Yes, the first (but not the last) criminal trial for ex-president Donald Trump began yesterday. The first criminal trial for a major party candidate while actively running for president. The first criminal trial for an ex-president.
To be precise, Trump himself is on trial.
But in reality, the criminal justice system and the political system next to it are the ones that really are.
The entire political career of Trump has to be understood with him as an avatar of white privilege, and the purposeful double standard that goes with it.
The entire point of Trump is his toxicity. The whole “getting away with it” is the core of his appeal. It’s what makes a pathetic cult of his supporters. We all know that if Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Joe Biden had done or said even one of the things that Trump has done, they would have been finished. Obama caught using campaign money to buy the silence of a porn star he slept with? Clinton having venues (i.e. hotels, real estate) that foreign powers could use to buy influence on US policy? Biden calling fallen veterans losers and suckers?
Trump hasn’t gotten away with anything because of his smarts, because he’s so cunning, or he’s so powerful. The whole reason he’s gotten away with political “missteps” like those and many others is that a swath of voters are happy to see that he does.
See, he has demonstrated for all to see that he was never going to be, and never was, president for the entire United States. He was going to be president just for his base. And not only was he going to unapologetically be for his base and what they wanted….he was going to be unapologetically against everyone and anyone on the other side. At best the rest of America would be ignored. At worst he would turn the power of the presidency and the federal government against those that were deemed “enemies of Trump.”
It turns out that this is what the MAGA base was waiting for all along. Never mind the scolding and hot air from conventional Republicans: the GOP base really wanted the cruelty that Trump was happy to dish out.
A devil’s bargain was made: Trump would do anything that they wanted- the law, precedence, and the Constitution be damned. All he asked for is their adulation and worship.
Once that deal was set, nothing could break it. He said what about John McCain? He slept with who? He said what on that Hollywood Access tape?
None of it mattered. In fact…..it helped him.
It helped him because it demonstrated that his base was not giving up on him, since he proved to them that he wasn’t giving up on being their guy- and not anyone else’s. In fact, the very fact that he drove all the right people crazy was a plus. The number one policy of what is left of the GOP, after worshipping Trump, is to own the libs. Own the Establishment, the RINOs- everyone that they hate and they feel looks down on them.
These people want a double standard and Trump gave it to them like no one else. As I mentioned, no Democrat could survive the stuff Trump has done. That’s to the credit of the Democrats and their voters. But the GOP/MAGA base is all about a double standard: it’s what they are used to, what they expect, and what they demand.
Trump surviving every horrible thing meant that those things were okay if you had the support of the GOP/MAGA base, because it was okay with them. But any single, small failure on the part of a Democrat is terminal because “we” are not able to apply that double standard for our side.
Why? Besides the obvious (we don’t want to support grifting racist, sexist “businessmen” who are con men), the coalition that supports the Democrats is not as powerful as the one supporting the GOP. For the average voters, that means the in-groups that make up the GOP base vs. the out-groups that make up the Democratic one.
But that’s only half of the story.
Trump has also “gotten away with it” because he has and will act in service of some of the most powerful interests in the nation and the world. When they see Trump, they don’t see an indicted con man running for president: they see their tax cuts. They see their deregulation.
And both the powerful and the ordinary see the extremist judges that he will appoint, as opposed to Biden.
That’s all they need to see. Trump is not just getting the “support” of his brigade of suckers. We all know that from the SCOTUS on down, he’s getting some big time help in delaying his trials.
Again, they’d really rather have any other vessel than Trump, but Trump is one of the two viable candidates to win the presidency this year. He’s their guy. So help him they must.
That’s what this is all about. The GOP/MAGA base wants two different criminal justice systems: one for them and another for everyone else. The oligarchs and right wing extremists want two different criminal justice systems, or worse: one that just works for them. Trump himself only knows a criminal justice system that works differently (better) for him.
The big joke is that it’s so obvious that this is what they want, while most of them have to operate as if there is one system for everyone. It’s really hard for people to buy that crap when, oh, a certain Florida judge is almost making it up as they go along to try and help Trump. Or the SCOTUS agrees to hear something that they never would from a Democrat, and then schedules it in the most lackadaisical manner. Or Trump makes the most ridiculous demands, like pretty much every judge on his case has to be removed. (Oh yeah, Trump never pretended he wanted the same criminal justice system for everyone)
We all know that Trump’s threats to the judges, the clerks, and their families would never happen with anyone else. Imagine a BLM member doing the same. Try to imagine any Democrat you can think of doing it as well. Trump and his cult love this: it’s further proof that there is a double standard that benefits them. Cry more, libs!
There are a bunch of people, starting with Trump himself, that want to see that double standard affirmed. They want to see the “system” bend to their will and be afraid of making their side upset or angry. They want to see that double standard in action and they want everyone else to see it too.
That’s what this past year has really been about- will the criminal justice system push back and actually follow the law, or will the same old double standard win? Is “equal justice under the law” an empty phrase for suckers, or is it really a thing?
Yes, Donald Trump is the individual charged in the case. Unlike the MAGA cult and the oligarchs, we actually want him to have a fair trial. But that means fair to all of us and the law- not just fair to him. That means no special treatment or exceptions that other people wouldn’t get. We all know that in reality ex-presidents are going to get a different level of treatment by the system than Joe Schmoe, i.e. extra protection and security. But not to the point that Trump has already. We’re all watching to see if the system can push back against the double standard and privilege that has shielded Trump to this point and operate as if he really isn’t above the law.
The name on the case is Trump, but it’s the criminal justice system that’s really on trial.