A few days ago I talked about if there are any “lines” that Trump, his supporters and Republicans in general will not cross and say “enough is enough, we can’t support this.” It’s hard to say where that “line” is; it’s not that it is a “moving target” or like moving the goal posts, it’s more like there is no line at all: they’ll tell you when they get there, if ever.
For Trump supporters, laws only apply to other people. If the president (or ex-president) does “it,” it doesn’t matter if it is legally, ethically or morally questionable; these people have tied themselves vicariously to Trump because, despite his pretensions of being a “very stable genius,” his erratic behavior, belief in conspiracies, refusal to accept a reality that is in conflict with his own version of it, and portraying himself as a “victim” when forced to answer for questionable acts or statements—are all characteristics that Trump shares with people on the lower rungs of society.
Anyone who tries to talk “sense” to these people are just seen as “elitists” and a threat to their peace of mind. As we have seen in Republican primaries between incumbent lawmakers guilty of the “crime” of taking even one principled stand against Trump, and a Trump-approved opponent, civilized principles are the loser.
The latest “outrage” from the perspective of Trumpists is the FBI raid on the Trump compound Mar-a-Lago while Trump was in New York taking the Fifth during a deposition by the state attorney general looking into tax fraud by Trump and his organization. Trump had previously been the subject of a “raid” by agents of the National Archives, who found numerous boxes filled with government documents that were supposed to have been turned over to the Archives. It was believed that Trump had many more documents that he did not willingly turn over, obviously because of their “sensitive” nature—meaning revealing embarrassing communications or possible criminal activity.
We are told that Trump had already been served a subpoena for these suspected documents months ago, many of them believed to be highly classified, after the FBI and the Justice Department were notified of their existence, and where Trump hid them, by an informant. Trump was clearly stalling or denying their existence; when attack dog Rep. Jim Jordan demanded on Fox News “What was on the warrant? What were you really doing? What were you looking for? Why not talk to President Trump and have him give the information you’re after?" this was just typical far-right blather, ignoring the fact that there is no great “mystery” to any of this, and when we see images of torn-up documents in a toilet bowl, we don’t have to wonder further about Trump’s “willingness” to hand over documents that should not be in his possession.
And Trump knows he isn’t supposed to have them (we are learning that he was in illegal possession of classified papers in regard to nuclear weapons), because he signed a law—initially aimed at Hillary Clinton—raising the penalty for unauthorized private retention of classified government documents from one to five years, which raised it to the level of a felony crime:
That’s right, just “ask” Trump to hand over those documents, and he will do it. He should never have kept them in the first place, even the ones that were not “classified.” It should be no surprise that it was decided that there was no option but to conduct the raid. It has been noted that a judge had to sign off on the warrant, and that since the FBI had suffered previous scrutiny over FISA warrants, it was probable that extra care was given to insure that the Justice Department and the FBI were on firm legal footing when conducting this operation.
The attacks on the Justice Department and the FBI by Trump and his supporters was to be expected, yet even the “liberal” media is bewailing the “timing” of the raid, only serving to “galvanize” Trump’s base for the midterm election rather than to remind people that this man has been escaping justice for a long time, and for once his crimes are catching up to him through no one’s fault but his own contempt for the law and fair play. But reasonable behavior can’t be expected now .Katty Kay for the BBC wrote
More than once I heard them say a civil war is coming in the country. Monday night on social media, Mr Trump's most ardent fans said the FBI's action will lead to violence. Steven Crowder, a Trump influencer with 1.9 million followers on Twitter wrote: "Tomorrow is war. Sleep well." I still find the prospect of a new civil war in America hard to believe.
But someone who's been in the heart of Republican politics for decades, Mr (Michael) Steele, is less sanguine. "It is serious. This has been an underlying theme (in the fringe of the Republican party) for 10 or 15 years. Trump just gave license to it. He uncorked the bottle. If they indict this man, these people will lose their minds."
I hope he's wrong.
Some of us wouldn’t mind seeing Trump in an orange jumpsuit, or at least being escorted into a waiting car in handcuffs. Can you imagine a scene of Trump resisting arrest? This isn’t about government “overreach” or a “witch hunt”; this is about bringing a man who has been courting such a reckoning for most of his adult life, either in his business and financial dealings, or in the political sphere where he has shown little understanding of the fact that this is a nation of laws that must be preserved to save civilization, something his fanatics ignored on January 6.
And it would be a good thing for those still “confused” about what Trumpism means to this country. Trump and his supporters want to root out the institutional bogey-man that essentially only exists in their own fantasies—a “bogey-man” that protects the rights of all, not just those of “Christian” nationalists. What these people (like Michael Flynn) would do if they could would be to “suspend” laws that govern moral and ethical behavior that mean nothing to Trumpists. For Trump and his most ardent supporters, laws at best are “lines” to be stepped over, not to be viewed as a point that should not be crossed.
To Trumpists, the only “law” to be respected” is that proposed by fascist “Christian” nationalism; but in A Man For All Seasons, when Roper tells Thomas More that he would tear down every “man’s laws” to reach the devil, More warns him that this is a fool’s proposition:
Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”
The fact that it is taking so long
to bring Trump to justice demonstrates that the law and “institutions” actually
work, even for the guilty. The question of whether it is better to know or not
know if Trump has committed crimes—including those of a felony nature—is really
what is at issue here. As we heard about in the attack on the FBI field office in Cincinnati today, Trump is still inciting "revolutionary war" to shield himself from his crimes; as Dick Cheney said, Trump is "not a man" but a "coward" inciting lunatics to commit violent crimes in his name.
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