Doug Mills / New York Times
Former President Donald Trump gestures during a stop at the Versailles restaurant in the Little Havana neighborhood in Miami, June 13, 2023. Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner whose efforts to cling to power after his defeat shook American democracy, was booked earlier Tuesday on federal criminal charges that he illegally retained defense secrets and obstructed the government’s efforts to reclaim the classified documents.
Sunday, June 18, 2023 | 2 a.m.
The father of our country would be greatly disappointed in some of his children.
He’d also be appalled at the behavior of one of his successors, a man who always puts himself before his country, who has been charged with breaking our laws against espionage and is far less than faithful to the responsibilities of citizenship of this great country.
The former is George Washington. The latter and far lesser is Donald Trump.
But President Washington, if he were alive today, would save most of his ire for some of the American people, the people whose ancestors he fought with and fought for when it was his time to stand up for the land of the free and the home of the brave.
George Washington and his Continental Army — the folks who fought and died to birth the United States of America — gave the full measure for their country. They didn’t like the redcoats, King George’s army, which tried to keep them colonists of the Crown. But they couldn’t stand and didn’t brook traitors and those who worked for their own benefit to the detriment of the new country they were creating.
Imagine how Washington would have felt about people like Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who just can’t bring himself to condemn the acts for which Trump has been charged.
Instead, he continues to condone the man and condemn the actions of the FBI, the Justice Department and every member of law enforcement who has sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. You know, the people who have worked so diligently to bring a lawbreaker to justice.
And how do you think President Washington would feel about the rest of the motley crew of elected Republicans in the Senate and the House who roar in favor of law and order and run from the need to stand up for it because it would put them at odds with their fearless and feckless leader?
But, I believe his disdain would flow mostly to a small but vocal group of Americans. Not the regular folks for whom most elected leaders still toil in the vineyards, trying to make their lives better because they are the reason America was born. But, that group of citizens who refuse to acknowledge the truth about what Trump has done to them and to this country.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were big, very big ideas back in George Washington’s day. They should be even bigger ideas in 2023 now that we have had more than two centuries to perfect them through our Constitution and rule of law.
The idea that a significant part of the electorate could continue to turn a blind or ignorant eye toward the constant lies and abuse of those concepts just so they can deify their cult leader would have caused grave disappointment and dissatisfaction for the Father of our country.
If it is true that we should honor our fathers (and mothers) — and I believe that to be the case — then how can we on Father’s Day bring honor to what George Washington and his fellow colonists did to create this great country of ours?
It cannot be by bringing dishonor to ourselves.
Happy Father’s Day.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
