Hero of the Republic™

As I was leaving work last night, news broke that both the Washington Post and MSNBC obtained excerpts from the book which has all of official DC agog: A Warning, by the anonymous author of last year's New York Times op-ed which assured citizens that, yes, Donald Trump was unstable, but the "steady state" officials working within the regime were keeping the lights on. "Adults were in the room."

In their new tome, Anonymous takes a darker turn. No longer reassuring Americans that the adults were minding the store, it now sounds an alarm that things are getting worse, and the "steady state" is unable to curb Trump's worst instincts.

You can read excerpts here, or catch Rachel Maddow's show on the YouTube. I actually don't care about the scoop. Nothing Anonymous tells us is any surprise. That Trump is an unfit megalomaniac who shouldn't be within ten miles of the White House is no surprise. That his regime is a shitshow is not a shock. That the Founders never foresaw such a person as him being able to ascend to the presidency is a truism.

What I care about is this "Anonymous."

Here they defend themselves against charges of being a moral coward:

“I have decided to publish this anonymously because this debate is not about me,” the author writes. “It is about us. It is about how we want the presidency to reflect our country, and that is where the discussion should center. Some will call this ‘cowardice.’ My feelings are not hurt by the accusation. Nor am I unprepared to attach my name to criticism of President Trump. I may do so, in due course.”

However, the preceding paragraph in the Post's write-up goes as such:

At a moment when a stream of political appointees and career public servants have testified before Congress about Trump’s conduct as part of the House impeachment inquiry, the book’s author defends his or her decision to remain anonymous.

Just yesterday, Jennifer Williams, an aide to Mike Pence and a career State Department staffer, refused to accede to a regime demand that she ignore a Congressional subpoena and testified behind closed doors as to what she saw and heard in regards to the Ukraine shakedown. Her testimony was another damning indictment.

A stream of of political appointees, as the Post story states, have ignored warnings and orders and threats, and have placed the Republic and the Constitution above their own well-being and careers, from Ambassador Bill Taylor to Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. They have given testimony, which they will again give in public, with their names attached to their testimony. They have staked their reputations and their honor in order to bring accountability to a dictator-in-the-making. The oaths they took to uphold and defend the Constitution, against all enemies foreign and domestic, overrode any qualms about personal safety.

In the face of these true heroes, of these real patriots, Anonymous continues to hide.

Imagine if the author came out, declared themselves, and laid out all the meetings they attended at which Trump went unhinged. And not only that, but also gave the names of other officials attending who could corroborate their statements.

How many former or current Trump officials read Anonymous' writing, know "Yes, that's right, I was there," and yet don't come forward to attest to the veracity of the account? They must number in the dozens. And yet neither they nor Anonymous have the courage of their convictions. They are mummers, hiding behind masks, afraid to show their faces, because their own comfort is more important to them than the safety of our Republic. They can't even justify their anonymity or silence by saying that they're keeping the wheels from flying off; Anonymous makes it clear that it's far beyond that now. We are in a moment of national peril, and Anonymous and his cohorts are not willing to confront it head on.

They are, quite simply, cowards, morally and politically. Their anonymity gives Trump sycophants an easy out. "Someone who won't stand by their words is a coward and liar." And they have a valid point. War is no time for passivity. And, as I wrote yesterday, we are in a war for the very direction that not only our nation will take, but the entire globe. Democracy and liberal values are no longer on the march. They are hemmed in by autocrats and chaos. And the United States, which should be their signal defender, is gripped in paralysis, as the battle plays out across our towns and cities. As Howard Zinn said, you can't be neutral on a moving train. Neutrality is complicity. And for all their protestations, Anonymous and their cohorts are complicit via their hiding and their silence.

The author says that the debate isn't about them. But by clinging to this anonymity, they do make it about them. They place themselves front and center, and offer a distraction. A true patriot would declare themselves, lay out every particular, and sound a real alarm. What Anonymous is doing is nothing but a salve to their own conscience. It doesn't absolve them, and it does nothing to save the nation. It's not their feelings which should be hurt by charges of cowardice; it's their very being, for they are cowards.

I won't purchase the book, even though, according to Maddow, the author didn't accept an advance, and will donate most of the proceeds to organizations which defend press freedom. The book won't tell me anything I don't know. Call me when Anonymous comes out of the shadows, and takes a stand, like a moral human being.