Profiles in Courage
It could seem that in political circles, courage has almost become its own cottage industry. Cassidy Hutchinson is just the latest to capitalize on her fifteen minutes of courage. Obviously, her testimony took a lot longer than fifteen minutes and I’m sure the decision to testify was an agonizing one. Yet, her courage is a lot more inspiring than that of Mitt Romney.
Testifying and simply telling the truth seems ordinary and I suppose in some points of our history it might have been. One of the considerations here is in describing what Hutchinson is giving up. She is 27 years old. She had a bright future in GOP politics. How many people are capable of being the chief aide to the White House chief of staff in their mid twenties?
So, while the book and the accompanying tour on MSNBC might seem craven and self-interested, we have to remember that her lot in life has been cast. Maybe she lands with MSNBC or another center-left outlet, but in the meantime she is a pariah in GOP circles. This doesn’t even mention that everyone knows her face and we can’t calculate what kind of effect this will have on her personal life.
The personal accounts of what both Rudy Giuliani and Matt Gaetz did to her are disgusting and yet completely believable. We have to remember, she was willing to tell the truth while everyone else was scurrying for the exit. This plays into the little things we don’t think about when someone like her is willing to simply speak the truth about their collective experience.
This is wholly different than Romney and most politicians are like Romney. He is retiring from the senate. He is retiring from public life. His book is essentially his mic drop moment. Everyone of us has that fantasy in our head about who we would tell off and exactly what we would say on retirement day. Most of us don’t follow through. After all, what’s the point? However, he is throwing his hat on sideways, yelling “deuces” and exiting stage left. Sure, he is telling the truth and in a party dominated by liars, but who are we really trying to kid here?
Anyone that is 27 is a kid to me. I’ve taught people that are now 40 years old. I’m trying to imagine any of them in Hutchinson’s shoes. I’ve had some ex-students do some pretty remarkable things. Some are lawyers. Some our doctors. I even have one or two that went into movies and the music industry. I don’t know how many would have the courage to do what Hutchinson did.
I don’t think they would have lied. They would likely have done their civic duty and testified behind closed doors, but this was a story America needed to hear for themselves. This is a story that will take her path in life and throw it on a completely new track. Why shouldn’t see make a few dollars along the way? It will help cushion the blow as she does a hard reset on her life.
I watched her interview with Rachel last night. Ms. Hutchinson is a very impressive young woman and I hope her future will be bright.
1She waded into very deep, swift waters without any life preserver. I found her to be very brave and completely credible. That in itself makes her unique in the world of repugnantican politics. Anyone who believes Gaetz or Giuliani’s denials are brainwashed by the RW. Hope her book is a top seller because she’ll probably use the money for good and deserves it. I also hope she lands in a good place with her career and life.
2I have immense respect for Ms Hutchinson. Her courage in front of millions during the hearings is most admirable and I wish her the best going forward. But, the big questions lingers. What could possibly draw a lovely, intelligent, articulate young lady into the circle of an unbridled narcissist such as Trump? His dastardly life was always an open book, appealing primarily to the lower elements of society. That said, I have longtime, very intelligent friends that did “drink the kool aid”. I will never understand.
3Here’s the link to her interview with Rachel. It was excellent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQLstlJL8OI
4She was just on The View … you can catch her segment on YouTube later on today!!
5“… the book and the accompanying tour on MSNBC might seem craven and self-interested…”
From what I read she was an honest chief aide, honest when she testified, honest when she wrote her book.
If she wants to go on TV more power to her. She makes a better guest than the usual suspects – – liars, spin meisters, and sycophants.
6Clearly one can be honest, honorable, and take full advantage at the same time. Obviously, her life will never be the same after this. While their situations aren’t directly comparable, we can ask Monica Lewinsky if the public ever forgets.
7I get it that she carried off a courageous act, if not several of them, but that doesn’t repudiate her supposed allegiance to the rotted hulk of the Republican Party’s “principles.”
Huzzah for her, but I sure wouldn’t vote for her if she ran for office.
8What a fine upstanding, young woman! Summer of 2016, as a 20 year old she applied for and got an internship with Ted Cruz. Must have been swept up in his charismatic aura. Secured work in the 45th’s administration which she parlayed into working as an aide to Mark Meadows, privy to the whole shit show of the TFG’s presidency and worked relentlessly to get him re-elected. She was intimately aware of and involved in the lead up to Jan. 6, so she went public to try and avert an attempt to overthrow thedemocr…
9Oh , wait. She did nothing, except continue to help Mark Meadows spread the big lie. When subpoenaed to give sworn testimony and facing jail for perjury she dumped Trump’s lawyer and then told the truth so she wouldn’t go to prison. She’s a True Believer who used the Trump Administration to further her career and will now try to hop aboard the Lincoln Project gravy train or the Joe Manchin No Party spoiler group. Nick, your effort at immediate rehabilitation is just another in a long series of actions as The Beauty Shop’s Neville Chamberlain. At least this one only wasted a short amount of my time.
You have a point Wally and if you read my preamble you’d see how we have to qualify the courage given the times. I’d agree in the abstract that simply testifying truthfully shouldn’t make anyone a hero. It truly is a wacky world we live in.
Part of me finds profiting off of heroism unsavory. Should someone that simply tells the truth need to make the rounds on all the shows? It’s a fair point.
10Nope, nope, nope.
