What do Special Counsel Jack Smith and General William Tecumseh Sherman have in common? More on that later.
I’ve been reveling in schadenfreude lately, taking great pleasure in seeing J-6 legal alchemist John Eastman on the verge of being disbarred and Trump consigliere Rudy Giuliani — sans streaming hair dye — possibly trying to cop a deal with Jack Smith in which he would rat out don Don to save his sorry booze-sodden ass. “Yes!” I bellowed and fist pumped as one J-6 stormtrooper pulled an 18-year prison sentence and another was hit with 12+ years.
“To see others suffer does one good,” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche. Well, at least some others.
The wheels of justice, as they say, turn slowly, but grind exceedingly fine. Many of us have waited, waited and waited for the wheels to catch up with those hell-bent on wrecking our democratic system and the rule of law. But I sense it’s finally happening. The pendulum appears to be swinging back in the right direction.
Donald Trump is facing an avalanche of indictments, ranging from paying hush money to a porn star to sedition and violating the Espionage Act. For way too long, the conman-in-chief has managed to skate from the legal consequences of his many crimes. Now the jig is just about up. But will he pay the piper once convicted? Will our two-tier justice system treat him like any other citizen who committed the same crimes, or merely slap him on the wrist and, say, order him to do community service in the form of teaching entrepreneurship to the disadvantaged youth of Del Ray Beach in mock performances of The Apprentice in school gymnasiums?
Samuel Adams observed that the rule of law means that “There shall be one rule of Justice for the rich and the poor; for the favorite in Court, and the Countryman at the Plough.”
I have my doubts.
An ex-Air Force officer just pulled three years in prison for taking home 300 classified files, 30 of them Top Secret. A former FBI analyst was just sentenced to nearly four years imprisonment for keeping close to 400 classified files in her bathroom. They, as Trump, were charged under the Espionage Act.
Trump was caught red-handed keeping scores of bankers boxes of government documents, many of them classified, in his bathroom, among other places. And then lied to the FBI about them. There’s justified speculation that he’s sitting on more national security materials at his Bedminster, NJ residence. If convicted, he should be sent to the hoosegow for years. Right? Right?
For the fifth year in a row, the rule of law has declined in most countries, according to the World Justice Project. The United States ranks 26 out of 140 countries on the organization’s Rule of Law Index — sandwiched between Uruguay and Portugal. The U.S. scores embarrassingly low in the category of “Constraints on Government Powers,” which measures the extent to which those who govern are bound by law. A certain Florida governor comes to mind.
One of my duties as a U.S. diplomat was to lecture other nations on democracy and the rule of law. I recall delivering a speech to Cambodians during the only time they experienced fairly free elections, under UN auspices in the 1990s. I quoted Churchill’s reputed comment, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.” (I neglected to add another Churchillianism: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”)
I’ve lived in countries without rule of law. I found Cuba, for example, a surreal place, one of effervescent, talented people with a jackboot constantly hovering over them. A new law subjects anyone who “endangers the constitutional order and normal functioning of the State and the Cuban government” to be punished with imprisonment from four to 10 years. The artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara was recently convicted of “public disorder,” “contempt” and “insulting national symbols” for which he faces up to seven years in prison.
Had Trump’s January 6, 2021 putsch succeeded, I have little doubt we would be facing authoritarian castrista-type laws conjured up by mad treasonous lawyers like Eastman and Giuliani, and enforced by Trump’s stooge AG-designate, Jeffrey Clark.
Trump’s case officer, Vladimir Putin, has sunk Russia down to rank 107 on the Rule of Law Index. Jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny faces 30 years in prison on trumped up charges. Another Putin opponent, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was recently sentenced to 25 years incarceration on false charges of treason. Both survived assassination attempts via poisoning. Others haven’t been so lucky — for example, charismatic politician and Putin foe Boris Nemtsov was brazenly shot dead outside the Kremlin walls in 2015. And a journalist I happened to know, Artyom Borovik, died in a mysterious small plane crash just after publishing a scathingly critical piece on Putin. And then there are jailed American citizens Paul Whelan and reporter Evan Gershkovich, both absurdly charged with “spying.”
Should Joe Biden win a second term, I, for one, want to see us elevate ourselves from number 26 on the Rule of Law Index. And, yes, Donald Trump must serve prison time, if convicted. Meantime, we have little right to be lecturing others.
So, when Jack Smith first burst onto the scene as Special Counsel, the thought that immediately flew into my head when I saw photos of him was that this fellow was a reincarnation of some legendary Civil War general. I did a Google image search and, Bam! — General William Tecumseh Sherman hit me between the eyes like a minie ball. Both men exude an almost Old Testament righteousness, stern grey-bearded avatars of God’s justice against sinners. Were “Uncle Billy” Sherman to return today, I feel that he and Jack would get along famously, comparing notes over bourbon and branch water on how to make Trumpland howl.
Terrific.
Agree on all you wrote.
This was news to me.
Add on to above...
News to me--
"I neglected to add another Churchillianism: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”)