Decency

     In his essay "George Will scorns Pence for the high crime of decency," William Bennett chastised Will for calling Mike Pence "America's most repulsive public figure."  According to Bennett, Will's contempt for Pence comes from the vice president's "heinous crime of being a decent man."  In his own column, Will aptly describes Pence's zealous reverence (In a December cabinet meeting, Pence praised Trump every 12 seconds for three 3 minutes running, Washington Post 5/9/18) for Donald Trump as "toadyism" and "obsequiousness."  For Bennett, Pence is not the least bit obsequious, whereas Will is guilty of a "supercilious verbosity" intended to "validate his own sense of superiority." 

     Before explaining why he thinks Pence is a decent man, Bennett complains about Will's choice of words: "Will summons the depth of his ample thesaurus" to write a column "filled with big words that most Americans never use and can't even define."  This charge has been made against Will over the years, as Will's dexterity with language has earned him both praise and criticism.  Yet, it seems surprising that former education secretary William Bennett, whose own essay displays a knowledge of complex words (e.g., "savoir faire," "sesquipedalian," "obfuscates," "supercilious," "lamentations," "otiosity"), would approve of people being too lazy to look up words they do not know.  Perhaps Bennett believes that most "Americans" should accept their intellectual limitations. 

     Beyond his censure of Will's rhetorical style, Bennett objects to Will depicting Pence as a toadying sycophant.  In Pence's defense, Bennett argues that Will proves only that Pence is "very polite and proper."  As Bennett sees it, someone who is "cordial and mannerly" need not distinguish between decent and indecent individuals.  That is why it's fine for Bennett that Pence felt "honored" to have the lawbreaking goon Joe Arpaio among an audience he addressed in Arizona.   And that is why it's fine for Bennett that the pious Pence, who refuses to be alone with any woman except his wife, bends and truckles to a man who asserts his privilege to grope women.  Unlike Bennett, Will understands a simple truth: Pence lacks the decency and courage to spurn those who are indecent. 

     William Bennett edited The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories, The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey, and the author of The DEATH OF OUTRAGE: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals.  In the last of these books Bennett assails the pathetic rationale of those who defended Clinton's behavior in the White House.  For instance, he mockingly cites Wendy Kamine's observation that it is "childlike and potentially dangerous" to hold a president to a high moral standard.  He admonishes Billy Graham for Graham's specious excuse that it is not Clinton's fault that he makes "the ladies just go wild."  And he recounts how certain women's groups fought against Clarence Thomas's nomination to the Supreme Court, but remained silent about Clinton because Clinton supported the issues important to them. 

     More than twenty years have passed since Bennett's books published his moral outrage. Maybe such outrage no longer applies in 21st century.  Or maybe such outrage is less important than what Bennett fears most: that criticism like Will's might produce the "ultimate consequence of...a return to power of the liberal establishment."  Terrible as that result might be for Bennett, I should point out his own words to help him reset what surely is his broken moral compass: "In the end, the President's apologists are attempting to redefine the standard of acceptable behavior for a President.  Instead of upholding a high view of the office and the men who occupy it, they radically lower our expectations."

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will050918.php3

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/05/12/william-bennett-george-will-scorns-pence-for-high-crime-decency.html