Honestly, wiser heads called this whole mess years ago.
Today, our former president was convicted for a slew of charges against him. No need to recount them all. Anyone paying attention knows them already. Anyone who doesn't can look them up. Anyone who doesn't care, doesn't care. (Too many people don't care.)
I was elated, for all of two minutes. It didn't last.
"If DJT is indicted, it won't matter worth a hill of beans. His supporters will still love him. They'll bend their thinking into M.C. Escher-style cerebral portraits and find a way to look past these charges." So said anyone with a few memory cells to bear upon Thursday's 34 counts against the former president based on evidence that, if it were leveled against a Black Democrat, would have senior Republicans howling for prison time and a firing squad.
That kind of cynicism, I can understand. It's weary, informed, battered. It's not excusing anything. And it's wise.
But at first, of course, I wasn't thinking about wisdom and justice. "This is the party of law and order," I breathed gustily. "They won't tolerate this. They can't."
But of course, they could. The squawking in the Orange Dear Leader's defense was all too predictable.
There was Private Capital's proclamation:
"We're going to go all-in for him," proclaimed Don Tapia, former ambassador to Jamaica under the Don while promising a $5 million donation.
"I believe our justice system is being weaponized against him," said Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sean Maguire, announcing a $300,000 donation.
But wait, I thought the GOP was the party of law and order! Wealthy tech elites are one thing, but surely the rank and file have more respect for our judiciary than this!
Then I got to the Congressional Republicans' proclamations:
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, via Twitter: "The weaponization of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden Administration, and the decision today is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents."
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, on Twitter: "These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal."
Well, that's that, then. When a Black man tries to pass off a counterfeit bill, he deserves to be killed by the police. But if a white (or Orange) protector of billionaire wealth tries to buy his way out of a sex scandal story appearing in the press, that's just good old fashioned American bootstrap-pulling! The judge was corrupt! No due process! And plenty of Americans believe in the defendant, so how could he possibly be guilty?
Honestly, what's to be said any more?
We can and should keep on repeating the facts, of course. What else is there to do? The GOP has abandoned any pretense of a standard decades ago, and seriously, why shouldn't they? It's gotten them miles of territory in return. They changed the rules for Supreme Court nominations in 2016, and then they changed them again in 2020. And look, just look what they got in return. Roe v Wade overturned. School prayer empowered. Etc.
The GOP had several front runners for the party's nomination who disavowed Trump top to bottom. Cruz. Rubio. Graham. McConnell. Until they decided, screw it, we've got a chance at power, and backtracked faster than Justice Alito switching flags on his front lawn after a nosy neighbor alerted the Times. Any surprise they'd change their tunes now?
Rubio: "The verdict in New York is a complete travesty that makes a mockery of our system of justice."
Graham: "I expect this case to be reversed on appeal and for Donald Trump to be elected president in November."
And look, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Go ahead and graze in the wild, bounteous fields of pro-DJT lovefesting going on in every corner of the country. They don't care about judicial findings. They don't care about legalities. They don't care about law and order. They just care about their guy.
That guy.
That. Fucking. Guy.
Honestly, I'm done fighting this fight. I don't know why I bothered as long as I did.
Remember when we tried to engage in debates over whether he meant to insult a Gold Star family or whether he was just ignorant? Remember when we tried to entertain the notion that he didn't seriously want to capture and kill enemy combatants' families--he was just hyperbolizing? Remember when he said on film he could shoot people and not lose any fans, and his fans said "No he never said that and yes he's right"?
Why bother? Why fight these fights any more?
The New York Times Pitchbot account will probably throw out lines like "Will Trump's verdict help or hurt him?" and I'll laugh with everyone else. But that's an honest question these days. Will this verdict help him or hurt him? It's already been asked by the Economist and the New York Times.
Once upon a time, it would have hurt him.
No question. Political climbers have been hurt before. Like Oliver North? Or Ed Muskie?
Or Gary Hart. Remember his cavorting on that yacht, and how it sunk his career?
Or Rod Blagojevich? If he'd done all this, we'd be scratching our heads today, asking "Rod who?"
None of that applies to Trump. It'll never apply. The media elites saw to that, even the supposedly leftist ones. He's too profitable. He makes them too much money. And they get too much mileage marginalizing these crimes in order to mute their impact and keep the controversy ginned up.
Take the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board's two cents:
"...there were signs Thursday of yet intensifying national division, as ever amplified by a sharply partisan media which thrives thereupon. It is never good for a democracy when a substantial portion of the populace believes its courts are rigged. And we cannot recall a moment when that was more clearly the case. Both Democrats and Republicans are of that view, depending on which court is at issue."
See that? Democrats suspicious of Supreme Court justices flying insurrectionist flags is the same thing as the Merchan court applying the rule of law, with the weight of twelve jurors' opinions, against the former president. Boy, the country is so divided!
Or the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board:
"Normally a felony conviction would be politically fatal for a candidate appearing on the ballot in five months. But normally a prosecutor wouldn’t have brought this case. Mr. Bragg, an elected Democrat, ran for office as the man ready to take on Mr. Trump."
See? The only reason the Dear Leader was charged in the first place was because of those damn Democrats. Case closed!
Or there was Laura Ingraham on Fox News, proclaiming
"a disgraceful day for the United States, a day America may never recover from."
See? January 6 was nothing. Look what happens when they apply legal statutes to my guy?
I mean, I could go on, but what's the goddam point any more?
I used to laugh at mock headlines like "Trump faced with charges of covering up payments for sex to boost his ratings!" But now those are the actual headlines!
His followers don't care. No surprise. But the corporate media doesn't care either! They'll play to the "both-sides-are-bad" camp. Or the "political-leaders-have-always-been-monsters" camp. Or the "hey-do-you-want-lower-taxes-or-don't-you" camp.
Remember four years ago, when we were so convinced that the murder of George Floyd, resulting in public outrage as it did, would lead to sustainable institutional change? Yeah, me too. I'm still kicking myself over that one.
Same thing here. This won't matter worth a shit. Mere months from now, wannabe gadflys like Matt Taibbi will be lecturing us on applying the rule of law to Trump and his ilk: "Well, you got your dystopian state--what else did you expect, numbnuts?" How does that show you? That'll teach us.
So fine. I spent a glorious ten minutes this afternoon reveling in the notion of the Orange Man facing justice, until I remembered there is no justice and if there were such a thing as justice, the good people of this country would throw her from her seat of authority, strip her of her robes, made her assure us all she had no preferred pronouns, and ensured she knew all the words to The Star Spangled Banner before sending her to the back of the line of refugees seeking asylum from oppressive forces funded by the American government.
They won. Let's accept it. And let's fight back accordingly.
What that means, I have no idea as of yet. But get back to me next week.
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