Cuffing the Criminal 

click to enlarge

It's almost 2022, but our nation's 2021 business is far from done. The horrifying events of last January both offended and alarmed every honest, decent American. And yet now, almost a whole year later, our country has failed to nail all but the least significant of the offenders.

Sure, the courts are prosecuting, determining guilt and handing down stiff prison sentences to the most-visible participants of the Trump coup, but he and the top-level perpetrators remain unpunished. An orange jumpsuit should be a slam dunk, but he's still out there, perpetuating the damage.

Remember, before Trump became president, Americans never imagined that their country could be corrupted into a dictatorship. That specter suddenly became a reality when Trump decided to disregard the will of the people and create the mother of all lies. His intent had always been obvious—that he would accept election results only if they showed him to be the winner, and he'd reject any vote that didn't.

But, thirteen months after Trump's defeat, the standard of swift justice ensured by our Constitution doesn't seem to be working as it should. Though our U.S. Attorney General and the Department of Justice—mere partisan shams during the Trump years—are once again appropriately separated from the executive and legislative branches of government, the ongoing debacle is less like a legitimate investigation into gross treason than some sort of a choreographed dance between the good guys and the traitors.

Could it be that the you-rub-my-back-and-I'll-rub-yours politics is still in charge? We hate to even consider that possibility, and yet it's difficult to detect the commitment of Congress and the DOJ—to charge, try, and convict those who incited and supported one of the most horrifying events in our nation's history. Obviously, it's important that the investigations are thorough so that the guilty can't escape the consequences, but it's also true that legal maneuvering and bogus lawsuits are being used to gum-up the gears of the criminal justice system. We can hem and haw over the insurrection's meaning, but it was very much a would-be coup—instigated and incited by one man.

The sad reality is that, when it comes to a treasonous president, that's where the "buck stops." He started the "lie." He defamed an almost-flawless election process. He encouraged Electoral College delegates to commit fraud. He told his misguided supporters to act. And he asked states to ignore and invalidate his second, resounding popular-vote defeat.

We shake our heads, express confusion on why more isn't being done and we lament that the wicked witch is very much alive. Status-quo politics and cover-ups, which guaranteed the failure of Robert Mueller's report and prevented an appropriate verdict in Trump's two impeachment trials, still seem to be ruling the day. Let's face it, we had him by the balls and then we let him go. Twice.

Republican lawmakers, intent to keep Trump's political endorsement, refused to act morally. A conviction would have foreclosed Trump from any continuing aspirations for public office, but politics derailed the system.

Sure, law enforcement and the courts are working their way through a list of flag-waving, dangerous dopes—who stormed the sanctity of our national legislative chambers and threatened the lives of those responsible for their protection. But we must also be acutely aware that the most visible perpetrators were only foot-soldiers—motivated and misled by Gen. "Bone Spurs" Trump as he sat in his armchair only blocks away. Though there's a commission charged with ferreting out the facts, no honest, realistic American believes that Trump wasn't personally behind the events of that day.

It's all a predictable M.O. of the Trump playbook—that the executive fraudster will make certain that only other people will take the fall for his actions. Demonstrating Trump's predictable and well-demonstrated cowardice, what he's been doing is all part of the same pattern that has persisted since he was a little, snotty-nosed rich kid. Entitlement was his inheritance and, sadly, it may remain his legacy.

Undoubtedly, some of those insurrectionists actually believed they were acting to protect our republic. It is sad that it's always the infantry that gets clobbered, while the command headquarters remains comfortably and safely isolated from the action. Despite the plentiful criminal prosecutions, Americans have yet to see the worst of the traitors punished.

The events of the Capitol attack were a defining moment. They revealed a glaring danger—the reality that our government and constitution are not as invincible as we'd like to believe, and that the stark threats of treason and autocracy are very real.

U.S. citizens have never had to face such a disturbing and dangerous specter as they do today. The foundation walls of our democracy have been damaged, and the threat continues. Fully appreciating the oft-rehearsed phrase "Nobody is above the law," it is essential that Trump be held accountable by our criminal justice system. If not, our country is vulnerable to him and others who would seek to be kings.

The author is a retired businessman, novelist, columnist, and former Vietnam-era Army assistant public information officer. He resides in Riverton with his wife, Carol, and the beloved ashes of their mongrel dog.