Why There Has Been No "Have You No Decency, Sir?" Moment Yet?

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTwDUpbQHJg&ebc=ANyPxKqTJxGzeB5coD9wZVMTS8IGy60d689Ah_J-Xq_H6NT7Ljzcyd-X0vujVsZ1Infk9XqdcDXGncLCFcei93SO4MFBNWVxhg

"Have you no decency, sir?" declared Joseph Welch in confronting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, as he brought to national attention the fact that one of his young associates at his law firm, Fred Fisher, had been a member of the National Lawyers Guild, an organization that was labeled a Communist Front during the 1950s by McCarthy.  Mr. Welch's confrontation was rather unremarkable, but it began the demise of Sen. McCarthy as a national figure of consequence.  Others, including his fellow Republicans, began to freely criticize him, and McCarthy progressively lost his power and his influence.

McCarthy's tenure as Demogogue-in-Chief lasted a very short time.  The Red Scare was ushered in far more by Richard Nixon than by McCarthy, and McCarthy's power was enhanced by the GOP taking control of Congress in 1952, and diminished by losing control in 1954.  He was also an alcoholic who was physically suffering already; he would die of hepatitis in 1957.  Nevertheless, he had his moment when he scared politicians silly, and had virtual carte blanche to do what he wanted.

Why hasn't such a moment happened to Donald Trump?  Trump is who he is, yet no one ever seems to confront Trump effectively.  Getting down on his level doesn't work, but no one who has confronted him has even laid a scratch on him.  Why is that?

I believe that the main reason is that those who would confront Trump have no more decency than he does.  Look at the nature of opposition to Barack Obama since he became President.  A CONGRESSMAN called him a liar at the SOTU address.  Elected politicians pushed the "birther" and "Muslim" angles to where the majority of Republicans believe he was born in Kenya and is Muslim.  When Bin Laden was assassinated, Republicans formed rallies saying "Thank you, President BUSH!".  Indeed, in over seven (7) years of the Obama Presidency, I cannot think of one occasion where Republicans put partisanship aside to stand with Obama in areas where they agreed with him without adding insults and negative references to the effect of "We'll stand with the weak and feckless Obama who leads from behind because he got it right by accident this time."  

There's no decency in any of them.  Not even Kasich.  Trump is this awful, mean, uncivilized piece of poopoo, but all of these men who decry Trump's insults will all vote for him over Hillary, who, of course, is a scourge the Republic cannot bear.  That's the reason there is no Joseph Welch rising up to challenge McCarthy.  Mitt Romney tried; it was a joke.  Romney's real problem is not Trump's lack of decency, but his anti-free trade policies.  That kind of blunts a moral appeal, doesn't it?

Who could be the Joseph Welch versus Trump?  At this moment, I honestly don't see a candidate.

[Beet]

Hillary could be the candidate.

[The Free North]

The decline of respect in society?

Also, rhetoric has changed.

[Frodo]

Be patient -John Kasich will do so given time.  

[°Leprechaun]

I have been wondering the same thing. Trump's violence inciting rhetoric is way beyond anything I have seen from a possible nominee in either of the two main parties in my lifetime.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Trump is this awful, mean, uncivilized piece of poopoo, but all of these men who decry Trump's insults will all vote for him over Hillary.

"Get outta here. Get 'em out."

"Bye bye. Thank you. Thank you."

"I hope they're arrested. I hope you arrest these people because i tell ya, they DESERVE TO BE ARRESTED."

"I hope you arrest 'em, because you know what folks, we won't have any more protesters."

"Get 'em out."

"Quiet."

Booooooooing.

"Get 'em out."

"Get 'em out."

"Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump."

"Here's another one."

"Get 'em out."

"Get 'em out."

"Here's the story"

"Here's the story"

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Trump is this awful, mean, uncivilized piece of poopoo, but all of these men who decry Trump's insults will all vote for him over Hillary.

"Get outta here. Get 'em out."

"Bye bye. Thank you. Thank you."

"I hope they're arrested. I hope you arrest these people because i tell ya, they DESERVE TO BE ARRESTED."

"I hope you arrest 'em, because you know what folks, we won't have any more protesters."

"Get 'em out."

"Quiet."

Booooooooing.

"Get 'em out."

"Get 'em out."

"Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump."

"Here's another one."

"Get 'em out."

"Get 'em out."

"Here's the story"

"Here's the story"

This part isn't the problem.  These demonstrators are willfully disrupting a gathering he has sponsored and is for the benefit of his supporters.  Their behavior goes beyond the pale.

The part I'm thinking about is the insults, which are, truthfully, indefensible.  But the show goes on. 

[The Mikado]

Remember what was going on at the time. McCarthy had already suffered huge blows to his credibility, most recently at that point by the outing of Roy Cohn (remember, the investigations of the time viewed homosexuals as security liabilities due to their vulnerability to blackmail, so by McCarthy's own logic his #2 was a potential Communist spy) and Welch's client, the U.S. Army, was one of the few institutions in America with near universal confidence (remember, basically every adult male under ~45 at the time had served in the military at some point). McCarthy's investigation into the Army was a ridiculous fishing expedition (trying to find the nonexistent superior officer who approved the automatic promotion of an Army dentist who had loose ties to a Communist group because clearly there was some conspiracy to get this dentist into a position of authority) and McCarthy had gone two years, unlike people like Nixon or Whittaker Chambers, without finding any actual Communist infiltrators.

The fall of Roy Cohn and the sheer ridiculousness of arguing that the U.S. Army was subject to some sort of nefarious Communist infiltration left McCarthy seriously vulnerable in a way he had never been before.

[tallguy23]

Well Trump's supporters like his lack of decency. It makes him "real" and "authentic".

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Easy - because the GOP candidates want Trump's supporters and by suggesting issues with Trump's decency, they perceive it as questioning theirs.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Bernie just called him a pathological liar.

[emailking]

I think Perry actually said it, although it didn't have much of an impact.