By David K. Shipler
After days
of impeachment hearings in the House Intelligence Committee, the United States
has emerged as a country riven by a clash between cynicism and perfectionism. Americans have grown so inured to wrongdoing
that nefarious behavior won’t provoke outrage unless it violates some mythical norm
of purity. And so Democrats and their witnesses have been forced to construct a
backdrop of national righteousness against which President Trump can be cast in
damning contrast.
That
shouldn’t be necessary. Trump’s actions should be enough for impeachment and conviction. If the society had a
proper ethical reflex, it would be sufficient that he tried to get a “favor”
for his reelection campaign from a foreign government, Ukraine, which desperately
needs American support against Russia. End of discussion.
The United States shouldn’t have to be pictured
as an unyielding advocate of global democracy and the rule of law, when we have
a sordid history of doing the opposite where dictators suit us. Ukraine shouldn’t
have to be given the exaggerated label “ally” when it has no such standing in any
treaty. The rhetoric on foreign policy shouldn’t have to sound like a throwback
to the Cold War, with Washington’s nobility poised against Moscow’s “aggression,”
and a pretense that the U.S. bears no responsibility for the rising conflict
with Russia.
Witnesses shouldn’t have to tout
their and their families’ military service to be credible, and the military
shouldn’t have to be burnished as flawlessly heroic. Those testifying shouldn’t
have to chronicle their devotion to public service. Those born abroad shouldn’t
need to sing moving hymns of praise to America as a haven of freedom to speak
and to prosper, when prosperity and even freedom, as we are seeing, do not come
to all who step onto American soil.
But national myths are often
useful, because they set high standards to which the country should aspire. The
gap between the myth and the reality is one that begs to be closed.
