The War on Rule of Law

This is a very big deal. Republicans say Trump’s felony conviction is a blot on our justice system, a partisan persecution. Suppose for a moment they’re right. So, do they pledge to fix this? To purge politics from the institutions of justice, restore fairness? No! On the contrary, unashamedly threatening their own partisan “weaponizing” of the system against Democrats, with President Biden first in their sights.

They’ve spent years trying to pin some crime on him, coming up with a big fat zero. But he prosecuted Trump, so they’ll prosecute him. Facts won’t matter. (They’re Republicans, after all.)

Except that Biden’s administration actually had nothing to do with the New York prosecution. Another fact that doesn’t matter.

But, they say, the system is rigged to go after Republicans and protect Democrats. Even while it’s going after Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar — and of course Hunter Biden. Facts don’t matter!

And far from “persecuting” Trump, the Justice Department squeamishly delayed two whole years before even naming a special counsel. Otherwise Trump might already be behind bars.

Nor do facts matter regarding the New York verdict itself. Not a word from Republicans about whether Trump actually did the crimes the jury unanimously determined he did. And if those transgressions seem underwhelming, that’s only because they’re indeed the least of Trump’s many crimes.

The Republican war against rule of law is of course not new. Dating back to “Russiagate,” with charges that the FBI improperly targeted Trump. That itself was investigated, the Trump-initiated John Durham probe, which found nothing. And note importantly that the FBI’s Trump/Russia investigation during 2016 wasn’t publicly revealed until after the election — whereas its probe of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails had been made public, with reopening just before the vote, probably sinking her chances. Partisan bias??

Meantime our whole body politic suffers from fact disease. But let’s be crystal clear. However much you might loathe the policies or ideologies of Democrats, they’re not the problem in this regard. They live in the actual real world. It’s Republicans refusing to. Wouldn’t know reality if it bit them.

Today there’s a three-fold catechism to which every cultist must bow, the three hills on which Republicans must die. One: the 2020 election was stolen. Two: The 2024 vote will be accepted only if Trump wins. And now, Three: His 34 felony convictions were themselves scandalous. Maryland Senate candidate and former Governor Larry Hogan has been read out of the party for daring to say people should respect the court verdict.

Here’s why all this matters so much. The courts and justice system are one key redoubt of America’s civic structure where factual reality still does reign. Testimony is adduced under oath, with perjury strictures, and concrete evidence is central. No “alternative facts” there — only real ones. Thus courts provide the sharp sword of objectivity cutting through all the sturm und drang of Trumpian fact wars. An anchor in these stormy seas. A crucial bulwark against lawless chaos. And — citizen protection against the very sort of partisan political persecution Republicans protest yet promise to perpetrate.

Their Supreme Court appointees, widely seen as corrupt partisan and religious zealots, had already shredded public trust in that highest judicial tribunal. Republican court bashing in the wake of the New York jury verdict compounds that.

They’ve also undermined confidence in another pillar of our democratic society — free and fair voting — with their “stolen election” lie. They even instigated a bloody riot to overthrow that election, refuse to accept culpability for it, and call the rioters “political prisoners” and “hostages.” They’ve unleashed the demon of violence into our civic life.

And still they posture as “patriots.” And still they screech it’s Democrats destroying America.