As Wally pointed out, she immersed herself in a corrupt organization and stayed there supporting it. At least half the country knew it was an evil and corrupt entity and she was in the middle of it and couldn’t figure it out until she was faced with possible criminal proceedings.
It is difficult for me to see how someone who voluntarily joined and worked in Trump’s administration is worthy of respect or admiration.
11She is still young and made choices different than most of us, politically, and had job opportunities we would find distasteful, including me. In MHO, she had enough and came forward in a very public way, and continues to do so. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt- for now. The proof will be in how she goes forward to help fight the RW attempts to destroy our democracy. If she simply uses her platform to profit, the benefit of doubt will vanish. She is still young so we’ll see which way she goes.
12There are any number of layers to this onion that we could peel back. Unfortunately, with the state of mendaciousness run amok there is little way to know whether she is conservative and was just blinded by an opportunity of a lifetime to work in the White House at her age. I would get it on that level. If she were MAGA then that obviously changes the optics a lot.
Wally called me Neville Chamberlain which of course is a lovely moniker to take on. In order for this thing (whatever you call this current reality) to end we must accept at least some reformed MAGAs at least enough to defeat this menace. Now, I’m open to whatever suggestions people are willing to make. Certainly the conditions of being welcomed back into normal society need to be qualified. We will likely never completely trust them or work with them on 100 percent of things. They may be partial allies in limited circumstances. I can go along with that.
What I can’t do is offer no road back to redemption. I get it. They are horrible people that followed a horrible man. If someone is willing to own up to their horribleness then that deserves some kind of path back. Yes, what that looks like is open to interpretation. Yes, you may never be a fully welcomed member of the herd, but zero tolerance is a small part of the reason why we are in this mess in the first place.
13I think it’s great that she’s become friends with Alexander Butterfield of Watergate fame. I’m sure that he can reassure her that there will be a good long life for her ahead – after all, he’s 97!
14I am grateful to Miss Hutchinson for revealing the truth about January 6th, what with the magats and their death threats.
15What I find troubling is the fact that she remained in that snake’s nest, after all that she had seen and experienced.
She stated that she felt she could help to prevent more of the same, but she must have known that she had no power to do so. Even now, she still considers herself a Republican.
What must it take to persuade an educated, intelligent woman
that Repugs do not have her or anyone’s best interests in mind.
@ Wally and Chuck
16All that can be true.
What is also true is that, before she was 30, she intentionally destroyed a cushy future in R circles and opened herself up the the threats and intimidations that (a) greet any woman who speaks up in public AND (b) she had seen from close range trump handing out while he was in office. And she did that to testify for the Jan 6 Committee and stand up for the Constitution.
What Romney did has cost him nothing; in fact he is running from the fight when he could have made a difference. Hutchinson has done the right thing against her personal interests – and maybe her personal political views. I admire and respect her for that – like I admire and respect Rusty Bowers and Liz Cheney. Doesn’t mean I’m taking any of them to raise, or would vote for them for dog catcher.
And, Wally, leave the name calling to the bad guys. We don’t beat our enemy by imitating them.
From what I read in the WaPo the other day, her father bears a certain resemblance to Trump in a number of ways. Ten to one, she was busy trying to shed that particular memory when she testified and wrote the book. Seems to me that at last in at least one way, she is now “free to be”.
17Nick @ 13 said: “we must accept at least some reformed MAGAs at least enough to defeat this menace.”
Perhaps WWII is an example. The Germans and Japanese fought us, and we fought them. It took some time, but now they’re among our staunchest friends and allies.
(Side note – I have no numbers to prove this, but when reading the news it sometimes seems there are more Nazis in present day America than in Germany)
18Right on, Nick! I have the same impression.
19It’s a good analogy Rick, but I am thinking more of the Russians circa WW2. We absolutely could not trust them and we absolutely did not like where communism was going, but we needed them to defeat the Germans. The Neville Chamberlain analogy only works as it pertains to the head of that monster. If you identify 45 as the head of the monster then we need to look at anyone that can help defeat THAT monster.
20Nick Carraway, your history may be a bit fuzzy. Chamberlain, thinking that Hitler was signing agreements in good faith, actually believed Germany to be the lesser of two evils over the USSR. Appeasement seemed reasonable to avoid the horrors of another world wide war. A fairly wise strategy if, and only if, the people you are negotiating with are acting in good faith. Hence, tagging you with the Chamberlain label. It is shorthand for the exact situation we are in right now. We need Churchill-like resolve, not deals the Republicans have no intention of keeping. The House, with the votes of the Democrats would pass a clean bill to pay the bills incurred by Government (not an extension) if McCarthy brought it to a vote and whipped most of his caucus. He would then lose his Speakership because of the rule changes he conceded to obtain it. Make no mistake, this is just a part of an extended, decades long war Republicans have been fighting to deny Democrats any voice in government, even when Democrats get the majority of votes. Treating it as mere negotiable differences in policy to be amicably worked out is what has raised my particular ire with your writing. They are set on ruling, not governing America.
21Look at the demands of the Gaetz, Boebert crowd that they insist on, or else! TNever have Democrats threatened chaos for universal healthcare, real progressive taxation, strong funding for public education, etc. These liberal (or perhaps just humane) ideals have always been regarded as too far-fetched to even discuss, let alone put on the table at the beginning of negotiations for anything. The voices of AOC and The Squad have been a breath of fresh air arriving from somewhere not sharply right of center like everything else proposed in the halls of Congress.
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