Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.
The anguish and angst visited upon us this election year is faithful to the old saying “Politics makes strange bedfellows.’” That take is adapted from a line in Shakespeare’s The Tempest—”Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
Inspired by this season of anguish and angst, this post offers dots connecting George Orwell, Bob Feller, Donald Trump, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, and Joseph Welch. You’re familiar with most of our cast. And you may recall that Welch is the attorney who grew up in Primghar, Iowa and attended Grinnell College. He gained national fame as the U.S. Army’s attorney 70 years ago, when he got fed up and asked Senator Joseph McCarthy on live television, “Have you left no sense of decency?”
But we’re ahead of the linking and sharing perspective on politics. Let’s begin with Orwell (1903-1950).
ABUSE OF LANGUAGE
In his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language,” Orwell feared our language was being twisted to the point of threatening freedoms because it “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
George Orwell in 1943 press accreditation photo (Branch of the National Union of Journalists)
The 1946 essay was sandwiched between Orwell’s novels Animal Farm (published in 1939) and 1984 (published in 1949). Language atrocities are plentiful in both. In Animal Farm, the pigs Napoleon and Snowball justify their reign on the farm as abiding by the commandment “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” In I984, “Newspeak” is a language of conformity useful in identifying and ridding society of any thoughts and people contrary to Big Brother’s rule.
In the 1946 essay, Orwell offers examples of such abuse of language. The list has only lengthened in ensuing years.
One of the most cited contortions of language was first reported by Peter Arnett of the Associated Press. While covering the war in Viet Nam in February 1968, Arnett quoted a U.S. major in explaining military action in the Battle of Bến Tre: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”
“Collateral damage” is a phrase often invoked to lessen the horrors of wartime carnage, such as that now in the Gaza Strip. The offering of “alternative facts” and the “fake news” label are also in vogue today, used to challenge unfavorable news coverage.
Orwell was concerned with misleading language that, with evil intent, twisted lies into truths and misdeeds into virtues.
THE HEATER FROM VAN METER
For his part, Bob Feller (1918-2010) spoke out against language that with good intent praised him, particularly for his forfeiting four full seasons of a Major League Baseball career to serve his country in combat in World War II. He didn’t even opt for morale-building tours to visit troops who would have been delighted to see such a baseball phenom. Also, until he enlisted, Feller had draft deferment status because of his family’s work in agriculture.
And he was the acclaimed “heater from Van Meter,” who at 23 had already established Hall of Fame credentials as a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians.
His entry in the online Navy Log notes,
On December 8, 1941 Feller, enlisted in the Navy, volunteering immediately for combat service becoming the first Major League Baseball player to do so following the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Feller served as Gun Captain aboard the USS Alabama, and missed four seasons during his service in World War II, being decorated with five campaign ribbons and eight battle stars.
U.S. Navy photograph of Chief Specialist Robert William (“Bob”) Feller, by a 40mm quadruple anti-aircraft gun mount, probably on board USS Alabama
Despite all of this, Feller still chafed when the press and others called him a “Hero.”
“I’m no hero,” was his terse rebuke. “Heroes don’t come back. Survivors return home. Heroes never come home. If anyone thinks I’m a hero, I’m not.” The contrast between Feller’s view of heroes and Trump’s take on them could not be greater, could it?
Four people attested that during a 2018 visit to France, then President Trump referred to those killed during wartime military service as “suckers” and “losers.”
While Trump denies making those remarks, he has displayed a similar attitude for the past decade.
In 2015 he called the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee Sen. John McCain “a loser” for having been imprisoned in Hanoi during the Viet Nam War. Trump’s disrespectful comments and behavior have continued, most recently seen in his sacrilegious violation of Arlington National Cemetery protocols to make a campaign video.
GRASSLEY’S DOUBLETHINK ON TRUMP
Some of Grassley’s comments about all of this have seemed, well, Orwellian. In October 2021, Iowa’s senior senator was dismissive of Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, on the grounds that “He’s a private citizen … He can say anything he wants to.”
To hear Grassley tell the story, the former president’s behavior was irrelevant to the political landscape. The senator made a similar comment to me in a letter a few months later, noting “President Trump has been out of office for about a year… I welcome any input you may have on the issues of the day.”
So, if Trump were merely a private citizen, why did Grassley so welcome the former president’s endorsement for his 2022 re-election bid? As the Des Moines Register reported at the time, Grassley said following Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” at a Des Moines rally: “I was born at night, but not last night [….] So if I didn’t accept the endorsement of a person that’s got 91% of the Republican voters in Iowa, I wouldn’t be too smart. I’m smart enough to accept that endorsement.”
As noted, Grassley asserted Trump didn’t merit scrutiny in those days, “He’s a private citizen.”
More recently, Grassley wrote in a letter to me that he could not offer comment on Trump because, not only is Trump a private citizen, he is also a presidential candidate:
Donald Trump is no longer president. He is now a private citizen and a presidential candidate. As this response comes from my official office and I am responding to you using taxpayer resources, Senate Ethics rules prohibit me from offering a position on any campaign for office.
So what if Senate rules prohibit Grassley from using “taxpayer resources” to address questions about how he condones Trump’s behavior? The senator could speak out or address such concerns in a number of other ways that wouldn’t involve any taxpayer resources.
At this point, Joseph Welch (1890-1960) becomes the final dot or perspective, thanks to his memorable comments about McCarthy’s witch hunts against alleged Communist sympathizers.
What Welch said to McCarthy at the televised McCarthy Army hearings on June 9, 1954, might well be directed today to Trump and his MAGA group, including Grassley, Governor Kim Reynolds, and Attorney General Brenna Bird: “Senator; you’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”
After Welch deferred to Chairman Senator Karl Mundt of South Dakota to call the next witness, the gallery burst into applause.