“I want you to use my words against me. If there’s a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say ‘Lindsey Graham said. “Let’s let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,” and you could use my words against me, and you’d be absolutely right. We’re setting a precedent here today, the Republicans are. That in the last year, at least of the lame duck of an eight-year term, I would say it’s gonna be a four-year term, that you’re not gonna fill a vacancy of the Supreme Court based on what we’re doing here today. That’s going to be the new rule.” Senator Lindsey Graham 2016
“If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump’s term, and the primary process has started, we’ll wait until the next election.” Senator Lindsey Graham 2018
“The next justice could fundamentally alter the direction of the Supreme Court, and have a profound impact on our country. So of course, of course, the American people should have a say in the Court’s direction.” Senator Mitch McConnell 2016
“The people deserve to be heard and they should be allowed to decide through their vote for the next President the type of person that should be on the Supreme Court…This is a reasonable approach. It is a fair approach. And it is a historical approach.” Senator Chuck Grassley 2016
“The best way to avoid the fight is to agree to let the people decide, give the people a voice. Let the next President put forth the nomination. That’s what the American people are saying. Give the people a voice. They’re saying that a seat on the Supreme Court should not be just another political payoff to score points in an election year.” Senator John Barrasso 2016
“President Obama is eager to appoint Justice Scalia’s replacement this year. But do you know in the last eighty years we have not once, has the Senate confirmed a nomination made in an election year and now is no year to start. This is for the people to decide.” Senator Ted Cruz 2016
“I think they should wait until the next President and let the next President pick.” Donald Trump 2016
“I know how to win.” Donald Trump
“My whole life is about winning.” Donald Trump
“I’ve always won, and I’m going to continue to win.” Donald Trump
“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Vince Lombardi
“Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong.” Thomas Jefferson
“I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.” Sophocles
“What is left when honor is lost?” Publilius Syrus
The Republican leadership has made it clear that they are determined to confirm a new Supreme Court Justice before a new President is sworn in despite what they pledged in 2016. But at what cost?
Donald Trump has made it clear, by his words and his actions, that the major focus in his life is winning, regardless of the cost. Cheating and lying to contractors, small business owners, employees, workers, tenants, customers, and anyone else he comes into contact with is common practice and acceptable if it means he wins; if he profits. Trump is well known to be both a cheat and a winner on the golf course.
Honor, on the other hand, is something Trump has never seemed to show much interest in or something that he is overly familiar with. That’s probably because honor is something that can get in the way of winning.
How far should one go to win? What rules, if any, should exist? Is anything allowed? Was Vince Lombardi right that winning “is the only thing”?
Lombardi, himself, eventually came to regret what he had said about winning. “I wish to hell I’d never said the damn thing. I meant effort….I meant having a goal….I sure as hell didn’t mean for people to crush human value and morality.”
While winning is certainly the preeminent focus in an arena like professional sports, there are still rules to the game and, for some at least, a sense of honor. Deflating footballs before a championship game, sending spies to secretly film your opponent’s practices, or using a camera to steal a catcher’s signal and then banging on a garbage can to let the batter know what pitch is coming is against the rules, dishonest, and has hurt the reputations of people like Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and members of the Houston Astros Baseball Team. Yet while some individuals have been punished for such actions, the teams have been allowed to keep their championships. So maybe in the end winning is the only thing that matters; in sports, in business, in politics, and in everything else. Or are some things, like honor, more important than winning?
Governing a nation cannot be just about winning. Governing is so much more important and consequential than winning Superbowls, World Series, in business deals, in elections, or on the golf course. The stakes are just so much higher. Governing must be based on honor, trust, truth, and fair play. The way a nation governs itself defines who its citizens are as a people and what the values are that they hold. Ultimately, governing reveals and expresses the soul of a nation.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump’s attitude, style, and tactics about things like winning, honor, and the truth have increasingly infected the Republican party. This has been to the detriment of both the party and the country. It is past time for the Republican leadership to reconsider what it is that they hold dear, what it is that they value.
A President’s or a Senator’s words must mean something. If they don’t, and Presidents and Senators are allowed say whatever they want, to then ignore their own words and to, instead, do whatever happens to be most convenient and advantageous at the moment, then there is no honor, no trust, or no truth in governing. Our country will be lost.
To save our country, the Republican leaders need to quit adhering to the words of Donald Trump or the original words of Vince Lombardi about winning. Instead, the Republican leadership needs to focus on someone else’s words about winning.
“For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’
I grew up with the belief that people did not lie purposely. Once I got over that naiveté, I became lost with all of the ramifications of who, what, where, when and why. It is becoming clearer daily how evil this can be (lying). I wish to keep those that lie out of my life as best as possible. Life is difficult enough anyway.
It can be. a hard realization