Trump is innocent
Trump Is Innocent
Former President Donald Trump is innocent of directing, fomenting, encouraging or concocting an insurrection.
He is innocent of these things until he is found guilty. This is because, in America, you are innocent until proven guilty, one of the facts I retain from a civics class taught by an assistant basketball coach.
That's a weird thing for me to believe, given that I despise Trump. It's an even weirder thing to believe when I consider that "innocent until proven guilty" may not apply during the first month of a second Trump presidency, or at least it won't apply to his enemies. The rise of dictators is very often facilitated by tolerant democracies.
If Trump is found guilty of causing or participating in an insurrection, remove his name from the ballot for everything forever. Take his portraits down. Put an asterisk next to his name in the book of presidents, and deny him entry into the hall of fame. In addition, jail him.
Until then, Trump is no more guilty of participating in an insurrection than I am, and because of that no state should remove his name from the ballot. Maine and Colorado are wrong. Trump's guilt or innocence must be determined by a court, and not by a patchwork of state officials.
Trump's own raving speeches demonstrate how much he belongs in a country ruled by delusions (his) and opinions (his) and prejudices (his) and not by the dry, wooden, insufferably picayune rule of law.
People often complain that "criminals have all the rights," but if you're ever arrested, you will want every right you can possibly get.
You think it would be OK if we took the rights away from the "bad people" and let you keep your rights. Unfortunately, that's never been successfully done by any government anywhere at any time.
Donald Trump is a thoroughly bad man, and we can insist that he doesn't deserve the presidency, but we cannot insist that he doesn't deserve justice. That's not American, and it's not fair. Although it's not said much anymore, the American republic is founded on the statement "fair is fair." That statement can be applied to business, government, marriage, prizefights and nearly anything else that tempts us to corruption.
Oh, sure. It's tempting to be done with Trump. Even some Republicans want to do it because he's dirtied their party and because they're scared he'll win again. A lot of us are.
But Trump can't be beaten in the courts, not even if he's jailed. He has to be beaten in the polls, the way he was last time. The idea of Trump has to be dragged into full view and beaten. The crudity, the stupidity, the bigotry, the disregard for what this country is, has to be beaten again, at the polls, only worse this time.
If you watched the Clinton/Trump debates, you watched Hillary Clinton debate like an entitled state rep who thought she was running unopposed until 10 minutes before the debate began. If you watched the Biden/Trump debates, you saw Joe Biden go at Trump, mocking him, not being knocked off balance by Trump's mannerless bellowing.
It might be easier to take Trump off the ballot, but you won't have any chance of digging him out of American politics until you burn him out with the white heat of the vote.
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