This Kansas Republican did the honorable thing. In the Trump era, pity it’s a surprise | Opinion
Carl Maughan is facing some troubles these days, but one thing is clear: He is still a much better public servant than Donald Trump.
Maughan, you may or may not know, is a Republican member of the Kansas House from Colwich. Back in March, he was arrested in Topeka for possessing a loaded firearm while driving under the influence of alcohol. Last week he was officially charged with a pair of misdemeanors in the case.
And on Thursday — the same day, incidentally, that Trump was convicted of 34 criminal counts of falsifying hush-money records in a New York court — Maughan announced that he would no longer run for reelection. “For personal and family reasons, I will be terminating my campaign for re-election as State Representative for District 90,” he wrote. “It has been an honor and privilege to serve the citizens of the 90th. I will complete my term and remain active in politics in order to continue to serve our state and nation in whatever small way that I can.”
He did the right thing. What a world.
It’s a shame that Maughan’s announcement is surprising, though.
Americans have probably forgotten, in this age of “never apologize, never surrender” politics, that elected officials used to at least pretend they had a little honor. If your local city commissioner got caught doing something wrong — not even criminal, just wrong — they would often quickly step away from office.
Quit. Resign. Decide to spend more time with their families.
It’s why President Richard Nixon resigned rather than put the country through the stress of an impeachment trial. It’s why Kansas native Gary Hart dropped out of the 1988 presidential race after newspaper reporters found him doing an overnight with Donna Rice. Heck, it’s even why Sen. Al Franken grumblingly left his seat a few years ago after accusations of sexual harassment.
Hypocrisy is an ever-present element of our politics — always has been, always will be — but there used to be limits.
So why did so many politicians throw themselves on their metaphorical swords?
For one thing, they existed in a culture that mostly saw serving in elected office as a privilege, not a right. And even if those politicians lacked the honor to slink away in disgrace, they knew their constituents would hold them accountable.
Those days are over.
GOP attorneys general attack US justice system
Trump, of course, isn’t going anywhere. The jury verdict didn’t humble him. Instead he’s out there hinting — wink, wink — that violence might accompany any attempt to sentence him to prison.
“I think it would be tough for the public to take,” he told Fox News over the weekend. “You know, at a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”
Virtually nobody in the GOP is calling for him to step back. Indeed, the major Republicans in Kansas and Missouri — folks like Sens. Josh Hawley, Roger Marshall, Jerry Moran and Eric Schmitt — all decried the New York verdict as a travesty of justice. More remarkably, Attorneys General Andrew Bailey and Kris Kobach also joined the attacks.
It’s not often you see prosecutors work so hard to undermine the legitimacy of the justice system. But it’s long been understood that both men are more loyal to Trump than to the Constitution.
What can we conclude from Trump’s failure to withdraw from the presidential race?
The obvious answer is that Trump — along with the party that is about to officially make him its nominee — doesn’t actually see the presidency as a privilege, but as an entitlement. When that happens, any expectation of good character or law-abiding naturally goes out the window. You don’t have to work to earn what should be yours in the first place, right?
The other possibility, though, is that Republicans expect that voters won’t punish Trump for his criminal convictions, or for any of the dozens of other federal and state charges still awaiting trial.
And maybe they’re right. I hope not.
Maughan’s decision to withdraw from the Kansas House race, though, is a sign that some politicians think the old rules still apply to them. He did the right thing for both his family and the public that he ostensibly serves. Donald Trump never will.
Joel Mathis is a regular Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle Opinion correspondent. He lives in Lawrence with his wife and son. Formerly a writer and editor at Kansas newspapers, he served nine years as a syndicated columnist
