Tuesday
As I watch state department officials defy the Trump administration and come forth to testify about the Trump-Ukraine scandal, a Lewis Carroll passage comes to mind:
Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more--
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.
Has Trump finally reached his limit? Is the dam beginning to break? It feels like it.
In the poem, unfortunately, things do not turn out well for the oysters. After offering them “a pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,/ Along the briny beach,” the Walrus devours them once they step forward. Could his happen to our whistleblowers and state department officials? Certainly, with his talk of treason and executions, Trump wants them to think that a similar fate awaits them.
But say that they manage to bring down our duplicitous Walrus and Carpenter administration. In that case, the poem doesn’t work at all and we need to find another application for it.
So think of the oysters—those who rush in “all eager for the treat”—instead as opportunists who saw a chance for profit and advancement by joining the Trump administration. They certainly are learning the oyster lesson. To invoke the title of the book written by Republican strategist and NeverTrumper Rick Wilson, Everything that Trump Touches Dies.
An elderly statesman predicted this would happen. Only weeks after Trump was elected, neoconservative Eliot A. Cohen, who served under both Bush administrations, advised fellow Republicans against joining the administration. His Washington Post op-ed has proved only too prescient:
In the best of times, government service carries with it the danger of compromising your principles. Here, though, we may be in for something much worse. The canary in the coal mine was not merely the selection of Stephen K. Bannon for the job previously filled by John Podesta and Karl Rove, that of counselor to the president and chief strategist. Rather, the warning signs came from the Republican leaders excusing and normalizing this sinister character — and those who then justified the normalizers.
And:
My bottom line: Conservative political types should not volunteer to serve in this administration, at least for now. They would probably have to make excuses for things that are inexcusable and defend people who are indefensible.
Think of Cohen as Carroll’s eldest Oyster:
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head--
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.
Or as Cohen put it,
So what should the policy community do for now? Do what you can do in other venues, and remember that this too will pass, and someday a more normal kind of administration will either emerge or replace this one.
