Never having claimed to be a legal expert, I share these observations as a social studies teacher and concerned American.
Last week President Trump was indicted by a grand jury in heavily-Democrat New York City.
Many Trump haters have been ecstatic, as judging by Twitter. Please know, nothing like this has ever happened before in our country. President Jimmy Carter (D), a deeply decent and devout human being, has been in the news lately since he’s been admitted to hospice. Interestingly, a huge part of his election to the White House in 1976 was anger against President Gerald Ford (R) because he pardoned President Richard Nixon (R) for his role in the Watergate scandal. Simply put, Ford thought putting a former president on trial would too deeply divide and traumatize the country. Wanting to heal the nation, Ford let Nixon fly home to a peaceful retirement in California, and probably lost his re-election bid because of his noble efforts.
Ford actually tried to heal the US in the 1970’s. Presidential candidate Joe Biden (D) promised to “heal the country and bring us all together again.” Yet, the division is worse than most of us have ever experienced in our lifetimes.
Tuesday, April 4, President Trump is supposed to report to a courthouse in New York and be arraigned. Never before in our country has a former president gone to court, and as a double-whammy, Trump is also, love him or loathe him, the top political opposition candidate to President Biden. “Banana Republic” used to be a phrase for undemocratic and unstable countries and a clothing line. Now, sadly, it’s seemingly a descriptor for the USA too.
The New York prosecutor behind the indictment, Alvin Bragg, was backed by George Soros and during his campaign for office openly boasted about how he was the best candidate to put Trump behind bars. While Bragg is on his jihad against Trump, he has let off criminals and drunk drivers in New York.
When speculation grew that Bragg might indict Trump, Elon Musk tweeted: “If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory.”
Another Twitter user claimed: “I’m voting for the guy with the most indictments and criminal charges, because he’s the one they’re most afraid of.”
Will all this legal wrangling make Trump a martyr and solidify his base and make him an even stronger candidate for the White House in 2024?
In the three days after the indictment, Trump raised $7 million.
Also, will Republican prosecutors now go after Democrats? Already, some are calling for prosecutors in Texas, Florida, Louisiana etc. to look for state laws for openings to go after the Biden family or other prominent Democrats.
The mantra we’re hearing from Democrats and the media (two sides of the same coin) is “no one is above the law.” Of course, that should be the case. But what did Trump do wrong? The main charge seems to be he used hush money to cover up an affair with a porn star. Did he have such an affair and pay such money? Maybe he did. Everyone should know by now that Trump is both vulgar and a serial womanizer. However: is he the only one? Is he the first such creature to cast a shadow on Washington’s unstained streets?
If you believe that, message me–and I’ll give you a great deal on an oceanfront villa in Giles County.
Plus, just as I’m old enough to remember the Ford/Carter years, I distinctly remember, speaking of vulgar, serial womanizers, the Bill Clinton administration. In 1992, when Clinton ran for the White House, the people (including yours truly) who tried to point out his bad character were ridiculed. “Who cares about his personal life? The only thing that matters is that he can do his job. Besides, what do you care about his sex life? What are you, some kind of pervert?”
In other words, Clinton and Trump has some similar moral failings, but because one had a D behind his name while the other has an R, the media and entertainment industries treat them totally differently.
This is what many decry as the two-tiered justice system we have in the USA now. To underscore, I don’t know if Trump is guilty or innocent as charged, but it seems lots of powerful people have done a lot worse yet got off Scot-free.
One example among a bajillion: Hillary Clinton, who put classified emails on an unauthorized, homebrew server. If you’re like me, it’s hard to keep up with lots of the details of alleged political corruption. But on the subject of emails, most Americans “get it” and understand you can’t put stuff involving national security in unsecured places. Yet, she and Tim Kaine came within a hairbreadth of getting the White House in 2016. At the same time, there are other folks who mishandled secure emails and got thrown behind bars.
(In fact, Clinton is luxuriating in her new professorship and Kaine is still in the US Senate where he has announced he wants to run for re-election in 2024 so he can enjoy another six years of rubber-stamping everything Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) tells him to do. Kaine’s wife Anne Holton even helped drive a woman of color immigrant off the Virginia Board of Education! )
And speaking of classified information: President Biden left a trail of it at who knows how many places. When someone asked him about the stash in his garage in Delaware, he threw one of his classic temper tantrums and offered one of the most bizarre and outrageous excuses I’ve ever heard: “by the way my corvette’s in a locked garage, okay? So, it’s not like they’re sitting in the street.”
To Democrats and Trump haters out there who are chilling their Champaign to celebrate Trump’s mugshot: liberal TV host Bill Maher has expressed concern all this will set off a “cycle of revenge.” His recent guest, Virginia’s Lt. Governor Winsome Sears (R) added this to the celebrants: “be careful that you don’t dance on the grave of your enemy because you may fall in.”
The creative folks at the SATIRE site Babylon Bee have had these recent headlines:
Democrats Remind Everyone Trump Is Guilty Until Proven Guilty
Pelosi: ‘We Have To Convict Trump On The Charges To Find Out What Is In Them’
These next few days and weeks will be especially challenging as they are unprecedented. Even to the most ardent Trump supporters, it’s important to remain calm and not break the law. As evidence shows from the January 6 Capitol riot, there may be agents involved trying to egg on protestors to violence, as this Babylon Bee headline alleges:
As Trump Fans Gather In New York, FBI Agent Excitedly Dons MAGA Hat One Last Time
The brilliant Victor Davis Hanson goes into deeper detail in his April 2 column.
Pray for America.
Scott Dreyer
