August 14, 2022
Monday’s stunning raid on Mar-a-Lago jolted us out of our late summer torpor. The prospect of Trump finally being held criminally liable for offenses too momentous to ignore has had us riveted. As the week wore on, each of Trump’s blustery pronouncements was exposed as a lie and each of his bluffs was called. Merrick Garland used his reputation as a stolid bureaucrat who moved at glacial pace to his advantage. On Thursday Garland called a press conference to announce that he had personally signed off on the search warrant and that the DOJ was petitioning the government to unseal it.
When the warrant was unsealed on Friday, we learned that the FBI sought evidence of violations of violations of federal criminal statutes, 18 U.S.C. Sections 793, 2071, and 1519. Section 793, known as the Espionage Act, prohibits “gathering, transmitting or losing” documents or information relating to national defense and is punishable by up to ten years in prison. Section 2071 prohibits “concealment or removal” of federal documents or records and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. Lastly, Section 1519 prohibits the “knowing concealment or falsification” of records or documents to “impede, obstruct, or influence”an investigation or the proper administration of the federal government and is punishable by a sentence of up to 20 years, (Source: Legal Information Institute, www.law.Cornell.edu). These are not misdemeanors that can be dismissed as technical violations of the law.
While it has been satisfying to watch Trump and his apologists squirm, we cannot allow our preoccupation with Trump to blind us to both the empowering victories and ominous challenges that have emerged in the last several weeks. Two weeks ago, Kansas voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion rights, defeating a measure that would have stripped it from the state constitution, (Source: “Kansans resoundingly reject measure designed to restrict abortion rights,” by Annie Gowan and Colby Itkowitz, The Washington Post, 8/3/22).
The turnout of 900,000 was the highest in a primary in the state’s history with more than twice as voters as voted in 2018, (Source: “4 charts that show just how big abortion won in Kansas,” by Rani Molla, Vox.com, 8/3/22). Abortion rights won big in Kansas despite the fact that only 26% of its voters are Democrats.
Three days later, as if in direct response, the Indiana legislature defiantly passed a law banning abortion except in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormality or “risk of death or severe health risk” to the mother,(Source: “Indiana Governor Signs First Post-Roe Abortion Ban,” by Mitch Smith and Julie Bosman, The New York Times, 8/5/22).
Democrats capped last week with another victory, by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, a law which will provide $300 billion to combat climate change, permit Medicare to bargain with drug makers to lower the cost of prescription drugs and compel corporations earning a billion dollars or more annually to pay a “15% minimum tax,” (Source: “Democrats passed a major climate, health and tax bill. Here’s what’s in it,” by Deepa Shivram, NPR.com, 8/7/22).
Yet, while Democrats were busy cajoling their eternal holdouts, Manchin and Sinema, to support this sweeping legislation that will protect the planet, improve the lives of American seniors and force corporations to begin paying their fair share of taxes, the Republicans’ alternate dystopian vision for America was playing out in primary elections around the country where Republicans elected far right radicals like Arizona’s Republican Senate candiate, Blake Masters and Trump backed Michigan gubernatorial candidate, Tudor Dixon.
It played out in Dallas at last weekend’s CPAC convention, which hosted Hungarian autocrat, Viktor Orban, as its opening speaker. Orban’s speech, a medley of hatemongers’ greatest hits, railed against “race-mixing” and “drag queens.” Orban echoed the same themes he had hit in a July speech that prompted his close advisor, Zsuzsa Hegedus to resign in a scathing letter comparing Orban’s rhetoric to Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. The CPAC audience, on the other hand, lapped it up, (Source: “Republicans at CPAC embrace a defiant Viktor Orban amid outrage over ‘mixed-race’ remarks,” by Neil Vigdor, The New York Times, 8/4/22).
The pattern is clear. Every gain we achieve only strengthens their resolve. While we should enjoy the spectacle playing out in South Florida and savor our victories, we cannot let it lull us into complacency. Given Trump disciples like Abbott and DeSantis, who eagerly double down on his racism, misogyny and homophobia, holding Trump accountable for his crimes is necessary, but hardly sufficient. Given Trump’s thousands of deranged foot soldiers in the Oathkeepers and the Proud Boys who are willing to violently attack the Capitol, elected officials or federal officers, even if, like Ricky Schiffer, they die in the attempt, it is rational to fear that our victories will be met with violence. We have to face that fear, because as Nelson Mandela said, “courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” Democracy deserves all the courage we can muster.