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Disbelief is a factor in American politics today -- sheer incomprehension that phrases like "coup," "sedition," and "overturn the election" can be used seriously to describe what our government is up to in Washington. Consider, though, a hypothetical situation. [thread]
Suppose the United States had a President who had cheated on his taxes, and gotten away with it. Suppose this President had wrecked a succession of businesses, and gotten away with it. Forced himself on women, and gotten away with it.
Suppose this hypothetical President had cheated on all his wives, and gotten away with it. Suppose he had cheated on his latest wife and paid women to be silent about it -- to avoid having it discussed while he was running for President -- and gotten away with it.
Suppose this President had enlisted the help of the Russian intelligence services to become President, and gotten away with it. Suppose he had kept his tax and medical records secret, lied about the reasons for doing so, and had gotten away with it.
Suppose this American President used his office to funnel public money into his own businesses -- millions of dollars every year -- and got away with it. Suppose he openly sold access to monied interests and foreign governments, and got away with that.
Suppose our hypothetical President devoted many hours of each working day to watching television, went golfing every weekend, and was thereby able to inspire millions of Americans to think of him as a gladiator in a Roman toga brandishing a sword.
Suppose this President had lied about everything, every day, for years, and had gotten away with it. Suppose he regularly spoke to crowds at arenas, droning on repetitively about petty personal grievances and shower-heads, and been rewarded with rapturous applause.
Suppose the United States, hypothetically, had a President who blew off American alliances and funneled God only knows how much national security information to the Kremlin, and had gotten away with it. Suppose he never got legislation passed, and got away with that.
Suppose this President had obstructed justice (on multiple occasions) & abused his office to gain an electoral advantage, and had gotten away with it. Suppose he had his administration stonewall Congressional requests for information -- just ignore them -- and got away with it.
Suppose an American President had ample warning of a global pandemic, blew off the warning, and dismissed the danger to the public while hundreds of thousands of Americans died -- and had gotten away with it (or at least did not lose that many votes).
Suppose this hypothetical President had gotten thousands of supporters to come to campaign rallies where they could contract a deadly virus, attempted to make wearing protective masks a sign of personal disloyalty to him -- and got away with it.
Why wouldn't a President with these experiences think he could get away with overturning an election? Why wouldn't he incite a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol and intimidate Congress? Why would he shrink from a coup to stay in power, or from rank sedition?
We indulge rich people in this country: cater to them, coddle them, make sure the rules that everyone else has to live by don't inconvenience them. Our entire legal system sometimes seems dedicated to protecting the rich when they decide ordinary privilege just isn't enough.
America's choices -- our choices -- breed a profound sense of impunity in people of means. Our choices invite those controlling concentrations of private wealth to hurt other people, incidentally or deliberately, confident in the knowledge that they can get away with it.
This sense of impunity is now threatening the stability of our national government, far into its third century. America is reaping what it has sown in this regard as President Trump, rejected by the voters, lashes out at everything around him.
He is doing this because he is sure he can get away with it. His supporters are chumps who will believe anything he says, or zealous fanatics who share his vilest prejudices, or weak men who fear him. They think they win if he gets away with it.
His opponents expect him to concede that he cannot get away with something, an expectation the entire record of the Trump Presidency tells us is not realistic. As long as he does not so concede, his supporters will keep trying to do what they did on January 6 at the US Capitol.
Trump supporters were allowed a victory by lawful authority last Wednesday. They, and he, are reveling in it now like pigs rolling in slop. Because this was allowed to happen, we will see more riots and more violence.
Trump supporters will resent, bitterly, being told what they can't get away with. But there is little alternative to telling them, and backing it up with all the force of lawful authority. We'll need to set aside disbelief, and crush the threat to our democracy. [end]
