It seems as if I should have something to say as the former president is finally indicted for trying to undo the will of the voters in 2020 -- but I know I don't have anything to add to the cacophony. That reflects one of the difficult realities of the moment: mostly when I write here about injustices and atrocities, I try to envision actions we the people can take to end or reduce the harm. The Trump indictment takes the man's crimes out of the realm of popular action and into the arcane realm of the law. Let's hope he's convicted, but there is not much we can do about it.
Donald Trump doesn't want to play in that arena, so he is running for president again and his cult is large enough so he is comfortably on the way to nomination by the Republicans.
Therefore what we can and must do is work to make sure he can't ever win again. But that's a year away.
So I find myself reflecting on Indictment Day about the range of feelings the Trump trauma has induced in me over time. Here's a briefly annotated list:
November 2016: Horror and disbelief -- I had done almost no work in the 2016 election, for the first time in a couple of decades. I was no Hillary fan. But how could the electorate elevate this foul, incompetent man? I was open to conspiracy theories, for a hot minute. But mostly I was bewildered and not a little afraid.
January-December 2017: Fury and repulsion against the cruelties of the Trump regime toward migrants and Muslims carried me through that first year.
January-November 2018: I remained angry at my fellow voters for elevating this nightmare. I was repulsed by the mushrooming lies. I was disgusted by the obvious law breaking and graft in the administration, especially the Trump family. And, soon enough, I was determined to participate in beating this monstrosity at the ballot box; we did just that in the midterms.
January 2019-January 2021: Going into the presidential year, it was clear what had to be done. I was ready to work. I wasn't a Joe Biden fan, but I don't expect to like Democratic presidents, even though I heartily prefer then to the alternatives. The pandemic made it harder personally, since I didn't think I could risk going out on campaign. That ached. And grated. I was lucky to work remotely with a campaign (UniteHERE) that not only won in most of its aspects, but also prepared union members for the reality that Donald Trump would not concede his loss and might do just about anything to hold onto power. He did on January 6.
And so, today, I feel tired, worn out, and still determined. Our frayed democracy and continued rule of some kind of law again hangs in the balance going toward the 2024 election.
How are you feeling on Indictment Day?
• • •
Special prosecutor Jack Smith: “Each of these conspiracies — which built on the widespread mistrust the defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud — targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
For me, the most interesting commentators are the post-Republicans. A few:
Ken White, an Los Angeles attorney focusing on law and liberty, writing at Popehat: I’m furious. This indictment describes a course of conduct that should live in infamy for centuries, with Trump and his co-conspirators assuming their place in a pantheon of criminals, traitors, and anti-American miscreants for as long as the country endures. But Trump’s wrongdoing is fundamentally about not caring about truth, and only caring about power. Be better than Donald Trump. Care about the truth.
Peter Wehner, sadly reformed Republican speechwriter who specializes in Christian ethics in The Atlantic: Here’s something we should prepare for: If Donald Trump thinks he’s going down, he’s going to try to burn down our institutions. He will mobilize his MAGA base, his Republican enablers, and the right-wing media to unleash yet more lies and conspiracy theories. He will portray himself as a martyr who is being persecuted for the sake of his supporters. He will claim that his legal troubles prove that the system is corrupt, and not him.
Trump and his supporters will try to tamper with witnesses, intimidate jurors, and threaten public officials. And he will try to cause enough confusion, disorientation, discord, fear, and even violence to escape accountability yet again. Donald Trump has already deeply wounded our nation. He’s perfectly willing to break it. It’s up to us to keep him from succeeding.
Tom Nichols, another disillusioned Republican, also at The Atlantic: Other Republicans now, more than ever, face a moment of truth. They must decide if they are partisans or patriots. They can no longer claim to be both. ... To support Trump is to support sedition and violence, and we must be willing to speak this truth not only to power but to our fellow citizens.
The Trump trials continue a season of unexpected strange bedfellows.
1 comment:
I didn't have anything to say or think about the indictment yesterday either because I was walking around in my first-day-post-retirement trance around the city. Thank you for that brief personal chronology, though, because it mirrored my experience almost exactly. In a weird way, the Silicon Valley graphics job I had for the last seven years felt like a safe haven during the years of incipient fascism, if only because I was making money and not having to live off my wits in a country that seemed to be going off the rails.
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