ArcaMax

In his book on America's hitherto most accomplished demagogue, "No Sense of Decency," journalist Robert Shogan concluded that the principal reason America's favorable view of Joseph McCarthy eventually collapsed was "the increased revulsion of many Americans for McCarthy as a result of what they saw of him. ... What came across was McCarthy's disregard of the rules and codes to which most Americans felt obliged at least to pay lip service." After years of watching McCarthy lie, bully, mock, belittle and smear people, Shogan writes, Americans ultimately, if belatedly, rejected "his contempt for widely accepted values that help make society civilized."

The accretive effect of years of repulsive behavior eventually wore away America's willingness to follow McCarthy. Thus, by the time fabled lawyer Joseph Welch confronted him during Senate hearings into whether McCarthy had committed misconduct, Shogan recounts, Welch's rhetorical question "Have you no sense of decency?" was "a question that resonated with Americans."

That was in 1954. It was a time when character mattered here more than it does now, when dishonesty and cruelty were qualities that most Americans believed, or felt morally bound to profess to believe, were unacceptable in leaders. And leaders, for their part, felt obliged to profess to believe the same.

Times have changed.

It was Donald Trump's dark genius starting back in 2015 to understand that there was a thick, deep ugly strain close to America's surface, and that for whatever reason, tens of millions of Americans would not only accept dishonesty and cruelty in their leaders but embrace it. Over the past decade, conduct that every kindergarten teacher worth their salt would recognize as abhorrent has gone uncondemned, even chortled at, by roughly half of our fellow citizens. Far from being embarrassed by the conduct, the American president revels in it, and so do his supporters.

It became notable in the 2016 presidential campaign with the cruel imitation of a journalist's physical disabilities, the mockery of John McCain's military service and the gloating about his ability to sexually assault women with impunity. It continued with the brazen lying to Americans, day after day for months, about the COVID virus that was taking hundreds of thousands of American lives.

When Paul Pelosi, the elderly husband of his political adversary, was the victim of an attempted murder in his home and had his skull brutally fractured by a Trump acolyte, Trump mocked him and did so with relish. "Nancy Pelosi has a big wall wrapped around her house. Of course, it didn't help too much with the problem she had, did it?" Trump told a whooping crowd composed of our countrymen. "We'll stand up to crazy Nancy Pelosi, who ruined San Francisco -- how's her husband doing, anybody know?" he jeered to another.

After former President Joe Biden was diagnosed with stage-four prostate cancer that had metastasized to his bones, Trump attacked him in ways that would have revolted Americans in a different time, and should revolt them now. Referring to Biden as "scum" and sharing posts that described him as a "decrepit corpse," our national role model said this: "If you feel sorry for him, don't feel so sorry, because he's vicious ... I really don't feel sorry for him."

Earlier this month, an apparent Trump supporter assassinated a Minnesota state legislator and attempted to assassinate another, and had a hit list of others he planned to murder. Here's what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said when Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 2024, when Walz was the Democratic vice presidential nominee: "Violence has no place in American politics. Praying for the safety of former President Trump and everyone at his rally in Pennsylvania."

Here was the president of the United States days ago in the aftermath of the horrific shootings of the Minnesota legislators, personal friends of Walz, when asked whether he had called the governor to express his condolences. "Why would I call him? The guy doesn't have a clue. He's a mess. So I could be nice and call, but why waste time?"

You've either got basic human decency, or you don't. We have long prided ourselves as being a nation that had it. But we have twice elected a president who lacks it, and who is proud of lacking it. Not only have Americans normalized indecency. We have encouraged it.

Jeff Robbins' latest book, "Notes From the Brink: A Collection of Columns about Policy at Home and Abroad," is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books and Google Play. Robbins, a former assistant United States attorney and United States delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was chief counsel for the minority of the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. An attorney specializing in the First Amendment, he is a longtime columnist for the Boston Herald, writing on politics, national security, human rights and the Mideast.

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate Inc.