Ethics

In July of 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter took to the airwaves to address the nation about a threat that he believed “strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.” Carter called it a “nearly invisible threat” that in many ways goes unnoticed. Carter dubbed it “a crisis of confidence.”  

We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America.

But, even during his own trying times, Carter dismissed out of hand the idea that the soul of America was at stake during his “crisis of confidence,” stating, “I do not mean our political and civil liberties.”

“They will endure.”

Forty-five years later, I fear I cannot say the same, as I firmly believe that America faces a new “crisis of confidence” threatening to destroy our social and political fabric.

Ten years ago, you might have dismissed my opinion as conspiratorial nonsense. Yes, we have a growing partisan divide. But no one would dare weaponize the levers of power in government to lord over political rivals.  

Anyone paying attention to politics since President Donald Trump shocked the political establishment to its core in 2016 would laugh at our naivete.  

When Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, the embodiment of an entrenched political legacy and the poster child of Washington “swamp” culture, a “fight or flight” reflex activated in partisans on the left, breaking a détente which Carter most likely imagined would endure; a silent agreement to never weaponize the powers entrusted to the federal government by We The People against a political rival.

I need not remind you of the myriad ways an unholy union of government power brokers, mainstream media, big tech social media platforms, and government bureaucracy behaved during the Trump years. Merely invoking the name “Hunter Biden” should be sufficient shorthand summarizing the left’s amplification (to the point of absurdity) of “Orange Man Bad” and the suppression of credible facts and circumstance that ran counter to their skewed narrative. From this manipulation spawned a form of fanatical tribalism that saw many politicians crossing lines that Carter took for granted.  

Which brings us to the current political climate. It is a climate where it has become commonplace to call fellow Americans a “threat to democracy,” “vicious,” “dangerous,” or “extreme.” It’s a political climate where odious individuals go on national television and say, “They’re still going to have to go out and put a bullet in Donald Trump.”

And wouldn’t you know it? After nearly a decade of ratcheting up the temperature to a boiling point, someone tried to do just that.

Actually, two somebodies.

In the wake of this climate and the two assassination attempts that followed, it would be malpractice to not question what the hell is going on in the federal government. It would also not be unreasonable to debate whether government Is this incompetent or whether the near decade of political tribalism has taken its toll on essential government functions, like the protection of a political rival.

But that is where we are at. In the fallout of these assassination attempts, the latest of which prompted Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to state that “it is not in the best interests of our state and nation to have the same federal agencies seeking to prosecute Trump leading this investigation.”

It is not just partisans on the right like DeSantis expressing a lack of confidence in the federal government. Even the staunchest voices on the left who are investigating cannot help but to criticize the Biden administration – of which they’re part of – because they too want to know how a shooter got onto a rooftop with a rifle and was able to get off multiple shots killing civilians in what should have been one of the most safe places anyone should have been.

Voices like Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), the chair of the panel charged by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee – who is no friend of Donald Trump – has expressed his dismay with the federal government failures as well as his opinion that our government has been less than forthcoming with relevant information:

I think the American people are going to be shocked and appalled by our findings as to the lapses and failures —  on that day, at that site, but also more deep seeded — still plaguing the Secret Service, And I think the American people are also going to be deeply disappointed in the Department of Homeland Security, not just in the lapses In performance, but also in its resistance to providing information.

Those are pretty disturbing sentiments, made even more terrifying knowing that a second attempt happened weeks later. Same target. Same agency. Same lapses.  

If partisans on both sides of the aisle are so brazenly questioning the effectiveness of the federal government to do its job, how can we not openly do the same?