Sunday, July 23, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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It could be over by now — or not.
I am referring to a potential indictment of former President Donald Trump for inciting insurrection, defrauding the United States and the people who live here, lying not only to Congress but to everyone else, covering up all manner of crimes and a host of other reported criminal activity that may or may not be applicable to the man who was and would be president again.
After all, the tell-tale “target letter” that special counsel Jack Smith sent our dear leader early last week portends something ominous for the once and future president: criminal indictment No. 3 — with a fourth, perhaps, yet to come.
For a man who loves to brag about all the records he has shattered in his career, the number of criminal prosecutions for a former president is right up there among the worst, I should think.
Frankly, I don’t care about what happens to Donald Trump, which makes me more of an anomaly in today’s politically charged world. There are people who want to “lock him up” and there are others who want to deify him. And they are all passionate about their beliefs.
When I say I don’t care about him, though, it is only partially true because I do care about something far more important which, by implication, involves Trump.
What I care about and what I suspect the overwhelming majority of Americans deep down really care about is this democracy of ours. You know, this fragile idea that the people — American citizens — are capable of governing themselves through majority rule and the protection of minority rights, all with the goal of pursuing a “more perfect union” for generations yet to come.
And to do that, we may have to indict and possibly convict a law-breaker-in-chief when he purposely runs afoul of our most sacred laws and his most solemn oath — to protect and defend the Constitution.
That’s why it pains as well as befuddles me to hear from the MAGA crowd — without even an indictment issued from which we can ascertain what prosecutors believe they can prove — that everything happening is some nefarious government plot to keep Trump from office and them from making America great. Again.
Assuming it hasn’t happened by the time this column is published, few Americans know what is in the charging document (assuming there actually will be an indictment since that isn’t a given, either). And yet, people in elected leadership positions are already opining on the treachery that had to take place to indict Trump but not a host of other actors who have come and gone along the political trail.
This “whataboutism” that somehow is meant to excuse what Trump probably did —because someone else may have done something wrong — is what I do care about. And what I believe that’s what most clear-thinking Americans should consider when forming conclusions about what may or may not happen to Trump.
Perhaps people have grown up differently since the Greatest Generation raised my generation and we, in turn, raised the next one, but the concept of two wrongs never making a right has been tried, true and immutable ever since morality and justice entered the civilized world.
And yet, that concept is being turned on its head as people who owe fealty to Trump or to his voting bloc do their level best to twist and turn themselves into amoral nitwits, trying to justify what could be leading an insurrection against the United States of America because someone else made money off a famous name — or some such blather.
Don’t get me wrong, the law is the law and people should respect it and obey it. But that also means that people who know better should be honest with themselves and their peers when it comes to holding everyone accountable.
If it is true that in our country no one is above the law, then how can it be that no less than the speaker of the House of Representatives can justify defending a man who may have broken the most fundamental laws of our country — pertaining to the peaceful transfer of power from one elected official to another — by asking what about some other person who may have also done something wrong? Perhaps a speeding violation or a parking violation or something worse took place, but nothing like an insurrection!
And if a confused and contorted Kevin McCarthy can be seen for his moral and legal ambivalence in the face of what could be clear and convincing evidence — yes, yet to be seen and proved — why is it OK for ordinary Americans to excuse such behavior when they would never condone it in their own families?
I merely ask these questions because while I don’t care about Trump — he has a lifelong experience of managing his way around and beyond the clutches of the laws that ensnare the average citizen — I do care about the rule of law and the rules of civilized living in this great country of ours.
Once we start excusing anyone from the kind of behavior that imperils our democracy, it cannot be long that our democracy crumbles and anarchy takes root.
That’s what I care about. And, if I may be so bold at a time when boldness is in short supply, that’s what we should all care about.
Besides this excessive heat, of course.
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
