Politico Magazine has noticed that the very obviously politically motivated indictment of Donald Trump by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg has changed civic norms. If you just read the title of Politico's article on Friday, "‘The Elite’s Destruction of Civic Customs Is Complete’," you might think the fault for the "destruction of civic customs would lie with the elite in society." However, that title is followed by the subtitle which clearly indicates that it's Trump's fault, "Eight thinkers weigh in on the latest — and most important — way Trump has blown all the rules up."
However, simply by Politico quoting several university professors in their own unhinged words in this story, we see who is really guilty of the destruction of civic customs in our society.
Kimberly Wehle, a visiting professor at the American University Washington College of Law, underlines how the real goal here is to destroy Trump politically, at least in a general election:
A criminally convicted Trump would look unappealing to many swing voters, potentially knocking him out of serious contention for the White House. It thus may be the only way to avert either another contested presidential election with widespread violence or, worse, a slide into authoritarianism.
Trump deserves credit for one thing, at the very least: He says what he is going to do, and he does it. If he is the GOP nominee, there are two possible outcomes. Both are deeply disturbing.
...If any of that happens, America will no longer be a democracy. One way to prevent these outcomes is a criminal conviction for Trump, which will make it much harder for voters to support him and for GOP allies in Congress to continue their unabashed support. For now, we best not avert our gaze from the possible dangers ahead.
Professor of Law John Culhane at Delaware Law School concedes the weakness of Alvin Bragg's indictment of Trump but still claims it is a good thing because, hey, the first ever indictment of a former president has to start somewhere so why not?
This isn’t the sort of crime that most people can really wrap their heads around, so Trump’s supporters can continue to trash the prosecutor. Even Utah Senator Mitt Romney has joined the condemnation choir, accusing Bragg of “stretching” the law to “fit a political agenda.”
But maybe this first indictment is just proof of concept; that, after well over 200 years since the founding of the country, a U.S. president can be held accountable. The dam has broken. And there are other, more significant investigations that may soon lead to further indictments — both by Fulton County Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, and by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice. Whether our dismal political landscape may finally begin to shift will likely turn on whether these cases lead to further legal jeopardy for the former president, and whether the GOP will be made to pay at the polls in 2024 for continuing to ride the Trump train until it derails for good.
In other words, civic order is less important than making the GOP "pay at the polls."
But there are two sides in this collection. Mark Bauerlein, an English professor emeritus at Emory University, was the man quoted in the headline, and he sarcastically ripped into the Left for being "illiberal" and willing to "accept gross violations of civic tradition" to get Trump:
Anyone who spends a single second treating this case as a legal action is either wasting his breath or participating in the program. At the upper levels, our juridical condition changed forever on November 9, 2016, when the unexpected, the impossible, the unthinkable happened, and the “power elite” haven’t recovered. The very fact of Trump’s victory proved that the system itself needed a correction.
It was necessary to manufacture the undoing of Trump, the withdrawal of legitimacy, the reversal of history by other means. And so we got allegations of collusion with Russia, Stormy Daniels, “RESIST!,” impeachments, lawfare of various types, the Jan. 6 show trial, the Mar-a-Lago raid … and now the indictment. They’re all of a piece. Who cares how much these actions have distorted and vulgarized the public square? If they demoralize Trump supporters, the Great Unwashed, so much the better. Anything to discredit and topple their leader, no matter how flimsy and perverse the aggression.
...Rule of law, equal treatment, due process, democratic process, a Fourth Estate suspicious of the power elite … such norms don’t apply to a malignant agent. As a result, Trump opponents have become so illiberal, tribal and fixated that they’re ready to accept gross violations of civic tradition in order to take him down.
So kudos to Politico for publicly allowing these professors to expose themselves in their own words. Yes, there is a destruction of civic customs and the professors have made it clear where that destruction is coming from.
