The slow-walking, almost deliberate and intentional failure to bring Trump to trial by Attorney General Merrick Garland and the United States Justice Department hasn't been the topic of discussion in any post-election coverage in the mainstream media. I haven't even heard anyone on MSNBC put together the inconsistency between Democratic party rhetoric that Trump is "an existential threat to American Constitutional Democracy," and the complete and total failure of Garland and the justice department of the Biden administration to prosecute him for obvious crimes he committed that would have made him ineligible to run for President and neutralized the threat he posed.
I don't expect the mainstream media to provide an honest assessment of the factors leading up to Harris' "razor thin" election loss. They've done nothing but cover every move Trump has made every single day since he left the White House in 2021, giving him a much larger platform than they did to the sitting President of the United States. We won't hear anything they don't want us to hear.
Personally, the painfully and deliberately slow movement of the justice department under Garland's leadership in pursuing the incitement of the January 6th insurrection by Trump, was a huge frustration. How is it that the House of Representatives can conduct an investigation, uncover mountains of irrefutable, obvious and direct evidence that Trump was directly responsible for all of the planning and organizing, including having right wing militants already at the Capitol when the crowd he incited arrived, and lay that out in a nationally televised series of hearings, which convinced over 60% of the American people that he was directly responsible for it, but the justice department doesn't actually get around to prosecuting it in a timely matter?
That makes me damn angry.
Apparently, this is not just a surface issue with other Democrats. It has come up, multiple times since the election, on several talk shows that I listen to, brought up not just by callers, but by guests that have been featured on the programs. It's been the subject of several social media discussions on at least two platforms that have drawn hundreds of responses from people who question how in the world it could have taken so long to get things moving on something so obvious, why the executive branch under Biden appeared weak and powerless in the face of an issue that was the centerpiece of his campaign for President, and why the one thing that would have ended Trump's existential threat to democracy was not pursued with the seriousness that the campaign rhetoric established.
I haven't seen any exit polling or any research that has been done to indicate the effect the failure of the justice department to prosecute Trump and end his threat to American democracy on democratic voters staying home, or independent voters deciding that the Democrats weren't really serious. But it would be an educated guess, considering how razor thin the margins were in enough swing states to change the election results, that Merrick Garland's failure to prosecute Trump for serious crimes against the American people was one of the major causes for Democrats staying home, and for Harris losing the election.
Another Case of Democrats Failing When it Comes to Messaging
Is Trump an existential threat to American democracy?
Then, when he committed a crime to carry out that threat, isn't the simplest and easiest solution to the problem legal prosecution for insurrection, a crime which the 14th amendment states the penalty is disqualification from serving in public office? So, if the Democrats were serious about their claim of Trump's threat, why didn't they mobilize the justice department to get this case prosecuted before the mid-term elections even rolled around?
Threatening the existence of the American Republic is as serious as it gets. If we miss our guess about that, it means the end of America as we know it, which is exactly what we are facing now with a second Trump term in office. And that makes the failure of an irresolute, dithering Attorney General an equal threat to democracy. It also opens the door to question why the executive branch, under President Biden's leadership, didn't use the power of the office to move this forward immediately following the House's investigation and get this to trial before the mid-term elections, while Democrats still had majorities in both houses.
The excuse that it would "look political" is weak, considering the very real consequences that we now face as a result of this failure to protect American democracy. We already saw the "political" effect of the failure of the justice department to prosecute the crimes committed by Trump, outlined brilliantly and clearly in the Mueller Report. Failing to prosecute those crimes, with irrefutable evidence, was as blatantly political as it could get. So I can't even begin to understand why that would even be a consideration of the Biden administration.
The message was that Trump is an existential threat to American Democracy. The solution to the problem was within the grasp of the administration, with a majority in both houses and a case that was a slam dunk as far as legal experts were concerned. The means to permanently remove the threat was within their grasp. But the subsequent actions that were taken did not convey the conviction of the message. And that was bound to be the cause of a major loss in the confidence of voters.
One of the Biggest Lost Opportunities in American Politics
Masses of legal experts, from Joyce Vance, Jill Wine-banks, and Lawrence Tribe have said that it would have been no problem for the justice department to expedite this case, cut through the legal wrangling and red tape, and get it to trial, especially after how crystal clear the crimes were linked to evidence turned up by the House's investigation. Nor would finding an impartial jury, or getting it in the courtroom of a competent, unbiased federal judge have been a problem.
I read through the written report of the House investigating committee, which included two Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who had the integrity to put their political career on the line to protect American Constitutional Democracy. How many Democrats have done the same, at this point? The report is as thorough, and as detailed as what was presented publicly in the hearings. They got him. It is more damning than the Mueller Report was, if that's even possible.
They proved, beyond any shadow of doubt, that Trump initiated the idea of interrupting the electoral vote count as a means of staying in power, of submitting fake elector ballots from states he lost, and creating confusion and disorder in the hopes of delaying or stopping altogether the count of legitimate ballots. The language of the communication and the actions that took place pointed to Trump as the single instigator of the whole idea, as did the testimony of multiple persons who were involved.
It was a slam dunk case, as was the case involving his theft of classified documents. But the opportunity slipped through their hands. And we are now facing the consequences of that failure.
Is There a New "Democratic Message" Coming Out?
"Maybe Trump won't be that bad."
"Surely, the constitutional guardrails that are in place will keep him in check, correct his worse abuses, and prevent the worst case scenarios we have imagined from taking place."
Take a look at what's going on right now. We already have an oligarchy of billionaires, one who invested enough money in helping Trump win that he thinks he can directly call the shots. What guardrails are we talking about here? Six bribed, corrupt, incompetent Supreme Court justices who are there to get their piece of the pie? Republicans in Congress? The courts whose rulings will ultimately be subject to the incompetent, bribed Supreme Court?
The guardrails are gone. We had control of it on January 20, 2021. That's when steps to prevent anything like the first Trump term should have been taken. He should have been tried for insurrection first, convicted, then tried for stealing classified documents, convicted, then sent to prison and banished from politics. The state courts in New York and Georgia should have come after that, instead of being expected to show more courage than the justice department.
I know it's controversial, but we should have broken the senate filibuster when we had a chance to do it, and then, amended the judiciary act and packed the Supreme Court with judges who would have established the principle that the President is not above the law, and is not immune from prosecution for any crime committed in office, whether it is an "official duty" or not. There are ways, once all of that had been done, to make it difficult to reverse. Yes, it would have been a risk, but if American Constitutional Democracy is threatened, aren't some actions worth the risk?
Our only hope now is that popular resistance will make it impossible for Trump and the billionaire oligarchs to function. I don't know that the ability exists, in a financial world where 1% of the population has control of 99% of the wealth, to use our power as consumers to make much of a difference, though not all of the "one percenters" are on board with Trump. We have lost our free press. We can hope that the razor thin margins produce enough pressure on the few politicians whose political career depends on them to keep the worst abuses from happening.
I hope that there is an opportunity for the next generation of Democratic party leaders to exhibit the kind of resolute conviction and be bold enough to take the kind of risks necessary to protect those values and promises of American life that we once thought were so important to us, like our freedom. Partisan protocol and tradition won't protect that, we must do it ourselves.
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