The news that some Conservative Party members of the British Parliament are refusing to rubber-stamp dubious power plays by new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a fellow Conservative and populist rabble-rouser, is a welcome reminder that principle can have a place in politics. And that it used to have much more of a place in Washington.

In 1973, after reports firmly linked President Richard Nixon’s re-election committee to a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate building the year before, Republicans in Congress were initially wary of proposed congressional hearings on the matter. Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee was one of many who thought Democrats, who lost 49 of 50 states in the 1972 presidential election, were acting out of pique.

Instead, Baker soon concluded that the scandal was genuine and that the Nixon White House was responsible for serious abuses of power. In the summer of 1974, Baker and other Republicans — including Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the party’s 1964 presidential candidate — worked with Democrats to persuade Nixon to resign. The question that Baker famously posed during Watergate hearings — “What did the president know and when did he know it?” — is one of the most evocative phrases in U.S. history. It gets to a crucial point: Lawmakers can hold even presidents of their own party accountable.

Unfortunately, in 2019, the catch phrase of GOP lawmakers who reflexively defend America’s populist rabble-rouser, Donald Trump, is essentially, “So what if the president abused power? No, we’re not going to do anything about it.”


It’s not just the Mueller report, which shows Trump in grossly improper fashion attempting to interfere with an FBI investigation. It’s Trump, in grossly improper fashion, trying to use his executive power to punish the parent firms of CNN and The Washington Post over their reporting about him. It’s Trump, in grossly improper fashion, treating America’s longtime allies like parasites and the leader of America’s arch-enemy, Russia, as a trusted source of advice about world affairs. It’s Trump, in grossly improper fashion, stomping on invaluable American traditions without the slightest realization of the downside of what he’s doing.

After a March appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in which Trump belittled those he considered his enemies for two hours — to the laughter of conservatives — a conservative who used to prep speeches for President George W. Bush despaired for America. “A democracy is designed for disagreement; it is undermined by mutual contempt,” wrote Michael Gerson. “And Trump’s whole style of politics is the cultivation of contempt. This directly weakens our unity as a nation.”

Baker and Goldwater would have agreed.

America will weather the Trump storm. But if it is viewed as a test of character, then it’s one too many Republicans are failing.

