The end of shame
Roy Moore
Our sad national trajectory has been on display recently with  two oddly connected stories: Alabama Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore and the tax bill .  They  share a common thread in President Trump  but  their  significance goes beyond the president. Trump surely helped fuel the end of shame  but just as surely we were already on that degraded path.
No one who has watched  Moore  expected that reports of how  he  allegedly preyed on young girls would provoke shame from the egocentric  already discredited judge.  Moore  has long proved — with  his  flagrant disregard for constitutional values   his  homophobia and racism — that  he  is impervious to such feelings.
The open question involved  Moore ’s true-believing supporters and political allies of convenience: At long last  had they any decency? For some  including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and most of his colleagues  the answer has been a welcome yes. Others  most prominently Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) and  inevitably  Trump  have failed what should have been an easy test. To conclude that electing an accused child molester to the Senate is preferable to seating a Democrat is the epitome of shamelessness.
And the president  for whom shamelessness has proven a potent tactic  pronounced himself persuaded by  Moore ’s similarly blatant approach: “He totally denies it.” But the more instructive moment came with Trump’s very first public words on the  Moore  reports: “I can tell you one thing for sure. We don’t need a liberal person in there  a Democrat.” Morality is a luxury with a 52-vote Senate majority. Shame is a millstone  or would be if Trump were capable of it.
What is truly stunning is Mulvaney’s brazen willingness to admit that the price tag is phony — specifically the notion that individual tax cuts will expire. Mulvaney  making the rounds of the Sunday shows  felt no need to dissemble. “One of the ways to game the system is to make things expire . . . a lot of this is a gimmick ” he told NBC. And  on CNN  “It’s simply trying to essentially manipulate the numbers and game the system.” In other words  we’re lying to you to ram this through    and we’re not even going to bother to hide  it .
Our sad national trajectory has been on display recently with  two oddly connected stories: Alabama Republican Senate nominee [TGT] and the tax bill .  They  share a common thread in President Trump  but  their  significance goes beyond the president. Trump surely helped fuel the end of shame  but just as surely we were already on that degraded path.
No one who has watched  Moore  expected that reports of how  he  allegedly preyed on young girls would provoke shame from the egocentric  already discredited judge.  Moore  has long proved — with  his  flagrant disregard for constitutional values   his  homophobia and racism — that  he  is impervious to such feelings.
The open question involved  Moore ’s true-believing supporters and political allies of convenience: At long last  had they any decency? For some  including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and most of his colleagues  the answer has been a welcome yes. Others  most prominently Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) and  inevitably  Trump  have failed what should have been an easy test. To conclude that electing an accused child molester to the Senate is preferable to seating a Democrat is the epitome of shamelessness.
And the president  for whom shamelessness has proven a potent tactic  pronounced himself persuaded by  Moore ’s similarly blatant approach: “He totally denies it.” But the more instructive moment came with Trump’s very first public words on the  Moore  reports: “I can tell you one thing for sure. We don’t need a liberal person in there  a Democrat.” Morality is a luxury with a 52-vote Senate majority. Shame is a millstone  or would be if Trump were capable of it.
What is truly stunning is Mulvaney’s brazen willingness to admit that the price tag is phony — specifically the notion that individual tax cuts will expire. Mulvaney  making the rounds of the Sunday shows  felt no need to dissemble. “One of the ways to game the system is to make things expire . . . a lot of this is a gimmick ” he told NBC. And  on CNN  “It’s simply trying to essentially manipulate the numbers and game the system.” In other words  we’re lying to you to ram this through    and we’re not even going to bother to hide  it .