Rumors of former President Donald Trump’s imminent second indictment—the first having not been sufficiently risible—abound on the airwaves and the internet.
Where have we heard this song before?
The Department of Justice’s special counsel—I should say the Democratic Party’s special counsel—Jack Smith is said to be hot on the trail of the 45th president like an American Inspector Javert from “Les Misérables,” the difference being that Trump is likely to have done even less wrong than the very decent Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo’s original.
Smith is apparently undeterred, bent on indicting a former president even for a “process crime,” as it’s called (i.e., obstruction).
This has done terrible things to the American psyche—yours and mine.
Who among us would talk to the FBI now without being joined at the hip to an attorney?
I remember when it was different, when it felt like a patriotic duty to cooperate. No matter. That was then, this is now. It’s time to call the question.
What do we do if the special counsel indicts Trump?
We absolutely can’t countenance law enforcement obviously allied with one political party being able to incarcerate or otherwise legally restrict from serving the leading presidential candidate of the other party and still have even the semblance of a constitutional republic—or a democracy of any form, for that matter.
This is beyond the banana republic frequently referred to. It’s pure Stalinism.
Extreme measures are necessary, and by that, I absolutely don’t mean civil war. I mean extreme measures to avoid a civil war that easily could be the ultimate outcome of such an indictment.
The extreme measures I speak of would entail everyone immediately lining up behind Trump, including his adversaries on the Republican side who are currently seeking their party’s nomination.
They should withdraw in favor of Trump and state the reason publicly. (It would be good if the estimable Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would also do this from the Democrat side, but perhaps this is too much to ask.)
I realize this will be hard to do for many of the candidates, given the natural ambition of politicians. But these are extraordinary times.
One theory is that the Democrats seek the indictment of Trump because they believe that it would assure his nomination by the justifiably irate Republican rank-and-file. DJT, in their view, is beatable by Biden.
Is there truth to this? Not according to recent polls. But even the possibility of that makes it yet more apposite that all Republican candidates withdraw and line up behind Trump.
It would be a show of force that would impress and rally the electorate and increase the chances of stopping what would amount to an electoral coup.
When I write above that we live in extraordinary times with our republic hanging in the balance, I would like to give some homework to those, probably fewer now, who might be skeptical about what I’m saying.
Download the 2006 German film “The Lives of Others,” which details the lives of average citizens in East Germany under the Stasi (The Ministry of State Security). You'll find this brilliant film to be remarkable.
And remarkably familiar.
