We are in a dark period in America, even after getting rid of Donald Trump—if he ever leaves.
Frederick Douglass lamented during another of the nation’s dark hours, the presidency of Andrew Johnson, “We ought to have our government so shaped that even when in the hands of a bad man, we shall be safe.”
That is not the case today. Too easily Trump flouted rules and conventions as well as laws.
National Democrats (I no longer call on Republicans until they stop being a cult) must devote significant effort to try and achieve that desire of Douglas to restore and improve our way of governing, as it is broken in many ways.
To do that, we must reestablish the idea that this is a country of laws. Thus, we need to hold the reins on President-Elect Joe Biden, who unfortunately has signaled his intentions to let Trump’s bygones be bygones. He said he did not want his administration to be mired in legal battles over Trump. He wants to move on.
But a central question before us is one posed by Johnathan Mahler in the New York Times, “Can America Restore the Rule of Law Without Prosecuting Trump?’. I think not.
I wonder if a Trump presidency would have been possible if Nixon had been criminally prosecuted rather than pardoned.
Upon entering office, Obama opined that the program of his predecessor of torturing prisoners was a moral abomination but also did incalculable damage to American’s image in the world, but we should move on and “look forward not backward.” In other words, let us not get bogged down with these criminal acts, which are in the past. Let’s forget and move on.
Paul Waldman wrote about that orientation in 2018,
“No one was ever held accountable in any way. So what would happen to an official who was an active participant in the torture program, first overseeing a “black site” where torture took place and later supporting the destruction of videotape evidence showing the brutality of the agency’s torture program? In a country where moral principles reigned, she wouldn’t be able to get a job in a McDonald’s, so profound would be the disgust at her actions. But today, she’s the director of the CIA.”
By all accounts, we have had worse crimes perpetrated by Trump and his henchmen. In his usual go-along to get-along manner, Biden suggests we “move” along and “heal.”
To that, I say that electoral defeat doesn’t seem enough of a punishment. It does not make the societal statement about crime that it should. Along those lines, Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional law professor, offers the following comment, “There’s a mindset that we need to reset. Breaking the law is not a political difference.”
This mindset might also require recognizing that to move on from Trump, “healing” may have to mean something fundamentally different from what it has in the past — and without accountability, it may be impossible.
We must define crimes as crimes—things to be prosecuted—else the social fabric is in danger of ripping apart. That fate should not be dependent on being friendly and forgiving.
What does the country do when a future corrupt and lawless leader comes along? How can this leader be held in check if the nation has defined the current morass of Trump’s crimes as permissible?
Let’s push Biden to let a reorganized Department of Justice be independent again and let it decide when to bring prosecutions.
