Before reading this, here's a warning. I'm going to sound cynical, it's a rant, and I'm writing this mostly to process the thoughts and the feelings. It's an opinion, an editorial, for the purpose of therapy. So this would be the place to stop if that doesn't sound like the kind of mood in which to spend the rest of the evening. Otherwise, read on and take note of the fact that there is a comment section, monitored by the author.
We've just experienced marathon news cycle coverage of the indictment of a former President. The guy is a criminal, was one before he ever ran and people knew it, was one during the whole corrupt four years he spend in office, and people knew it, and still is one and people know it. If America were a nation of laws, and if there were justice, the man would have been sent to prison decades ago, the first time he cheated consumers out of their money on one of his fraud schemes, or failed to pay sub-contractors for the work they did on behalf of his company, or the first time he cheated on his taxes.
He brags about this stuff, especially about all of the devious ways he has used to cheat the American people--yes, we are his victims and we are the ones he is cheating--out of taxes he owes. He's proclaimed, loud and clear, that people who are honest, who legitimately pay taxes, are suckers. They live in another world, in a different country, one where, if any one of us did the same thing, we would be swept up into the criminal justice system, prosecuted and be serving time before we could sort out the paperwork.
But that is not the America in which he lives. We seem to have an outsized fascination for characters like our former failed President, those kinds of people who are rich, and who have become such worldly and corrupt figures that they are almost like creatures in a fairy tale. We are fascinated by the fact that people like him actually do exist, and they actually do get away with crimes and corruption that none of the rest of us would ever get away with.
One of the most predictable things to ever happen in American politics happened last week. The most corrupt, crooked man to ever be elected and serve in the White House was indicted for the first of multiple crimes committed against the American people, because the Constitution says that's who, in theory anyway, are the power behind the laws of the land. He appeared somewhat intimidated, upset and looked perhaps a little frightened sitting there, through something that probably bored him to tears and to which he very likely didn't pay a whit of attention. But those couple of hours in Manhattan dominated the news cycle and provided him with hours upon hours of free publicity and helped him raise $14 million for his campaign to be re-elected as President of the United States.
Because he lives in a different America than the rest of us do.
Oh, we heard about Jack Smith, and January 6th, and the document scandal in which this former President illegally, and perhaps seditiously or treasonously took for the purpose of expanding his bank account--because everything he ever does is aimed at that goal--and the phone call he made to the Georgia secretary of state to try to get him to corruptly alter vote totals, whether they were correct or not, and the plans he laid for fake electors to subvert the constitution and steal an election. We heard about all of those pending indictments. And he may actually be indicted for all of those things, or some of them, anyway.
But if you seriously think that he will ever spend a moment of time in prison, or suffer a financial consequence, or actually experience a single consequence for any of those things, then I would like to talk to you about selling my beachfront property in Arizona, along with my yacht.
There's still time for the delusion to continue. But time, mountains of it, piles of it, months of it, years of it, has passed since these crimes were committed and he is still raising money, showing up on every possible media source, running for the Presidency and idiots and stupid people are supporting him while he is doing it, scraping up dollars from their hard-earned incomes to hand over to a billionaire. And yes, doing that makes them stupid idiots. He has more time than money, because, in the long run, even if there are indictments, nothing is ever going to happen to the man. And you can take that to the bank.
Is that cynical? I don't think so, not in a country where worthless people with no redeeming social value earn millions by putting their worthless drama in the media so people can watch them contribute nothing worthwhile and make millions. People will sacrifice their last dollar to keep up with the Kardashians, and they'll do the same for a corrupt billionaire who has no moral character to speak of, precisely because he's corrupt without moral character. We want this "other America" to exist, so we can watch the drama created by these untouchable people who steal our justice from us, and experience none of their own.
If that's not enough to support every word I've written here, then add to the mix the news that one of our Supreme Court justices has been treated to vacations worth ten times what he has ever earned as a Supreme Court justice by a billionaire political contributor and oh, by the way, he has gone to great lengths not only to hide this fact, but to absolutely lie about it. Clarence Thomas has never camped out in a Wal Mart parking lot and if you believe that, go back to my statement about my Arizona beachfront sale. This is a complete corruption of our justice system, a revelation which undermines every single Supreme Court case on which this justice has ever issued a ruling. It makes me wonder if he has ever issued a ruling that someone didn't pay for.
And I thought his wife's seditious undermining of democracy was his biggest problem.
But the Thomases are fortunate that there are two Americas, and the price that has been paid for his position has made them part of the other America where there is a completely different definition of justice. The only reason this incredibly corrupt activity has been revealed, by accident, is that there is nothing that will ever be done about it. It is illegal, it is corrupt, it completely undermines a Supreme Court that was already suffering from the foundation of corruption that several other justices brought through the door. But it all exists in the other America, so it will continue to exist. No one who is in a position of power to call this out and do something about it will do anything about it.
This is nothing new. People of wealth, power and privilege have always had a way, in this country, to use their resources to live as they pleased, without submitting to the will of the people through the laws we've agreed to follow through our representative democracy. There is a boundary line between the America those of us who are regular people, ordinary citizens, the "paycheck to paycheck" people who work for a living and try to think of ourselves as having a constitutionally guaranteed life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. But this boundary, between two different Americas, is much stronger than the one that runs between the United States and Mexico. It is a gulf that cannot be crossed. We live under the law. In the other America, they live as they please at our expense, without any law. And we suffer for their corruption.
Oh, how I want to hear someone say "no, you're wrong!" "This is not the way it is!" "We are a nation of laws and these lawbreakers will be brought to justice!"
"Just be patient, this kind of thing takes time!"
Yes, it does. All the time in the world, in the other America. All the time necessary for a corrupt ex-president to win re-election and then the other America destroys our America and we all live under fascist oppression. Or die under it.
OK. Rant over........
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