Daniel L Kottman
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
This quote comes from Joseph N. Welch, chief council for the United States Army in Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s 1954 Senate Subcommittee’s investigation of alleged Communist activities in federal government. In a televised public hearing, McCarthy attacked a young attorney named Fred Fisher. Fisher was an attorney in Welch’s Boston law firm. Fresh out of law school, Fisher had joined an organization called the National Lawyers Guild, which was rumored to have communist sympathies.
Welch had previously discussed the situation with Fisher and concluded that Fisher’s association with the guild could be dismissed as a youthful indiscretion. McCarthy publicly attacked Fisher and called into question both Fisher’s and Welch’s loyalty to the United States.
After McCarthy repeatedly attacked Welch and attempted to bully him into a confession of having communist ties, Welch responded with these questions. This moment is considered to be a turning point in history for McCarthyism, eventually leading to its death. It is worth noting that the chief council for McCarthy’s subcommittee was none other than Roy Cohn; the same Roy Cohn who would later become “political fixer” and mentor for an upcoming young business tycoon named Donald J. Trump.
This week, that same Donald J. Trump launched a blatantly racist attack against four congresswomen of color, saying that they should go back to the country from which they came. Three of the four women were born in the United States, and one was born in Somalia but moved to America when she was 12 and became an American citizen. All four are duly elected representatives of their constituents. Trump’s ugly, vicious attacks were the kind of thing one might expect to hear at a KKK rally.
Trump’s idea of a “Great” America is an America ruled by men…preferably, white men…even more preferably, very rich white men. Anyone with less than a seven-figure bank account who thinks Mr. Trump cares about their lives and their problems is exactly the kind of easily duped deplorable Trump is depending on to carry him to a second term in 2020.
So, I would ask Mr. Trump, in the words of Joseph Welch, “Have you no decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
Regrettably, for myself and for the country, I believe I know the answer.