"Enough" by Cassidy Hutchinsion, An 'Almost Mea Culpa'

 

 "I had started my job with the belief that my colleagues and I were doing something important for the country. But when the "president" I had served wholeheartedly persuaded his supporters to reject the legitimacy of a free and fair election, I knew he was leading a dangerous assault on our political ideals and governing institutions for no other purpose than to soothe his injured pride." (Cassidy Hutchinson, "Enough" pages 353-354)

When this book was initially released, I decided that I wouldn't bother to read it.  But after I read Liz Cheney's fine book, I changed my mind and ordered the book based on the numerous compliments Cheney gave to Hutchinson based on their multiple contacts during the work of the January 6 Committee. In another relatively minor "three degrees of separation" connection, I have a cousin who is an employee of Christopher Newport University where Hutchinson received her degree.  They say they never actually had any contact with her on campus but did remember her from her time there without any particular opinion of her, either good or bad.  As I read the book, I found myself disgusted pretty thoroughly during the first half or so of the book due to her persistent use of the adjective "President" in reference to TRAITOR Trump.  It is a word which I never have and never will use to refer to TRAITOR Trump who is the ultimate recipient of the self-centered largess of Vladimir Putin and Russia in the form of his hackers having helped steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton  with a total margin of just a little over 80,000 votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan combined.  He is a TRAITOR, a Russian Agent, and a clear cut threat to democracy so long as he is alive and able to further incite his cult members.  It will take at least fifty years of good, honest, democratic government to undo the moral and ethical damage he and his supporters have done to America, American Democracy, and democracy worldwide.  

Finally, as I read further between several necessary breaks from the misled praise of TRAITOR Trump, I found that Hutchinson did gradually come to her senses while working in the White House and struggled in her soul with the necessary psychic shift which was required for her to finally realize just how much damage he and his cult were doing to the country.  The first occasion I remember when I began to believe that Hutchinson was actually in the process of making that psychic shift was when she says in the book that TRAITOR Trump "...lacked the empathy to deal with the Covid epidemic".  But, over the course of her time inside the White House, she reached a point in that shift to enable her to initially testify in camera to the committee and then to agree to the public testimony which has now made her famous.  She developed what seems to be a meaningful and mutually respectful relationship with Liz Cheney which gave her the courage to eventually take the big step and cut her ties to the attorney which what she calls "Trump World" had provided for her after the insurrection and domestic terrorism of January 6, and search until she found other high level attorneys who have guided her through her final testimony sessions with the committee, the isolation she suffered afterward from the people inside the White House and the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party who made her a pariah in the circles in which she had previously moved.  She is obviously an intelligent, hard working, loyal woman who found herself in a position where her heartfelt version of patriotism could not be reconciled with a group of TRAITORS, domestic terrorists, and insurrectionists who were willing to overthrow the US government and murder Mike Pence in order to satisfy their TREASONOUS leader, TRAITOR Trump.  She also developed a relationship with Alexander Butterfield, the elderly former Richard Nixon aide who had disclosed to investigators that a White House recording system existed which eventually led to the downfall of Nixon.  She describes reading Bob Woodward's book, "The Last of The President's Mean", which tells Butterfield's story, and being deeply affected by Butterfield's morals which led to his being able to take a step in 1973 which was very similar to the one she had to take in 2021to testify against the occupant of the White House in order for each of them to be able to face themselves in the mirror.  

In my title to this blog post, I used the phrase"An Almost Mea Culpa", and I believe that Hutchinson came up a bit short of actually admitting that while she worked in the White House she was also partially culpable with TRAITOR Trump and those who perpetrated the January 6 insurrection and domestic terrorism for the outcomes of that crime including the deaths of five people.  That is a long step which I doubt that she will ever take.  This is a book which is worth reading but only after the prospective reader has read Liz Cheney's fine book, reread the US Constitution, and carefully studied a high school civics book.