Bill Barr talking truth about Trump

I know University of Iowa sports are important and fun, but the spectator sport I most enjoy is two Republicans going mano a mano in a primary. I cheer for their ultimate defeat in a general election, hoping both are sufficiently bruised to lose. But both sides are never equally irritating and that is certainly true of Bill Barr, attorney general in the Trump administration and Sen. Mitt Romney, once the Republican presidential nominee. The best game in town, and country, at this moment is between them as surrogates for two sides fighting for the soul and future of the Republican Party.

Barr was recently quoted in a news account, and I didn’t make this up: “Trump’s attorney general William Barr has just published a book detailing how Trump lied about the election and threatened democracy. And yet, on a tour to sell the book, Barr told NBC News that he would nonetheless vote for Trump if he were the Republican nominee in 2024.”

“Because I believe that the greatest threat to the country is the progressive agenda being pushed by the Democratic Party, it’s inconceivable to me that I wouldn’t vote for the Republican nominee,” Barr said.

You know a president lied and endangered our country, and yet you are going to vote for him again? I understand partisan loyalty, but embracing the political devil is not the best way to get to heaven on earth. It is the escalator to Lucifer Towers.

As Barr tells us what he knows about Donald Trump, he also tells us a lot about himself, and the character of people Trump appoints. Barr is a lawyer without logic, maybe without honor and an embarrassment to his profession and party.

What specifically is the “progressive” agenda worse than Trump? Progressives, often with help from moderate Republicans, have brought us Social Security long ago (65 million Americans are getting checks today) and Obamacare more recently. Would Barr like Trump try to repeal them? We have federal aid to education; farmers have survived on their hard work, but it wouldn’t have been enough without subsidies and crop insurance. Ask a Peace Corps volunteer if he or she learned anything about the lasting joy and satisfaction of doing unto others. All of that is part of the offensive “progressive agenda.”

While Barr peddles books, Romney promotes conservative decency, Republican orthodoxy, and courageous Congresswoman Liz Cheney. Romney spoke recently at a fundraiser for her. Republicans in the room contributed over half a million dollars for her campaign for the Republican nomination. We don’t look for perfection in our candidates. We don’t nominate saints. But victory at any cost is an insult to everyone, not just progressives, but sensible Republicans as well. Romney and Barr make the choice clear.

A Republican organizer of the Cheney event said, "I think people are really hungry for a sensible, rational alternative in our political dialogue.“

In the months ahead, Iowa Republicans, including our Senators and Representatives, will have to choose between lies and the truth.

Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary, and authored a memoir “From Nowhere to Somewhere.”