The continuing hand-wringing over the “dangers” of prosecuting the criminal former President — and I’ve heard the anxieties expressed several times in recent days -- exasperates me. That fear of a fight strikes me as symptomatic of what, on the pro-Democracy side, has continually enabled the Fascistic Force in America to gain in power for years.
The dangers are all around us, and there is no escaping the danger. And if prosecuting Trump arouses the forces of Fascism, their coming forth to fight on that ground would be their mistake.
Whether those battles be at the level of political rhetoric or at the level of political violence, the pro-Democracy, pro-rule-of-law forces will have the best possible ground on which to fight.
We’ve already seen the Republicans putting forth the most ridiculous and indefensible rhetoric (and “legal” arguments) to defend Trump. With Trump’s criminality and utter contempt of the law so clearly demonstrated — in both the attempt to overturn the election, laid out by the Insurrection Committee’s hearings, and the Mar-a-Lago documents cases, on which the Department of Justice has everything it needs -- the Republicans only expose their own moral bankruptcy and dishonesty when they rally to Trump’s defense.
What could be better ground on which to fight the MAGA Party of Fascism than when they try to defend the indefensible, and proclaim the provably false?
Surely, it is only a minority of Americans that are absolutely impervious to demonstrated truth.
(One point I’d like to hear stressed in the public arena: It’s much stronger than, “Even the President isn’t about the law,” it’s “Especially the President isn’t above the law.” Because a criminal President is the most dangerous kind of criminal, having — as he does — the most power to do the most serious damage. Our Founders surely understood that. They made every President swear an oath to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Controlling power is what the Constitution is all about, and so allowing the most powerful person in the country to defy the law is anathema to the defense and protection of the Constitution.)
So much for the war of words that might ensue. (A war that will only happen if the Trumpians choose to attack the more-then-defensible prosecution of more than clear-cut crimes — diverse in nature — that Trump has committed.)
If the battle goes beyond rhetoric, and into violence, the pro-Democracy side would still be fighting on Good Ground.
The threat of violence is real. We saw that threat realized on 1/6, and we’re seeing it again threatened from various parts of the Fascistic side. (Like Trump’s letter to the Attorney General, like Senator Graham’s threat of “riots in the streets,” like the threats and attacks on the FBI, and the National Archives, etc.)
But if there must be a real confrontation with the kinds of right-wing extremists that have become central to the Republican world, let it be now. Now— when the pro-Democracy forces are in charge of the Department of Justice and when a pro-Democracy (not a pro-Fascism) President is our commander-in-chief.
(The DOJ has dealt successfully with the perpetrators of that violent insurrection. It is only a violence-prone fringe of the American population at most that will choose to make war against the rule of law because their criminal hero is being held to account. The majority will turn against that fringe, and the forces of the law will defeat them.)
The Fascist side would be fools to seek a showdown on this ground. We are unlikely to get past this dangerous American crisis without some kind of confrontation with that segment that has been threatening “civil war” for years. If confrontation there must be, best to have it out when the ground favors the good guys.
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What we’re up against is a force that’s been rising for thirty years. It’s a force that must be fought and defeated.
This Force of Fascism has been able to grow so powerful, and so nakedly extreme, over the past thirty years only because Liberal America so consistently sought to avoid the battle that needed to be fought.
The fears expressed about provoking the MAGA crowd appear to be one more instance of that timidity that has proved so disastrous. (Think of Chamberlain in Britain in the late 30s, and all he did and didn’t do in pursuit of “Peace in our times.”)
With the balance of forces so favorable, with the positions of the other side so indefensible, if the prosecution of a serial criminal like Trump causes the other side to attack, the pro-Democracy side should welcome the opportunity to fight them for the hearts and minds of the American people, and thus for a democratic American future.