This Is the Day

Move over Saint Anthony! Move over war in Ukraine! Today's news knows only one topic - the news media's absolute favorite figure, the sun around which the media and its profits seem to revolve, Donald Trump. The ex-President (and potential next President) will formally show up in federal court in Florida today to be arraigned for his allegedly criminal misuse of classified national security documents, which he not only illegally took from the White House but then also obstructed the government's legitimate efforts to recover them (rather than cooperating with the government's efforts to recover the documents - as, for example, former Vice Presidents Biden and Pence did). 

Unlike the dubious New York State case, for which Trump was charged back in April, this charge is easy to understand and is actually quite serious. Moreover, unlike Hillary Clinton's infamous personal emails, for example, the documents in question in this case are actual government documents, which Trump can make no conceivable claim to own - despite the false equivalence some Republican spokespeople may try to make. And again, unlike the government documents which former Vice President Biden and former Vice President Pence apparently kept, but then returned, in this case the ex-President not only did not return them when asked to do so but apparently obstructed the government's efforts. Absent such unconscionable obstruction, it is hard to imagine the Special Prosecutor attempting to prosecute this case. 

In response, the usual suspects are saying the usual things. On one side, we hear ad nauseam how no one is above the law. They say this despite the obvious fact that, whatever we say or want to believe, rich and poor are seldom treated the same. And the rich, at least a lot of them, clearly see themselves as a caste apart to whom the rules that apply to others do not necessarily apply, at least not in the same way. (Remember when Leona Helmsley famously said that only "little people" pay taxes?)

On the other side, of course, there has been the predictable Republican rush to defend Trump, even while excoriating others (President Biden, Hillary Clinton) for far less serious offenses and even at the cost of undermining law enforcement and national security.  Once again, people in positions of authority and responsibility, who presumably ought to know better, are saying things that it is hard to credit them with really believing. In the process they are further stirring up the increasingly unhinged passions of MAGA world. 

Accordingly, there are widespread fears of how MAGA world will react in this conflict which Trump himself has called "the final battle" against "the deep state" and "the globalists" and Joe Biden. Such apocalyptic rhetoric reflects and highlights the dangerous divisions Trump - and his Republican party allies - have fostered. The Court will accord Trump due process, all Republican party fantasies to the contrary notwithstanding. Whatever happens in that courtroom today and in the months to come, however, our intensely stirred up, culturally divided, and politically polarized society will suffer further intense division and polarization and likely irreparable damage.