This isn't the end. But it might be the beginning of the end.
Some doom-inflected thoughts about the indictment of Donald Trump.
In my town, anyway, it’s near-impossible to get a print copy of the New York Times anymore. There will be no mad rush to Starbucks or the bookstore tomorrow morning to grab what will be a historic front page.
So this screenshot will have to do:
Four thoughts about the reported indictment of Donald Trump:
* I’ve been asking since late in Trump presidency whether we would actually know it when American democracy was lost. It seemed extremely possible to me we’d slip into authoritarianism without knowing the precise moment we crossed the line.
But it’s fair to say we’re at an inflection point.
Trump has already made clear he’s willing to unleash the violence of his supporters in response to an indictment. And influential folks in the Republican Party have made it clear this evening that they’re willing to go along with him.
If violence ensues — maybe I should say “when” — and if Trump’s elected allies attack the judicial system in more formal and official but no less pernicious ways, then yes, we’ll be at another dangerous moment for democracy. It won’t be the proverbial boiling frog after all. We’ll be able to see it with our own eyes.
* We haven’t — as of this writing — seen the precise charges, but everybody’s expectation that it regards Trump’s hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign to keep their, uh, assignation quiet.
I’ve never loved the idea of bringing down Trump over a consensual sex act. He’s a gross, dirty old man, but I’m not sure the public at large is going to blame a man for trying to keep an extramarital act a secret. It’s something lots of people do, albeit on different different scale.
But most importantly: Among Trump’s many bad acts, the hush money wasn’t really the one that threatened the republic. It’s going to be tremendously stupid if this is the reason we have a first-ever presidential indictment, and foolish if it triggers something akin to a civil war. I’d much rather get him for trying to steal the election, or triggering the assault on the Capitol. I expect Trump has committed some sort of crime in New York state.
* That said, DeSantis and McCarthy and Vance and Hawley and all the rest are full of crap.
You know how I know this? Because I am 100 percent sure they’d be saying all the same things about an indictment for the insurrection, or for the Georgia phone call, if those (potential) indictments had come down first. The point here is to help Trump evade accountability — and, more importantly, to be seen by Republican voters helping him evade accountability. And if they can stir up the base’s base instincts with a little georgesorosgeorgesorosgeorgesoros anti-Semitism thrown in, that much better.
If you’ve read me awhile, you know I like to grant the assumption of good faith to people whose views I otherwise oppose — sometimes a bit past the point of good sense. But these guys? Nah.
* Anyway: God help us. And God save the republic. Because a lot of damage will go into making whatever comes next, if it comes.
I’m not that pessimistic. The inflection point isn’t for the republic but for the Republicans. If non-Trump party bigwigs in any way condone political violence on behalf of the former guy, then the GOP is finished as a major political player. It may take an election cycle or two, but something different will crawl from the muck.
DeSantis' comment is especially ridiculous given how he's attempting to weaponize the legal system to bring a corporation (Disney) under heel.