If only
Optimism.
https://twitter.com/NormEisen/status/1015188374498480128
Aw come on. “In America, no one is above the law and common decency”? Really? Then how come so many people get away with being just that for so long? In America lots of people are above the law and common decency, and flourish like the green bay tree. Some of them are eventually brought to justice, but not all. It’s a pretty sentiment but it’s false, and we don’t need pretty but false sentiments right now. We don’t need them at this time when Trump is miles above the law and common decency, and laughing in our faces. Maybe he’ll be hauled down eventually but eventually is way too late for many people.
The linked piece is an op ed by Eisner and Noah Bookbinder about what a corrupt horror Scott Pruitt was.
Given the extent of Mr. Pruitt’s scandals and the damage he leaves behind, it is a wonder that he survived so long. Some may point to the fact that he doggedly pursued Mr. Trump’s environmental agenda, including the shredding of Obama-era commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions in the power and transportation sectors, but we are not convinced — after all, that effort didn’t work out as well as he had hoped.
Yes, but also to the fact that Trump has no objection to scandals and damage unless and until they interfere with his enjoyment. He welcomes most of them – he’s a scandals and damage kind of guy. His instincts are all toward vandalism…provided the vandals leave his solid gold living room alone.
A more likely explanation is that Mr. Trump did not want to let Mr. Pruitt go because the president was afraid of what it might mean for him. Mr. Trump too has endured in the face of mounting investigations and litigation. Between the Russia investigation, Michael Cohen’s potentially impending cooperation with the government, and a raft of civil cases, Mr. Trump surely knows that the legal flood around him is rising. Did he put off firing Mr. Pruitt because he was afraid to admit the taint of scandal on his administration?
Mr. Pruitt’s case demonstrates that in America, no one is above the law and common decency. Even if it’s possible to hold off the flood after the cracks in the dam begin to appear, at some point the dam eventually breaks.
“At some point” – but that could be 200 years in the future. It’s a pretty thought but it’s also very general – maybe the dam will finally break in 2030 and by then it will be far too late. Maybe the dam will eventually break but not until Trump has done damage that can never be repaired. Maybe the dam will eventually break but Trump has already ruined many people’s lives – those children yanked from their parents may never get over the trauma.
I think I get what they’re saying, I think the idea is that even Trump isn’t immune to the law if the cracks are many enough and wide enough. That may be true, I hope it is, but that claim is quite limited and quite different from “in America, no one is above the law and common decency.” Let’s be realistic about this: the US encourages certain kinds of lawlessness, and fails to do enough to prevent others. Corruption in many forms is easy and risk-free here. That’s the swamp.
Prudence and restraint are for people who care about the world around them or fear retaliation on a scale comparable to that of their enjoyment of irresponsibility. The Trumps have been insulated by money for the entirety of Donnie’s lifetime and more from consequences, so that’s not going to be a factor. As for caring about the world around them – sociopathy seems to go around there, along with sheer cluelessness, so that’s not a factor either.
They could either attempt to avoid scandal while having their fun destroying institutions that protect the little people in the name of glorifying the white nation, or just let it all roll and do all they can while they can. But they’re not familiar enough with anyone stopping them effectively to have any practice with the former tactic anyway, and when triggering libs is a measure of success, the more corrupt they are, the more scandalous, the more blatantly criminal, the better.
They’ll have three or four years to wreck stuff, and then their descendants will harass the adults in the room cleaning up after the binge for the next few decades. (That’s my optimism.) They can be confident that they can break laws and avoid jail, break families and avoid loss. rob the public blind and keep almost all the proceeds, and float away on a golden parachute no matter how badly billions of other people suffer as a result.
It’s a rich kids’ frat party and the staff will clean up after them.
We haven’t finished cleaning up after Reagan’s frat party, let alone Bush’s. Trump’s is outdoing both of them put together by an order of magnitude, and Pence and friends aren’t any better (just more housebroken). Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, all of them…out to have their own fun at the expense of those who work much harder than they do, and they have nothing but contempt for the workers, considering them too lazy to be worth paying.
“In America, no one is above the law and common decency”?
When last did America actually hold a president criminally liable? GW Bush lied America into a war of choice, which played a huge and predictable (Because it was quite thoroughly predicted) role in creating ISIS.
Not only has he not been held liable, in 2002 America passed the American Service Members Protection Act, essentially meaning fuck human rights, fuck the international rule of law, you’re America and if any of us try to enforce international law and common decency – you’ll send in your army. When the Democrats took over, Nancy Pelosi refused to use America’s legal system to hold Bush liable despite popular protests calling for precisely that.
Why do you think nobody was considering going to the ICC over the recent case of America creating concentration camps for babies? Donald Trump is not some outlier of particular horrendousness. I remember during GW Bush’s reign American pundits referring to obeying the dictates of the rules of war regarding torture as being bowing to foreign nations.
The precedent of presidents, or even presidential candidates, being above the law is well established. Trump isn’t going to face a damn thing in the way of legal consequences for anything he has done, the very worst that will happen to him is that he might lose his job – but that’s it. He is effectively above the law.
Yeah, Democrats in power in the last 40 years haven’t done a particularly good job with the cleaning. Clinton didn’t manage to be better than Republican-Lite, and barely wanted to be better. Obama’s foreign policy was just a bit less war-happy than Bush’s.
I’m not suggesting we’ve got a particularly competent or motivated clean-up crew; being that and voting for that is an ongoing project as much as shooing out the frat boy vandal rapists.
What Bruce said. Very true.
Nice company we keep.
Source:
https://www.hrw.org/legacy/campaigns/icc/us.htm