“The former president—once our chief executive, the commander in chief, the leader we entrusted with the keys to nuclear hell—is accused of knowing that he lost a free and fair election, and, rather than transferring power to a duly elected successor, engaged in criminal plots against our democracy, all while firing up a mob that would later storm the Capitol.” – Tom Nichols, TheAtlantic
“We face in Trump a dedicated enemy of our Constitution, and if he returns to office, his next ‘administration’ will be a gang of felons, goons, and resentful mediocrities, all of whom will gladly serve Trump’s sociopathic needs while greedily dividing the spoils of power.” – Heather Cox Richardson
And so it goes. The man who was president of the United States for four years and who is most assuredly going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024 is now facing charges that he knowingly, purposely, and recklessly tried to remain in the White House after losing a free and fair election by seven million votes.
For those who pay attention to history, one of America’s most shining moments was when Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams, thus removing the Federalists from the executive office they held for the first 12 years of the country. Folks in Europe were dumbfounded. A ruling faction willingly stepped away from power? Without a single shot being fired?
Now that legacy is perhaps irreparably tarnished by a two-bit pussy-grabbing charlatan who, despite being bankrolled by his father, became perhaps the only person in the world who couldn’t run a profitable casino in Atlantic City.
Yet people, seemingly smart and decent people, refuse to condemn him. Many, in fact, double down. Trump is a victim of the deep state he was working to eradicate, they say. Trump is being deprived of his free speech.
Never mind that the damaging evidence against Trump comes almost exclusively from the mouths of Republicans, including many one-time allies. Never mind that the indictment clearly says that Trump had the right to say anything he wanted – even blatant lies about the so-called stolen election – but he didn’t have a right to conspire to overturn the election. He did not have the right to try to nullify the legal votes of 81 million Americans who put Joe Biden in office.
Trump famously said that he could shoot a man in broad daylight in downtown Manhattan and his supporters would still fawn over him. Not only was that true, it also became a demand. Failing to show fealty to Trump in every instance is a sin that the MAGA camp won’t accept, and so most Republicans, even those who timidly challenge him, will not call him out.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, flailing well behind Trump in what is turning out to be a quixotic presidential bid, last week promised that if he reached the White House he would start “slitting the throats” of federal employees.
Slitting their throats.
When even his quasi-opponents in the Republican Party try to out hyperbolize Trump with violent rhetoric, it’s far past the time to heed the warning of columnist Heather Cox Richardson. “To support Trump,” she wrote, “is to support sedition and violence, and we must be willing to speak this truth not only to power but to our fellow citizens.”
Those fellow citizens are often your friends, your family, your fellow church-goers, and your neighbors. It may be uncomfortable and seemingly futile to confront them, but Trump, DeSantis, and their ilk have no such reservations.
They are fully willing to dismantle our democratic institutions in plain sight. They think they’ve already won. Tomorrow, they sing, belongs to them.
