A "perfect union" be damned. Revenge now is the goal of government
This is the real threat to democracy.
Once upon a time, our republic’s full measure of its purpose was unity, justice, domestic tranquility, defense, the general welfare and liberty.
No longer. Now it’s angry revenge. Payback. Retaliation.
From both the left and the right, progressive and conservative, the coin of the realm has shifted to getting even.
That’s what the indictment of former President Donald Trump is.
Two days ago, I wrote that the indictment had the goods on Trump. Whatever the legalities of him grabbing and hiding top secret war documents, Trump’s action was boneheaded. Dangerous. Scary
But Special counsel Jack Smith, who handed up the indictment, and his boss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, who could have held over or halted the indictment, set off another battle in the war of attrition.
Apparently they didn’t understanding, or more likely ignored, the huge, unprecedented and perilous threat to democracy that results for criminally indicting a former president who is running for re-election.
Let me put this bluntly: This is a damnable use of our government to attack a political opponent.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
The indictment elevates the weaponization of government powers to a new and frightening level. At its worse, government prosecution of political opponents is reminiscent of communist Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. And communist China today. Recall the Reign of Terror in revolutionary France in which thousands of the political opponents were beheaded by the guillotine.
The Left will scoff at anyone on the Right (me) who points out how liberals/Democrats/progressives threaten Democracy. Their story is that only Republicans
Yet, the ways Democrats do it is too lengthy to list. Here’s a few:
Start with how they didn’t see much, if anything, wrong with a mob exclusively occupying several city blocks declaring it to be a self-governing zone. Not alarmed when a mob is allowed to take over and burn a police headquarters. Stand aside as fire consumes Ma and Pop stores. Set a church on fire across from the White House.
Conduct a years-long scheme falsely accusing Trump of conspiring with Russia. A politicized FBI participateing in the scheme, lying to the F’ISA court about the evidence and the court seeming to be perfectly happy to have been lied to and being dragged into the scheme as participants.
The FBI allegedly ignoring for years a memo that accuses Sen.Joe Biden of taking a bribe. While the Trump indictment was done in months, the FBI has been fiddling around for years investigating Hunter Biden. The FBI long sat on his laptop, after first denying they had it.
Let’s not forget Hillary Clinton’s private server in her house and the thousands of documents she had deleted when the unprotected server became public.
The public record alone directs us to possible illegalities that ought to prompt investigations of Democrats, Biden and Clinton. Yet nothing has come of any of it. The expression of “two systems of justice, one for Republicans and one for Democrats” has become a cliche. Because it’s true.
Can it be that Atty. Gen. Merritt Garland was behind the Trump indictment as revenge because Republicans denied him a seat on the Supreme Court for purely political reasons? Certainly, Biden could not have appointed Garland to a better position to extract revenge. One can reasonably suspect that in today’s climate.
Whatever the motivation, Garland and the Biden administration have set in motion one of the most serious internal confrontations to democracy in my memory.
Will Trump have to campaign from prison? Can he be an imprisoned president? Will foreign leaders have to get prison passes for a summit meeting with the president? Can he pardon himself? Even if Trump isn’t convicted, America still will move on to one of the most ugly and divisive campaigns ever.
What if Biden is re-elected while Trump sits in prison. Will Trump stir up the mobs for another attack on the Capitol and democracy? As president would Trump loose the dogs on the Democrats?
Think America is divided now? You ain’t see nothing yet.
There’s no way I can see how we escape from this conundrum. The imagination reels at all of the possibilities.
Because of all this, America is about to plunge into untested and dangerous waters. Indicting a presidential candidate invites a round of never-ending pay-backs.
We are irrevocably on a path on which no one will win. Can anyone think of how we can safely navigate through this mess? I can’t. The losers will be us and our democracy.