The great comedian and social commentator Dick Gregory had a great line about finding “justice” in American prisons. “That’s what you’ll find,” Gregory continued, musing on the word: “Just us.” How much American law, I wonder, has been written by white men with the sole purpose of over-empowering themselves while under-empowering or completely disempowering everyone else? That is the whole point of every bit of every Republican-authored “voting security law”: to secure the vote for white people and only white people. By the same token, every last bit of America’s gun laws and drug laws also were written by white people as a way to empower themselves at every other group’s expense. It’s as if white people feared having to compete with Black, brown and Asian people – with anyone who isn’t white. But then, America’s white founders wrote “All men are created equal” while only meaning white, Christian, land-owning MEN like themselves. A white wall was built into the country’s founding documents in order to accommodate slavery. That, history keeps reminding us, has not worked out at all.
What most of America’s white founders failed to grasp was that the genius of the American experiment in self government isn’t that white people either thought of it or wrote down the first draft its owner’s manual. The genius is contained in the motto James Madison insisted be on our Great Seal: E Pluribus Unum. Out of many, one. The genius of the American experiment is diversity. Nothing like that ever happened before in human history – where a country was made up of people from all the other countries.
Consider what all those other countries – their cultures, their food, their music, their religions, their ways of thinking and doing things – have contributed to what we think of as “American”. How ironic is it that the most racist white people – in seeking to restrict who can be a full American – are doing the thing that’s least American?
How do we get racists to stop behaving like racists – when such racist behavior is actually against the law? For starters, we could try enforcing the law. The rule of law can’t enforce itself; it needs us to do that for it. Our problem – up until now, we’ve screwed that up terribly. We’ve enforced the rule of law in a piecemeal fashion that’s completely benefited one group of Americans – the white ones – over every other group. As we see clearly from the maelstrom in front of us, that’s a terrible idea.
The solution to people breaking the law is you prosecute them for doing it. You don’t “maybe” prosecute them or hem and haw with an eye on poll numbers, you prosecute them. That does two things: 1) it reminds all of us that the rule of law IS and 2) it forces those who’ve broken the law to begin spending money. As these are all federal charges, defending oneself against them is exponentially more expensive. That the legal system white people built to maintain their privilege will be used to put them where they belong – in prison – is sweet indeed. There are only so many “GoFundMe” dollars around. At some point, even the RNC will begin to reconsider its commitment to paying for Donald Trump’s various legal defenses. As actual charges and indictments get leveled at Trump – from Georgia to New York to maybe even DC if the DoJ ever makes its intentions known – the price of Trump’s legal bill will become as jumbo economy sized as Trump’s obese girth.
When the legal defense funds suddenly go dry, Trump himself will look to the border, hoping Vlad Putin will take him in. Trump’s alternative will be going on trial ultimately for treason. Why do you think Trump has obstructed justice – especially where his relationship with Russia’s concerned – from the get-go? It’s not as if his treachery happened in secret. “Hey, Russia, if you’re listening!” was and is a treasonous statement especially since when he made it, as current GOP Leader put it back in 2016, “There’s two people [I think] Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!”.
The Republican Party has always known Trump posed a grave national security threat. That was less important to them than the chance to undermine our democracy completely and force permanent minority rule upon America. When the GOP committed to Donald Trump, they committed to much more than just a presidential candidate. They committed to corruption and to treason. They knew the price they’d have to pay if they ever got caught.
That’s why the GOP’s leadership chose to keep their knowledge and suspicions about Trump’s being compromised by Russia a secret. Trump’s interests were their interests – and their interests apparently were Russia’s interests, too. See that link? The Republican Party’s interests and Russia’s interests are the same here – the end of America’s experiment in self government. That’s not something the majority of Americans have ever or would ever vote for.
That’s why the Republicans have been forced to execute an ongoing coup d’etat. It is in fact ongoing! The Big Lie is part of the coup. So is every bit of legislation meant to stop Black people from voting – it’s part of the Republican Party’s coup. So is every attempt to control who counts the votes. So is the entire “Green Bay Sweep”. It’s all part of the same treasonous coup and its cover up. The word “massive” can’t do it justice.
Ah, but we are obligated to do justice to every last one of these (no hyperbole!) criminals. While Merrick Garland’s carefulness frustrates those of us who believe every day justice is denied is another day justice will be harder to enforce, he’s surrounded himself with people whose track records suggest they understand all the ways injustice works in America. The problem with the rule of law (in addition to not being able to enforce itself) is that it takes so much longer to enforce than breaking it ever does. Criminals can do what they do and move on. Those entrusted with enforcing the rule of law have to follow, well, rules. And those rules both take time to enforce and give advantages (and rights) to those who stand accused. All the onus is on the rule of law to get it right. The guilty just need to plant a mustard seed of doubt in but one juror’s head in order to walk.