Conduct Unbecoming

Our institutions are fragile, and are under assault by an ex-president and his sycophants in the media and Congress.

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” - George Orwell, “1984”

Who are we to believe, a twice-impeached, self-admitted/convicted sexual predator, and 34-times convicted felon, or our own eyes? I already think Donald Trump gets too much press, but his outrageous conduct is mother’s milk to our infantile-media—they can’t resist. So, I’m not going to talk about the convictions, but instead, the conduct of his supporters in Congress and the media, and the rule of law.

The rule of law is, in its essence, simple: a Grand Jury recommends charges, a jury of the defendant’s peers is empaneled, they hear the evidence, then render a verdict. That’s exactly what happened in a New York, but Team Trump is having none of it.

Republicans put party over country when they twice refused to convict him in the Senate, and now they’ll continue to denigrate the American legal system (which happens to be the envy of the world), to buoy one grifting conman and to protect their own money and power.

A guy breaks the law. He’s indicted by a grand jury. He is put on trial where a jury of his peers, selected with the approval of his attorneys, finds him guilty—unanimously—on all 34 counts. Then we go Through the Looking Glass.

His allies are of course following his despicable lead and going on ad nauseum about the “crooked legal system,” tying it to the Biden administration, even though a state, no federal jury— and not Soros’s imaginary foot soldiers either—did their constitutionally-prescribed duty. None of these pundits, senators, or congresscritters is willing to talk about his conduct, yet it is his conduct that reaped the multiple-state and federal criminal indictments, and his civil conviction for sexual assault.

Their fear of him, and their own potential loss of power, is such that they are intent on undermining our legal system’s 249 years of juris prudence to defend one individual whose conduct is indefensible.

Trump said, "If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone." Yes, that’s precisely the point: no one is above the law.  

The self-inflicted wound is Trump’s stock-in-trade. By now we all know the go-to move that follows his outrageous words and deeds. It’s called projection. It’s fascinating to see him take his own missteps and say it’s actually his enemies that are doing it: specifically, destroying democracy and flaunting the rule of law.

You can’t blame him trying; it’s always worked before. And as long as his people consume right-wing media, it will continue to work.

This sets up a very different kind of presidential race. It is no longer Trump v. Biden. It is now Trump v. the Justice System, and American Democracy. Trump, not a policy guy to begin with, probably wouldn’t have talked policy anyway—the normal bread-and-butter of a presidential race—but will now spend the next six months railing against the judge (“a devil”), the jury (“rigged”), the prosecutor (“corrupt”), the country (“fascist”), and most importantly, the American system of jurisprudence. As this story in the Washington Post story notes, to prevail, he and his sycophants must bring down the system.

Expect a grievance-filled summer and fall where there will be no support from Republicans for our unexpectedly-fragile institutions. The Complainer-in-Chief is going to wear you out with his infantile claims that he is innocent; wrongly convicted by a “weaponized” justice system. Those who used to be valiant supporters of law and order will spend the next half year tearing down law enforcement, and the judicial system, all for political advantage.

In the 1950’s, Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Actual Witch Hunter) tried the same approach of indicting the system without evidence, and so scared his colleagues that they let him run roughshod over the institution until its sole female member, Margaret Chase Smith (R-Courage) stood to say, “Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism.”

It’s hard to have faith in the American electorate when the National Science Foundation says that 25% of us believe that the sun revolves around the Earth.

I keep telling myself that Donald Trump has lost the popular vote in his only two election campaigns by a total of ten million votes. I hope he won’t win the popular vote this time either, but the election—the Electoral College—turns on 300,000 voters in just five swing states. Anything could happen.

The conduct of a desperate, pathological liar is unsurprising. The conduct of his allies, who absolutely know better, is unbecoming of officers of the United States of America.

©2024 Jon Sinton