Please Don't Look Away, by Bill Wanlund
Do you know about The Steady State? It’s a cleverly, if optimistically-named, non-partisan organization of former senior officials in the various national security fields, including intelligence, defense, diplomacy, justice, law enforcement, and homeland security. Established in 2016 and with a membership of about 300, they have pledged themselves “to promote democracy, rule of law, and national security.”
Take a look at the organization’s logo, simple and straightforward, incorporating an old-time ship’s wheel under the name in a sturdy, all caps, no-nonsense font. You immediately know that Steady State favors a steady course. These are sober, serious people. They are not inclined to rock the boat in public unless absolutely necessary. Now, they have concluded, it’s time.
In a July 21 letter to Senate Republicans, Steady State executive director Steven A. Cash points out that his organization’s members have “firsthand experience watching democracies slide into autocracies…. We know the warning signs. [But we] never expected to confront these same warning signs at home” -- signs such as the White House replacing career professionals with individuals selected for personal loyalty rather than competence; loyalty oaths and ideological purges; attacks on the rule of law; and systematic campaigns to undermine trust in the media, the judiciary, and even the intelligence community.
In essence, Cash is saying, it might sound dire, but we’re not making this stuff up. “This is the very pattern of institutional capture and creeping authoritarianism that we have spent our careers countering overseas. Once a leader gains control of the organs of national security — intelligence, law enforcement, and diplomacy — the slide toward autocracy accelerates.”
Then, Cash turns up the shame flame: “Even in periods of sharp political division, we trusted that senators of both parties would uphold their constitutional duty to act as a check on executive overreach. That trust is now in jeopardy…. America’s strength lies not in one president or one party, but in its enduring institutions and in leaders — especially in Congress — willing to defend our core principles, laws, and constitution. When those institutions are weakened, our allies lose confidence in us, our adversaries are emboldened…[and] our national security agencies are weakened.”
Cash urges the GOP senators, “respectfully but firmly, [to] take stock of where we are heading and the role you, as Senators, play in this moment.” The Senate can be “a bulwark against the abuse of power. But that role depends on Senators being willing to say ‘no’ to a president, even one of their own party, when the Constitution and the safety of the Republic are at stake.”
Cash offers three concrete steps he says can, and should, be taken.
1. Hold hearings in the Committees of Jurisdiction, ask tough questions, demand real answers.
2. Embrace the history and legacy of the United States Senate, its authorities, responsibilities, and prerogatives.
3. Restore civility — effective oversight requires civility, and it is critical that pervasive crassness and childish viciousness of many in the Administration not infect the U.S. Senate.”
“You have the power to stand for the Constitution, for the rule of law, and for the national security institutions that have kept this nation safe and free for nearly 250 years,” Cash tells the Senators. “We urge you: Please do not remain silent. Please do not look away.”
Bill Wanlund is a PDCA Board Member, retired Foreign Service Officer, and freelance writer in the Washington, DC, area. His column, Worth Noting, appears occasionally in the Public Diplomacy Today and the PDCA Blog; it seeks to address PD and related topics of interest to all.