Wednesday
I thought I’d seen everything from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, but his recent betrayal of Ukraine after once having supported its resistance to Russia’s invasion has stunned me. In July of 2022 he made a special trip to Ukraine to affirm America’s commitment to the country, shaking Volodomyr Zelensky’s hand and praising the “resilience and determination of the Ukrainian people in the face of such unprovoked inhumanity.” And now, because of Donald Trump, he has reversed himself, an instance of sycophancy that puts him in Oswald territory, Oswald being Goneril’s steward in King Lear.
The Washington Post reported on Graham’s reversal last week:
Graham voted repeatedly against sending $60 billion in aid to [Ukraine] as well as against other military funds for Israel and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific. The longtime hawk dramatically announced on the Senate floor that he also would no longer be attending the Munich Security Conference — an annual pilgrimage made by world leaders to discuss global security concerns that’s been a mainstay of his schedule.
“I talked to President Trump today and he’s dead set against this package,” Graham said on the Senate floor on Sunday, a day after the former president said at a rally that he would let the Russians do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that did not spend enough on defense.
Oswald enthusiastically embraces the opportunity to do whatever dirty work Lear’s eldest daughter wants done. That he follows her orders is not a crime—after all, she’s his boss—but the pleasure and ego boost he gets out of doing so is what marks him a villain. He enjoys insulting Lear and, later, enthusiastically embraces the opportunity to kill the blind Gloucester.
It is this enthusiasm for groveling that invites a comparison with Graham, who has done everything possible to ingratiate himself to Trump. This has even included lying about Trump’s golfing prowess, something we normally expect from North Koreans praising Kim Jong Un. (At one point Graham tweeted, “President Trump shot a 73 in windy and wet conditions!”) As a U.S. senator, Graham has less of an excuse than either North Koreans or Oswald.
Standing in dramatic contrast to Oswald is Kent, who is willing to speak truth to power, even at the cost of his job. When Lear banishes Cordelia, Kent comes “between a dragon and his wrath,” warning the king that he is making a mistake:
Kent: [B]e Kent unmannerly,
When Lear is mad. What wilt thou do, old man?
Think’st thou that duty shall have dread to speak,
When power to flattery bows? To plainness honour’s bound,
When majesty stoops to folly.
When Lear threatens him, Kent replies,
My life I never held but as a pawn
To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it,
Thy safety being the motive.
Kent has sworn an oath to kingship as Graham has sworn an oath to the Constitution, which is why he stands up to the king. Therefore when Kent, now disguised so that he can continue serving Lear, sees someone willing to abandon all integrity, he sees red and challenges Oswald to a duel:
Kent: Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the king; and take vanity the puppet’s part against the royalty of her father: draw, you rogue, or I’ll so carbonado your shanks: draw, you rascal; come your ways.
I’m sure I’m far from the only one who would like to unload on Graham as Kent unloads on Oswald. I’ll conclude today’s post with Kent’s ringing denunciation:
Kent: Fellow, I know thee.
Oswald: What dost thou know me for?
Kent: A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.
One that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service? A composition of knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch? I couldn’t have said it better.