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Rachel Maddow dedicated the first half of Tuesday’s show to the concept of how shame can be used to change direction in public servants.
Maddow said, “Why would they reverse course and start doing the right thing instead?” One thing that sometimes works is shame and embarrassment. Faced with the wrongness of what they’re doing, they feel shame and embarrassment, or at least the possibility of being publicly reprimanded, and the embarrassment of not being able to explain their actions in a way that satisfies everyone. to do. There are times when it is not possible to change the direction of a public official, and there are times when it is possible. Sometimes such things cause weak and wrong-doing public servants to straighten up and change their minds. ”
After playing footage of Senate Republicans clearly unwilling to answer questions about President Trump pardoning violent 1/6 insurrectionists, Rachel Maddow continued:
What they are going on here is unjustifiable. So they have no way to rationally answer even the most basic questions about it. And it turns out it’s important. Because all the senators, because of the sickening stomachs and self-loathing they felt today, and the shame and embarrassment they felt today after being asked and asked again and again about the president of their own party, are willing to go to federal prison. 211 people who were previously imprisoned were jailed. while taking part in the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol in which some of the same senators had to flee for their lives on charges of violence against police officers. That feeling that they’re having, that bad feeling of having to swallow this and figure out how to stop talking about it, because what can they say about it without feeling bad about it and intuitively? Because I can’t say it either. Wrong.
There is nothing that President Trump can say that is reasonable or true that would justify opening the prison doors for the 211 people currently in prison (many of whom were there for assaulting police officers). A feeling of not being there. When pressed, that feeling arose within the senators. That disgusting feeling may be what will save the country.
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From a historical perspective, Rachel Maddow was right. There was shame among elected officials. Public officials sometimes changed course and took the right action when the public and media criticized them too harshly.
In the polarized environment of 2025, does the media apparatus still exist that can apply shame? Mainstream media is owned by big corporations and billionaires, who have already taken a stance of not challenging Trump and the Republican Party. It shows.
We’ve seen Republicans in the House and Senate waiting for a backlash from what Donald Trump has done in the past.
With mainstream media bowing to President Trump and Republicans living in a conservative media bubble, will shaming Republicans in the House and Senate work the way Maddow suggests?
Given that four Senate Republicans publicly criticized President Trump after pardoning and releasing a violent criminal who beat up police officers and attempted to overthrow the government, the chances of that happening don’t seem very promising. .
But public humiliation is better than sitting around doing nothing, and President Trump may eventually go so far as to denounce many, even members of his own party. .
We haven’t seen it yet, but anything is possible.
What do you think about Rachel Maddow’s suggestion of public shaming? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
