Two branches are not enough
American democracy is only as strong as its legal system. The founders of the country created the judiciary as the third branch of the federal government to keep executive power in check and prevent corruption. So it was a cause for deep concern last week when Donald Trump unleashed a verbal tantrum on his Truth Social platform, accusing special counsel Jack Smith of “prosecutorial misconduct” even before he filed four federal criminal counts against the former president over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in a bid to remain in office.
An identical barrage came last April when a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 felony charges for falsifying business records. That time, he also called for defunding the justice department and the FBI, even though the charges did not come from either federal agency. Both reactions were part of a long-running campaign by Trump to undermine the rule of law in the US and dismiss the multiple charges he faces, and has denied, as politically motivated.
It’s as if he had bitten into a mushy brown spot on an apple and declared war on agriculture. It’s as if he caught a cold and tried to get rid of all doctors. It’s as if he got bored with one of the rooms in one of his houses and decided to shut down architecture. It’s narcissism plus overkill, which could be Trump’s sweatshirt motto.
He’s a repeat criminal and the law is finally getting closer to dropping a hand on his shoulder, and his solution is to nuke the Justice Department and the FBI and every other arm of the law he can think of. Egomania doesn’t get much more egomaniacal than that.
On one level, it is shocking to hear the worries that US lawyers are expressing about the impact of Trump’s outbursts. On another, what we’re witnessing in Washington is part of a trend happening around the world. From Hungary to Pakistan, the power of judges is being reduced and legal systems are being upended.
That may sound like fun – freedomfreedomfreedom! – but only until you pause to think about it.
All those examples are things that actually exist and that he isn’t responsible for. Any of us might be upset or annoyed by them. Trump is raging against the consequences of his own actions. He’s thrown the apple on the floor and raged against the market owner for slipping on it. Coughed in people’s faces then blamed doctors for covid. Took a sledgehammer to his lounge and raged at his builder for messing things up.
If the American establishment weren’t so in thrall to capitalism and the mega-wealthy then Trump would never have happened. He was known to be a criminal long before he ran for office and there would have been numerous opportunities to shut him down and lock him away had the will have been there to do so. But the establishment is always happy to look the other way when it’s one of their own breaking the law, even if they despise the person doing so, because if they allow one to fall they fear where the spotlight will fall next, so he went into politics already convinced he was untouchable.
AoS, I’m not so sure. I suspect a lot of the things he did, especially in relationship to his taxes, are relatively common practices in business. It’s just that Trump was so over the top, he outdid all the other businessmen in cheating…or maybe he didn’t. Maybe they are outdoing him, since they aren’t caught.
Or maybe they haven’t been caught because they’re not the Donald, so aren’t stupid enough to put their heads above the parapet and draw attention to themselves.
But your comment is really just what I’m saying. They’re all at it because they’re allowed to get away with it. The IRS will happily chase down Jane or John Q. Public for not declaring a hundred dollars here or there but the big players hide millions or billions and nobody bats an eyelid. Of course, they’re the people who fund both political parties and grease political palms so no Government, no matter which party has their guy in the big chair, had or has the motivation to do anything about it, and now it’s come back to bite them on the ass. The people and the country itself are just so much collateral damage.