Friday
Among the many strange things that mark the current impeachment hearings, one thing stands out to me: while Republicans know full well that Donald Trump is guilty of extorting the Ukrainian government for dirt on Joe Biden, they are twisting themselves into knots to avoid acknowledging this to themselves. The situation reminds me of Stanley Elkin’s short story “Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers.”
The story is about a day in the life of Jewish grocer Jake Greenspahn, who has lost his 23-year-old son Harold. In the course of the day, Greenspahn lashes out angrily, attacking his employees and various customers for trying to cheat him. His reaction is excessive given that the cheating is fairly minor.
In this, he is like those Republicans who are furious with Democrats for a host of procedural violations and lapses in civility. Some of their accusations are not even true, and the lapses pale in comparison with those of the president. I think particularly of the anger directed at House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff for citing a CBS story in which an anonymous Republican says that Trump supporters will have the legislators’ heads on pikes if they buck the president.
The fury, I suspect, is over the fact that the anonymous source is right: GOP legislators are deathly afraid of being primaried or abandoned by Trump’s base if they step out of line. It’s easier to blame Schiff than face up to their own cowardice.
The reason for Greenspahn’s fury is similar: he focuses on the infractions of others because he doesn’t want to acknowledge what really bothers him. When he was alive, his son was a disappointment who stole money out of the till. Earlier, Greenspahn almost fires his most valuable employee (Frank) for informing him of this, but in the dream that concludes the story, the truth breaks in upon him with the force of revelation:
He saw it now. They [the dream witnesses] all saw it. The helpless face, the sly wink, the embarrassed, slow smug smile of guilt that must, volitionless as the palpitation of a nerve, have crossed Harold’s face when he had turned, his hand in the register, to see Frank watching him.
The difference is that Trump isn’t embarrassed when he’s caught. He just brazens it out whereas Harold at least feels a sense of shame. But as far as Greenspahn and the GOP go, they are invested in not seeing what they know all too well is going on. They blame everyone but the guilty party.
