A Sad , Glad and Historic Day

As were millions of Americans, I was surprised by the verdict in the Donald Trump election interference case. (I am not referring to it as the hush money case, because in America, having sex with a porn star while your wife is at home caring for your young child, then paying off the porn star to keep her quite, is not a crime. In saner times, it might disqualify a candidate from receiving the votes of the evangelical community, and any women who values their self respect, but these are far from sane times.)

I say surprised, not because I don't think the former president is guilty, not because it doesn't turn my stomach to think that he worked openly with a yellow tabloid to manufacture fake stories about his political rivals while preventing negative stories about him by paying off "catch and release" those with such stories, and not because it makes me exceedingly sad and sorry for our country to know that he signed many of those reimbursement checks to his fixer in the Oval Office of the White House, but because I didn't think that the case was strong enough to result in felony charges. 

But, like Capone, any conviction for Trump, even if it is for the least horrible crime he has committed, is better than nothing. After all, compared to actively lying about the results of an American presidential election then working to negate the votes of 80+ million citizens, encouraging a mob to attack our national Capitol, beat up over 140 police officers, and perhaps hang an elected civil servant or two, stealing national secrets then spinning lies about it ranging from "I didn't take them" to " I can declassify them by just thinking it" to "As a president, I can do whatever I want", to the latest, that they were there to "kill me and my family", this 2016 election interference case seems like small potatoes.  

So, praises to Alvin Bragg and his team for methodically researching and presenting the facts in such a way as to convince a jury of twelve average citizens to render a 34 count felony conviction after only two days of deliberations. A masterful example of the basis of our judicial system, "no man is above the law"! 

But, it is also a very sad day that America has now joined the club of countries for which an elected head of state has been tried and convicted of crimes. I know that Americans are not known for their knowledge of political news from other countries, but a number of leaders of other democratic nations have been similarly found guilty of serious crimes, among them Japan, South Korea, Italy, France, Israel, Portugal, to name a few. 

So, while this may be new for us, it does not automatically qualify us as a "banana republic". Rather, it indicates how lucky we have been that our leaders have valued their title as president, Nixon aside, and put our country's needs above their own.

Before starting this post, I read the two posts I had written which addressed the accountability issue for Trump, one from April, 2023, the other from February, 2024. Here are links to those posts.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2023/04/accountability-finally.html

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2024/02/accountability-finally-2.html

My main takeaway from those posts, in hindsight, is that I was surprised to hear that Nikki Haley endorsed Trump, especially that she didn't wait for the verdict which would have provided her with an additional reason for declining to support his candidacy. 

I sincerely thought she would decline to support either candidate, a position that I think would have reflected better on her, but I guess politics wins over, and her desire for an administrative or cabinet post in a possible Trump Administration is worth more to her than her loyalty to democracy. I expect she won't last long in such a position, but hope we don't see that eventuality. In the end, I imagine she thinks that by being loyal now, a 2028 run would open up for her, but that assumes Trump ever leaves the White House other than in a hearse, should he win in November. Any thought I might have had to vote for her in a future presidential election has now been reduced to a much slimmer possibility.

As for the sentencing, from what I have read this is an E-felony conviction, meaning non-violent. Most people convicted in this category, if first time as Trump is, would not be sent to prison. On the other hand, 34 felony convictions is more than most, plus he was cited for contempt ten times, which of themselves could result in jail time.

And, to me, a lack of remorse could figure into the sentence, not to mention the open contempt Trump has displayed towards the judge, the jury process and the entire judicial system. Frankly, jail time should be forthcoming if just to show that such behavior, ex-president or not, is not to be tolerated in a country where the rule of law is supposed to be held in such high regard. 

We all know that there are two tiers of justice in America, one for the rich and one for those with less resources, so a 3-month prison term for Trump might be the example that proves the rule. Of course, it would have to suspended until after the election, to remove the ever present rhetoric that the trial was politically motivated, but it would allow the electorate to render a decision. 

White House or Rikers Island? 

Not to mention any other punishment that may result when he is tried on the more serious crimes mentioned above.

Which again, makes me sad to think this is where our country finds itself, almost 250 years since our founding. But then again, 250 years is not all that long compared to other countries that were considered global powerhouses. 

Perhaps that is our biggest problem, arrogance. We somehow think that American democracy will withstand this challenge because God favors us. Because we represent good in the world. Because it is our birthright. It doesn't seem to matter that everyday citizens of history's other great countries thought the same thing. 

As I have said a few times, I continually toggle between being resigned that our democracy is already lost, to faith that the American electorate will save the day. 

Sadly, the reaction to the events of May 30, 2024, lead me to swing back to the negative side of that internal debate. Too many people I know, whether through blood or friendship, continue to defend Trump, which means they believe his lies about the 2020 election, believe his lies that if he loses in November it will be another rigged election, believe his lies about the recent trial and verdict, believe his lies about immigrants, illegal or otherwise, believe his lies about mail in voting, believe his lies....

Good people who love their families, work hard, want the best for our nation but have chosen to ignore the simple fact, that Trump is a con man and a liar, and choose instead to believe all kinds of conspiracy theories and convoluted logic that would be rejected as a fiction novel but which they maintain as fact. 

Will America ultimately be known as the country, when faced with an Occam's razor set of explanations, chose to believe the one which depended on a mass conspiracy so large as to be hard to detail its complexity, as opposed to the one with the least assumptions, that Trump is a liar and a con man? 

I guess we will find out the answer on November 5th.