This Is Not Normal, Part 1
The inauguration of a convicted felon and adjudicated rapist raises some fundamental questions about our democracy.
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Now that a convicted felon who has been found liable of sexual assault is returning — once again — to desecrate the White House and all that it represents, it’s worth taking a few minutes to look at what led to this sad day in our nation’s history. The norms and traditions of our democracy didn’t just disappear overnight. It’s been a decades-long deterioration — sometimes quietly, sometimes brazenly, and often without much pushback.
Our lopsided Supreme Court has been systematically stacked with ideologues who consistently favor one political party’s beliefs, positions, and objectives. Our outdated electoral system now structurally favors the same political party. Members of our legislature spend as much time (or more time) fundraising as they do legislating. A collection of legal loopholes have created a structure that allows unlimited funds to flow into political campaigns, sometimes from unknown sources.
We’ve been so mired in the day-to-day insanity of the 2024 presidential campaign and in the resulting chaos of having elected an autocrat, there’s been little time to widen the lens and look at the larger issues some of the larger issues facing our democracy. If our nation has devolved to a point where a convicted felon with multiple additional charges hanging over his head can make his way back to the White House, we can’t blame that entirely on the felon.
If, as a nation, we are to recover from the damage that has been done and will doubtlessly continue during the felon’s remaining time in the White House, there are some big questions that need to be asked and addressed. Some of those questions, broken down by category, will be posed in this post and the next couple of posts.
Legal Questions
Should a convicted felon be able to run for (and hold) the highest office in the land?
There’s apparently nothing in our Constitution or our federal laws that prevents a convicted felon from seeking the office of the President. In many states convicted felons aren’t allowed to vote, even after they’ve completed their sentences. Yet nothing prevents them from running for president.
Like any number of other norms, it never was conceived that a felon would have the audacity or even the means to run for president. Such chutzpah was unfathomable. It was perhaps assumed that shame would prevent such a person from seeking the highest office in the land.
But two things have happened. First, a person who is incapable of shame (some would say “sociopathic”) decided it was far more important to keep himself out of prison than it was to uphold any norms. Second, the standards of the voting public have deteriorated to the point that it was easier to believe the lies that he and our media told them than it was to cast their votes with a sense of duty and integrity.
It feels a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has escaped, but it seems like the time has come for the nation to codify in law that felons should not be able to run for President.
Can we simply ignore the fact that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits anyone engaged in insurrection from holding office?
Since January 6, 2021, Felon47 has been doing his damnedest to pretend that the insurrection never happened, that he had no part in the attack on the Capitol and on the functioning of our government that day, that it was just one big love-fest. Now that he’s in office, he’s already taking actions to attempt to erase it from our history — pardoning the convictions of violent participants, scrubbing government websites of any and all information about the attack on our government. The “disappearing” of Jack Smith’s investigations is just another act of pure vengeance, and his vengeance hasn’t reached its conclusion.
But it happened. There are countless hours of film and video, shot by our media, by observers, and even by the participants in the insurrection themselves. There are tens of thousands of still photographs. There is sworn Congressional testimony. A grand jury unanimously found that the case against Donald Trump should go to trial. There are entire organizations, including the Sedition Hunters, that have been dedicated to tracking down, identifying, and recommending for prosecution the participants in the January 6 insurrection.
There are those who believe — and I am among them — that Felon47 should not have been allowed to run for office a second time, because of the clearly-stated wording of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.” [Emphasis added.]
Even if you choose to bend reality to argue that Felon47 didn’t engage in the insurrection itself, it’s virtually impossible to argue that he didn’t give aid or comfort to the insurrectionists. He’s still at it! He just issued a mass pardon for around 1,600 participants who either pleaded guilty or were convicted!
Should a president/former president (or any person) be able to manipulate the legal system to avoid the consequences of his actions?
The principle of equal protection under the law is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as part of the 14th Amendment — the same amendment that forbids anyone engaged in an insurrection against this country from holding public office.
That’s a noble principle, of course, but that principle has rarely been fully realized. There has almost always been a two-tiered system of justice — one tier for the haves and one for the have-nots. It’s not difficult to guess which tier has the advantage.
For example, in some states, arrestees who can’t come up with bail money stay imprisoned until trial, and the time between arrest and trial can be years. This disproportionately affects already disenfranchised segments of the population.
That’s hardly the only way the criminal justice system is out of whack. While everyone may be entitled to counsel, those with substantial financial resources are far more likely to be able to afford the best attorneys. They’re not subject to an underfunded, under-resourced public defender system. Once again, minorities are at a disadvantage.
Into this criminal justice system — finally — comes Felon47. With what seems to be unlimited money at his disposal (his own and, more often than not, other people’s), he has been able to delay, obstruct, and use his political clout to avoid consequences for some of the most serious crimes this nation has ever known.
The disparity in treatment, as well as disparity in outcomes, has never been more stark. The differences based on privilege (or lack thereof) have been longstanding. But never has anyone exploited these differences to their own advantage the way Felon47 has.
More important than access to high-powered attorneys, though, is the ability to stack courts with judges and justices who share your extreme political leanings. Felon47 appointed three Supreme Court justices and numerous lower court judges who seem to value their political beliefs far more than their responsibility to mete out justice impartially. One of those lower court appointees, the underqualified, inexperienced Judge Aileen Cannon, has consistently ruled in Felon47’s favor, often in marked contrast to established legal precedent.
No ordinary citizen, even the wealthy, possesses that level of legal clout.
It appears that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is one that Felon47 is ignoring in all respects. In an unrelated matter, the issue of birthright citizenship, which is specified in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, is very much in the news, with a legally questionable Executive Order issued that attempts to rescind birthright citizenship. (As of this writing, a Federal District Court has issued a temporary restraining order against the enforcement of the Executive Order, but the case seems destined to be escalated to the MAGA-friendly Supreme Court.)
In Part 2 and Part 3, we’ll look at the Political/Electoral Questions and the Societal Questions, respectively.
So eloquently stated. You take all of my perpetual anxiety and disquietude, and lay it all out. It helps, a lot. Such a perfect Capricorn, Theo! So glad I met you around the time Joan and I saw you on crutches with your broken toe! Love you lots!!!