Yes, I’m writing about that man. On August 3, 2023 the 45th president of The United States was arraigned on four counts of conspiracy. This is the third time in the past four months that he has been indicted for crimes, twice by the federal government and once by the City of New York.
Let’s call this The Trump Trifecta.
Before going any further I have to admit that I’m not feeling gleeful about this. As anyone who has read my posts, articles, or knows me knows that I am not a member of team Trump. I hated that he was elected in 2016, I hated his presidency, I hated his lack of response to the pandemic, I hate how he’s diminished our institutions, and I hate how he exploited our fears and biases.
And I particularly hated his willful and open undermining of the rule of law. He not only weaponized his Office of Legal Counsel and his Solicitor General, he weaponized the Department of Justice, and by his appointments the Supreme Court. All in service of advancing what passed for his political agenda and, over time, his accrual of power.
When the chips were down and it was more than clear to anyone not named Donald John Trump that Trump lost the 2020 election, Trump proceeded to undermine the bedrock of our democracy, our ability to cast votes for the candidates of our choice. He intentionally, in my opinion based on verifiable evidence, participated in, if not directed, a conspiracy to thwart the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021.
Permit a point of personal privilege for a moment. In February 2017, I wrote a piece that was posted on a local on-line web site concerning what I thought were obvious tells as to Trump’s authoritarian instincts. His dystopian Inaugural Address only a few weeks earlier did not serve as a dog whistle but as a bull horn to those who wished to preserve their “place” in society, even at the expense of democracy.
We saw some of Trump’s appointments to his administration: Jeff Sessions as attorney general poised to enforce Trump’s racist, draconian immigration policies; Stephan Miller, the authoritarian racist “advisor” who promoted immigration policies such as the patently unconstitutional Muslim Ban; Steve Bannon whose sole purpose was to maintain and expand the MAGA base; Don McGahn as legal counsel to the president whose primary existence was to put in effect the nomination and ratification of judicial nominees from a list developed by the Federalist Society, an organization dedicated to the maintenance of the legal structure protecting the few at the expense of the many.
That this and more happened was no surprise to those who followed American politics over the past 40 years. Our system has always accommodated the tension between the economic elites and those at the bottom of the economic ladder seeking not to redistribute wealth, but to just a get fair shot at the American Dream.
Beginning in earnest in 1980, the normal democratic tension was not merely between, in Harold Laswell’s words, who got what, when and how. Instead, as the country racially and ethnically diversified, and as the workplace accommodated more women and a variety of ethnicities, as many of our communities started to become true melting pots, and as cultural norms became more permissive if not accepting, as the established order was threatened by these changes there was a decided shift in our politics – to division and exclusion.
This was much easier than anyone could have imagined. In 2006, John Dean (yes that John Dean) wrote a book entitled Conservatives Without Conscience, in which he advanced a thesis supported by psychological analysis of surveys conducted with self-identified conservatives. Dean’s thesis, which was supported by the aforementioned analysis, was that social conservatives and neoconservatives are, on the whole, demonstrably authoritarian, bigoted, irrational and amoral.
Ten years later, we elected Donald John Trump to be the 45th President of the United States. Whatever the Grand Old Party was prior to Trump’s election soon became a new Republican Party, a MAGA party. Dean’s thesis is proved. Any questions?
Make no mistake, it was no accident that the events of January 6, 2021 occurred. As early as the summer prior to the election, Trump repeated that the only way “they” or “you” could lose the November election was if it was stolen by the democrats. Trump lost, prophecy fulfilled.
As last week’s indictment asserts, as early as November 14, Trump engaged with others to undermine and eventually cancel the will of the voters for one simple reason: to keep Trump in office to ensure a concentration of power remained in the hands of an ever decreasing soon to be a demographic minority.
Whether Trump was a mastermind of this now increasingly prone to violence MAGA movement/party or whether he was their useful idiot makes little difference. He was elected to the presidency. He had the power to do great harm, and he did for four years. But when it came to inflicting the greatest harm in a democracy, the invalidation of the popular vote so that he and his minions could remain in office, thankfully Trump and his associates were too incompetent to succeed and that our most important institutions – our courts – held firm.
And now he’s indicted again, so let’s state what this indictment does not seek to try him for:
1. Speech – the indictment states very early that Trump is not being charged for his speech, or even his lies. Instead he is being charged for his conduct.
2. Post-election litigation – Trump had every right to question and litigate the results in the election. He exercised that right over 60 times with one victory on a minor issue in Pennsylvania, which resolved itself without any further litigation. Trump lost because his claims were frivolous. Even judges he appointed did not decide his suits in his favor. Many in his legal “elite strike force” have been or continue to be disciplined and sanctioned by their state bars.
3. Executive privilege – these issues have been litigated over the past two years. To Virtually all courts, former Trump officials were not covered by executive privilege because one one simple reason – executive privilege does not extend to criminal acts.
4. Democrats – Trump and his people have asserted that these investigations and allegations leading to his, now three, indictments are the fruits of an insidious democratic plot to get him. If so, why has all the documentary and testimonial evidence come from not just republicans, but from those who are or were close to him? Trump’s logic would be stronger if he asserted that his legal woes were the result of an insidious Republican plot.
5. Election interference – this is one of the nuttier claims he’s made. Rather than get into an even cursory analysis of this claim, let’s just agree that if you can’t spare, let alone do, the time then don’t do the crime.
6. Martyrdom – Trump is taking the hit for the MAGA minions, and he’s happy to do it. Like his use of the words “they” or “you” would be cheated in a stolen election, he uses the same device to share his legal troubles with his supporters. Trump’s legal problem also become each MAGA member’s problem. He uses the fear of the “deep state,” the broken promises from other politicians, and the fear of people losing their place and status in society to bond with him as he’s bonded with them – except it’s a one way street with them clinging to him until he has no further use for them. This is a common device used by successful authoritarians throughout history to the present day. Thankfully he’s not as successful as his contemporaries – yet.
The indictment charging him with four counts of conspiracy and defrauding the American people of their legally cast votes is based solely on his conduct and nothing more. All tolled, Trump has been charged with 74 state and federal counts, which exposes him to 560 years of incarceration if convicted, with at least one more indictment likely coming within a week from Georgia.
This will be a difficult time for the American people. Our rule of law and concept of justice will be tested as never before. Nobody can predict how this will all turn out or how extensive any, if any, societal collateral damage will be.
We would all do well to remember what the patriot Thomas Paine wrote long ago: In America, the Law is King.
I started by saying that I wasn’t gleeful about this Trump indictment. It is difficult to be gleeful about an event that should never have occurred, with the outcome still in doubt. But I take solace that many of us still recognize that we live in a nation of laws, and that these laws will exact justice.
If I have faith in anything it’s in Lord Mansfield’s words, “let Justice be done or the heavens fall.”
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