democrats should be doing with equal intensity to call out, for example, just how appalling the Republican behavior in the impeachment process has been.
To the best of my knowledge of American history, the conduct of this Republican Party right now — climaxing in these impeachment hearings — is the most morally bankrupt (most completely aligned with the destructive force of evil) by far of any political party in the history of the United States.
What those Republicans in Congress are doing should be called out -- exposed -- because it is so saturated in bad faith — so many lies, such phony feeling, such lack of forthrightness about what they know to be indisputably true. This development — that an American political party had become the means for a force of evil to rise to great power in America — will be seen by historians as a major development in the history of American civilization. This is so big a thing — that a corrupt and criminal and dishonest force had seized considerable control over the nation’s destiny — that it should near the center of the national conversation.
This is the big truth of our times. The rise of evil in America. It must be called out, so the people can see it.
Eric Holder delivers his prophetic statement standing on the sanctified ground of America’s basic ideals and values.
His is one important blow in what should be a rain of blows upon all the tentacles of this evil force — Barr, Trump, the GOP, etc. — that is consistently attacking those values and ideals.
America needs to see the moral truth about this ugly force, and thereby be moved to support beating it back into oblivion by every means possible.
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The need for Democrats to intensify the fight in some additional directions — besides pure impeachment — seems to be a theme with me these days. I’ve been watching for 15 years how the Democrats have been weak in messaging, weak in pressing the battle. On this theme, I’ve also lately published here:
“Remember, It’s Not Just Trump But Also the Disgraceful Trump Party That Must Be Defeated.”