Daily Herald opinion: ‘Disgrace’ will be centerpiece of re-election campaign for Donald Trump, nation’s first felon ex-president

In the annals of Donald Trump mythology, there is a story line that “the system” has treated him as it treats no other politician, no other president.

That is undeniably true. No other president has been impeached twice. No other president has faced even one, let alone four criminal trials after leaving office. No other president has refused to accept the outcome of a national election.

And now, no other president has worn the mantle of “felon.”

Predictably, the president and his defenders chalk up all the claims against him to politics, and they proudly declare that politics also will save him.

“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump said moments after being declared guilty on 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records to hide a tawdry sex story from voters.

It will, of course, be a sad commentary on the state of the Republican Party if they let it get that far, but that, too, is a likelihood that would have been unthinkable for any other presidential candidate.

Consider, what candidate in history would ever have kept the support of his party after admitting to bragging about grabbing women’s genitals? What candidate would maintain his party’s support after losing two civil defamation cases related to sexual abuse of the same woman? What candidate would still have his party’s fealty after twice paying women not to tell stories about sexual encounters with him — one of them while his wife was pregnant with his son? What candidate would still be his party’s standard-bearer after a criminal conviction, with three more trials still ahead?

Can anyone envision Nikki Haley or Marco Rubio or Mike Pence or Lindsey Graham or Ted Cruz or any other Republican presidential contender surviving such experiences?

“The system” may treat Donald Trump differently from other candidates, but so, apparently, does much of the Republican Party.

There may be room to debate the merits of the New York prosecution that resulted in Trump’s conviction. No one can deny that, although entirely legal and transparent, the circumstances that laid felony charges on Trump in the hush money case were unusual and strained. But the larger question for the country, the one evident in the jury’s verdict, involves the mere fact that few people doubt he is capable of all the things of which he was accused — the hush money, the deals with a friendly tabloid newspaper, the falsified business records, all of it.

Some people may complain that the system, which operated according to the rules of justice that govern every criminal trial in America, was somehow manipulated to embarrass and dismiss him as a candidate. But few indeed doubt that he was capable of doing — and probably did do — what he was accused of and knew it. Like so many countless other felons, he and his supporters blame “the system,” rather than his own behavior and reputation for his fate.

Trump will face sentencing July 11, just days before he is expected to be nominated to lead his party in the campaign for United States president. That is a surreal image. And it will doubtless set the tone for Trump’s entire campaign — the embattled victim of a mysteriously powerful “far left,” battling to reverse a corrupt “system,” a system that somehow gets almost every other criminal case right but his.

How much happier we would be, how much better off the country would be, if Republicans would recognize the disgrace he has brought to it and to the nation, and turn instead to a candidate who truly represents their ethical and moral principles and those of the nation. They certainly have time, and options.

Unfortunately, that possibility seems all but hopeless to contemplate. Instead, we are left to consider that the ultimate verdict on Donald Trump will take place on Nov. 5. He has said so himself.

May the highest principles of the country guide voters in issuing the statement.