By Stephen Macaulay

One of the characteristics of those who have been affected by the Trump Force Field of Political Behavior is that they will say or do anything in order to obtain or maintain their jobs.

Does anyone doubt that there were extreme cases of groveling among those who would have otherwise been characterized as standing for probity (e.g., Lindsey Graham) or family (e.g., Ted Cruz)? Graham went from his, in 2015, “You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell” to figuratively shaving the man’s back. Ted Cruz, after Trump threw serious shade at Heidi Cruz, called Trump “a sniveling coward.” Subsequently, if there was any sniveling, Cruz held the Kleenex under Trump’s nose.

The reason they and many others bow and scrape so much that they’ve developed moral kyphosis is simply because they want to keep their source of income. There is an evident fear that if they go against their Dear Leader they will find the Base, which is like some sort of red-colored mob of Dementors, driving them from what they apparently imagine is a sinecure.

Potential examples of those who apparently think that it is okay to blatantly lie —because later they can either deny it or defect it, something that Trump did with absolute abandon -- (The Washington Post calculated the number of lies being 30,573 over his presidency) — are Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both of whom indicated, during their respective confirmation hearings, that Roe v. Wade was established precedent. Settled law.

As Gorsuch said during his hearings, “Part of the value of precedent – and it has lots of value, it has value in and of itself, because it is our history and our history has value intrinsically. But it also has an instrumental value in this sense: it adds to the determinacy of law.

“Once a case is settled, that adds to the determinacy of the law

“What was once a hotly contested issue is no longer a hotly contested issue. We move forward.”

Kavanaugh said during his hearing, “As a general proposition, I understand the importance of the precedent set forth in Roe v. Wade.”

So let’s say that the leaked SCOTUS draft opinion about Roe will stand with just a few minor copy edits.

What of what those two men said in front of senators and the American public?

When Supreme Court justices can be documented dissemblers, democracy has an exceedingly severe problem.

Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”

Nowadays, even the sun is cast in the shadow of lies.