The View from a Drawbridge

All righty, then. It’s been quite a week! And odds are, it will be quite a year, too.

Whether you agree with the verdict or not, Trump is now a 34x felon. We are experiencing history firsthand. Thursday was one of those days that we’ll talk about for decades. The conversation will most likely begin like this: “Where were you when you learned that Donald Trump had officially become a felon?”

I was driving to work, listening to NPR, and the news almost caused me to go off the road. I wasn’t expecting those results, even though the mountain of evidence justified them. I have become increasingly cynical of the judicial system of late. But these verdicts have renewed my faith in it quite a bit.

Don’t get me wrong. I still don’t think that the poor receive justice. I’ve experienced that injustice firsthand. (Andy Johnson never did give me back the money he stole from me, despite the ruling in my favor. I blogged about it here.) The system isn’t for the poor, and that isn’t likely to change.

The ultra-rich don’t get fair treatment, either, but in the opposite direction. We see it time and time again: the richer you are, the more likely you are to get away with your nefarious deeds. Because of this, when things go exactly the way they should, it’s noteworthy. It deserves to be celebrated. This time, the evidence won out.

If you don’t believe that justice was done, please read the full grand jury indictments. I’ve read them, and can therefore assert that those documents alone will curl your toes. Then review the transcripts of the trial and the evidence that was presented in court.

Until then, the echo chamber you find yourself in, weather it is right-leaning or left-leaning, is basically blowing smoke. Until you have actual evidence, you know nothing. Read those documents and then we can debate, if you like. If, on the other hand, all your sputtering has no basis in fact and has been spoon-fed to you by biased sources, then, sorry, but I’m not really interested in what you have to say.

I am extremely afraid for those jurors, though. They did the right thing, and that shouldn’t require any bravery, but sadly it does. They will have to look over their shoulders for at least a decade, until the world shifts its attention to other things. Even then, people will get spun up again during every presidential election year. In essence, those jurors have given up their entire lives by doing their civic duty. I can’t imagine that level of sacrifice. They deserve protection for life, but they won’t get it.

Now we find ourselves in uncharted territory. It astounds me that a convicted felon can run for president. It’s even more shocking that if he wins, he gets to bypass the normally intense security clearance process, just as every elected president does. It seems that the people’s choice supersedes any wrongdoing that would prevent such a clearance for you or me or anyone else. That’s a little scary.

Trump won’t do jail time. As felonies go, these are non-violent ones. And he didn’t have a criminal record up to this point because this is the first time in 77 years that he’s been held accountable for his actions. So all this speculation about where they’d incarcerate him, and what would become of his secret service protection, is all a nice thought experiment, but it’s a waste of time.

He could receive 4 years in jail for each penalty, or a total of 136 years. Even I would find that excessive. But throughout this process, he’s displayed his overall contempt in various ways: the multiple violations of gag orders, the many people whose lives he has endangered, and the fact that none of those jurors slept for even a second during the trial, and yet he slept for as much as two hours on more than one occasion. For that alone, he should be given at least 4 years in jail in my opinion.

No one is above the law. He needs to be made to understand that. But then he becomes even more of a martyr. I feel for the judge who has to sentence him.

He will appeal. That is his right. He’d be a fool not to. But I can’t imagine he’ll find justifiable reasons for his appeals to be granted on all 34 counts. Especially if he continues to hire attorneys that seem (in my opinion) to have fallen out of a clown car.

I’m actually writing this on the day the convictions were announced. Many rats are already abandoning his sinking ship. In the past few hours, DJT stock value has already dropped by 9%.

His wife, Melania, hasn’t said a word to support her husband in the wake of his disgrace. (I would have been shocked if she had done otherwise.) None of his children have made any public announcements, either. In fairness, I have no idea what they’re up to on social media, because I don’t follow people that don’t matter at all to me. But if any of them had said something about their felonious father, I’m sure it would have been picked up by the major news networks.

Some supporters will double down in their loyalty to their cult leader. He is making himself out to be a victim, and those diehards are more than willing to prop up his false claims. His martyrdom seems unavoidable, even with evidence of the fair trial he received. It is a shame that despite numerous gag orders, he will continue to talk. We already know that his words tend to incite violence and death. It’s terrifying to contemplate.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of this year plays out. I suspect this is all they’ll be talking about on the news for the rest of the year. It will get boring. Speculation is worthless. Let’s focus on what actually occurs. But I hope that what Martin Luther King Jr. said will prove to be true. “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

(Incidentally, that thought was not original to MLK. Check out this article, which explains that the concept appeared in a sermon written by a Unitarian minister in 1853. I’m proud of that because I’m a Unitarian Universalist.)

No matter what punishment is meted out to Trump, I suspect the damage to his ego is already so severe that nothing could trump that. The number that used to be associated with him the most was 45. He was the 45^th president, after all. But now, no matter what happens, the number that will stick to him like glue will be 34. He has been convicted of felonies 34 times. I suspect that very few people can beat that record.

He’s commonly called former President Trump, but now he could just as easily be called convicted felon Trump. He’ll never be able to unring that bell. Every time anyone Googles his name from here on out, his felonies will be the first things to pop up. The internet never forgets.

Now that history will see him for who he truly is, it would be lovely if he would zip off, all deflated, like an unknotted balloon. That’s what ought to happen. But we are living in interesting times. And in this case, that’s not something to be proud of.

May his fate be like that of Ozymandias, King of Kings. (A favorite poem of mine.) The fictional Ozy was once deemed worthy of a statue, but ultimately even that was deserted, and its remains, crumbling in a stark landscape, are a testament to the fact that fame and power are both fleeting. May it ever be so.

Do you enjoy my random musings? Then you’ll love my book! http://amzn.to/2mlPVh5