There are dates that will live forever in Americans’ memories.
July 4, 1776.
December 7, 1941.
November 22, 1963.
September 11, 2001.
Dates like these have one thing in common. There is an American consensus on what happened on those days and what it meant.
We declared our independence. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. President Kennedy was assassinated. Terrorists attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.
Then there was January 6, 2021.
Nearly a third of the country believes the people who attacked the U.S. Capitol that day were performing a patriotic act in trying to keep Congress from certifying a stolen election. They were desperate to keep their hero, President Donald Trump, in office despite losing the election by more than seven million votes.
And even though there was no evidence either at the time or later, something like a quarter of all Republicans believe the insurrection was staged by the FBI. Or the Democrats. Or something called Antifa, which doesn’t even exist. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is staging a pedophile ring in the basement of a Washington area pizzeria that doesn’t even have a basement.
There really isn’t any doubt that Trump instigated what happened that day. For all the talk to the contrary, never forget that Trump wanted the metal detectors removed from his rally because he knew the folks carrying weapons weren’t there to hurt him. Or that he tried physically to force the Secret Service to take him to the Capitol to join the rioters.
Three years later, with right-wing media lying about it every day, Trumpanzees now see the insurrection as a great patriotic act, Despite all the information that has come out since that shows Trump as grifter and even traitor, despite the millions he took in payments from foreign governments and the theft of government papers, these people see him as a demigod.
He actually might be losing his mind. Either that or he has decided he can say anything he want, no matter how disgusting, In a speech in Iowa Friday, just days after a school shooting in the state, Trump told voters that school shootings were terrible, but they needed to “get over it.”
Plenty of people are holding their breath to see what the Supreme Court will rule on whether states can remove Trump from the ballot based on the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment. I don’t expect much from that, but I think the court will find a way to make it at least a little bit of a mixed blessing.
There’s just no way they will ban Trump when he hasn’t been convicted of a crime, nor should they. If he isn’t allowed to run, he will claim martyr status. He needs to run and lose to break the fever.
But while he will win on that score, I think the only logical choice for the Court to make on another matter is that Trump cannot be granted immunity from prosecution in the criminal cases he is facing.
A former president cannot be above the law.
Ever.
Otherwise, the hundreds and hundreds of people who broke the law on his behalf three years ago today were just suckers, victims of a grifter’s con.