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Donald Trump’s alleged spiriting away of classified documents to Mar-a-Lago was not a threat to democracy.
Inept and pathetic, sure, and inarguably worthy of the nearly 40 felony counts that were handed down to the former president by a grand jury earlier this summer in the Southern District of Florida. But the republic has survived far worse.
Trump’s allegedly falsifying business records — in violation of state and federal election laws — to facilitate hush money payments to adult entertainer Stormy Daniels was not a threat to democracy, either. It was a cheap and tawdry affair, involving the actions of a cheap and tawdry man, and inarguably was worthy of the 34 felony counts announced in April by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. But, again, the republic has survived far worse.
In fact, the very phrase “a threat to democracy” has been so politicized and weaponized that it now gets trotted out by the far left whenever someone doesn’t like whatever a political opponent on the right is doing. Most of the time, it’s an overstatement and frequently a hysterical one. Its overuse comes at the price akin to the story of the boy crying wolf — when democracy is really threatened, the rhetorical weaponry of those who deeply care for it is severely diminished.
[ Editorial: Republicans and Trump supporters, face reality for the sake of the nation ]
But let’s be clear: What Trump did in the wake of the 2020 election, specifically his refusal to accept the results of an election and duly relinquish power, even in the face of an absence of evidence that the election was in any way corrupt and after various recounts, petitions and lawsuits had been exhausted, was indeed a threat to democracy.
Democracy requires the peaceful transfer of power. It requires a vanquished president to explore all the legal avenues for victory and then to put on a good face, whatever the level of personal disappointment or fury. It requires the loser then to scribble a good luck note for the victor and stick it in a drawer in the Oval Office and walk out into the future, head held high, bearing in mind the likelihood that those who worked the hardest for the losing campaign were young and idealistic about America.
Democracy expects a concession speech that thanks supporters, says that a great fight was alas lost and now is the time for acceptance, regrouping and perhaps another fight another day. If the loser is churlish, democracy even allows for a few cutting points about who was the better qualified candidate or the inequities of the political system or even the stupidity of the voters. But the last line has to be that the voters have spoken, God bless them, and goodbye and thank you. Otherwise, we’re wandering into the arena of coups, turmoil, brutality, murder and political leaders effecting change from behind the lines of machine guns.
This is why we believe the Department of Justice was right to charge Trump on Tuesday with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, the obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. These Trumpian events, of course, ended with the infamous Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a ginned-up mob of Trump supporters who thought they were doing their idol’s tacit bidding. But while that notorious event was shocking and pathetic, we always have put the blame squarely on Trump — who was, after all, the president of the United States at the time.
If you read the indictment, you can see that pains were taken to distinguish Trump’s right to freely rail about the election results, as protected by the First Amendment, and also to pursue all the remedies that the law provided when it came to ascertaining if the fraud he alleged actually took place. But as we all well know by now, he didn’t stop there, despite advice from members of his own government and party, including his vice president. He then tried to overturn the results of the election anyway.
Chicago Tribune Opinion
Some on the right have argued that the criminality of this act is questionable. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board suggested Wednesday that indicting Trump implied that George W. Bush and Al Gore, who fought about hanging chads in Florida in the wake of the disputed results of the 2000 presidential election, were acting criminally. Our friends there note that the indictment does not offer evidence directly tying Trump to the actions of the Capitol mob, which the Journal’s board says was “the worst offense against democracy.”
We beg to differ. The worst offender against democracy on Jan. 6 did not walk through the door of the Capitol; he didn’t have to. Anyone who watched or later read his words that day knew what Trump was doing. It was obvious to anyone who cared to look and listen.
Trump was undermining American democracy because, like a small child, he did not like how the democratic process had shaken out for him. Now, he rightly will have to answer those charges in court.
But there is one thing this third indictment has in common with the first two. The response coming from most of the Republican Party has been shameful. The GOP must excise this man, once and for all, for its good and for the good of this country.
Why? Simple. Trump is an enemy of democracy.
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