The Game of Law

The Game of Law

This week has been a news cycle of one thing after another focused on who and what falls within the boundaries of the rule of law. The rule of law is more than a collection of four words, it is a political philosophy that lies at the center of the modern world, whether you believe in it as a guiding principle of governance or as something that is irrelevant and bears no connection to what should be the divine right of autocrats or kings. This week we are testing the rule of law to the extreme, which feels like the culmination of a battle that has raged since at least early 2018 during the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump, continuing through the trials of Paul Manafort and then Roger Stone, into the second impeachment trial of Trump in early 2021 following the events of January 6th, morphing into the trial of Steve Bannon for willfully ignoring a congressional subpoena, through the Select Committee hearings this summer and those astonishing revelations and now the unveiling of the Donald Trump investigation and search warrant undertaken to uncover evidence of his violation of the espionage act and numerous other grave offenses.

It is not new news that we are all flabbergasted over the audacity of the machinations and claims of Donald Trump. Observers of the Trump phenomenon have been amazed at his antics first in business, then in general public relations and public policy, then in hedonistic finance and finally in his political life and cultural upheaval. People like to say that he is less the problem than those who support him and want the radicalized right agenda he so willingly has agreed to espouse in order to garner their support. But only the most severely jaundiced members of his base are prepared to support his every new antic. Most find some aspect of his behavior deplorable enough to look away and try to ignore, but, unfortunately, not enough to suggest that he has finally gone too far. There is simply too much fear of being forced to admit how wrong they have been and how degenerative their support of this oddly irreverent man has made everything they felt they stand for.

I have Republican friends that want so badly to be conservative that they are left asking rhetorical questions about Trump’s actions because they cannot come to grips with the fact that their leader has done the harm to the country that he has. They started by falling back on “but Hillary was worse…”, shifted to “you have to consider the big picture …”, gravitated to “Biden is senile and Hunter, James and Joe are all crooked…” and now are forced to fall back on “the FBI and DOJ have grossly overstepped their bounds and should be disbanded…”. When confronted with the facts of Trump’s larceny and bad deeds, they go quiet and deflect because even they know how silly it sounds to defend his actions.

As the Trump rhetoric about the “raid” on his Mar-A-Lago home played the tunes of FBI planted evidence, DOJ withholding of warrant information, lack of due process in allowing Trump lawyers to be present for the search, and now the claims that Trump declassified all the supposedly offending materials (all 26 additional boxes including nuclear secrets that he was subpoenaed to return and chose to withhold instead), his supporters have surely felt the buffeting they face as one mistruth is followed by another from Trump and his team. It’s one thing to be the guy holding Trump’s hat, but its another to be the guy who has to look more and more stupid and sycophantic with every new revelation.

The GOP as a party of law and order has completely lost its moral compass and has become the party of playing whatever game Trump wants them to play. Even those who have chosen to dismount the juggernaut and stand to the side are unable to bring themselves for the most part to declare the juggernaut for what it is, one great big wild mouse ride that not only has no direction to it other than to amuse Donald Trump, but also has wrecked great harm on the most venerable aspects of our nation’s heritage of fairness and righteousness. And the aspect of our national center, the rule of law, has been done the most harm of all.

It is almost impossible to imagine any parent trying to tell their children that it is important to do the right thing when half of the leadership of the country is willing to ignore that credo at every turn. The best they can do is to suggest that no one has the right to tell them how to spend their money (as they continue to donate their money to the false prophet in Mar-A-Lago) and that anything government does it does badly, even though they are unable to suggest how the country should be run otherwise.

The most amazing thing is that for years Donald Trump was the court jester to New York City business and we have allowed him to become the court jester to the American political arena and even the geopolitical realm. That’s right, those of us who have known him for a lot longer than Melania has, know him to treat life as one big game. It is no accident that he is referred to as a man-child. He has been such for a long time and even the most serious people around him have found him mildly humorous at times because he is so absurd. But somewhere along the way, the people who cannot see him for the joke that he is and the morally bankrupt soul that is tragic beyond any in Greek Theater, have put him on a high enough pedestal that the serious people have grown afraid of laughing at him any more even though they know that he is the same fool he has always been.

People like to say that Trump is not the root of the problem, but that the infection in the American soul runs much deeper than just this one outrageous man, but I disagree. The American soul may have strayed and been misled and has perhaps been made vulnerable by economic hardship. They are not the first people to follow craven idols in either drunken stupor or frailty of will. Americans party as hard as any people and Trump gave them a huge and seemingly fun-loving party to attend. He gave them a game that played to their basest instincts. Besides their prurient interests, they allowed their larcenous tendencies to run wild. Who doesn’t like the thought of getting away with murder? Who doesn’t prefer to play games rather than do the real work of life? Trump not only allowed them to do this, he encourages them still to do it. When you look at his team of acolytes, who can honestly say that any of them are reasonable people that can be trusted with the fate of our posterity? One is more ridiculous and flawed than the next. They are the gang that can not only not shoot straight, but they are the gang that wants to use an AR-15 to shoot everything in sight because its fun to do so. Fun and games.

Well, now, the sun seems finally to be rising on the reality of a new day and the idiocy of the night before is becoming clearer and clearer. Republicans will start soon to sober up and find new songs to sing other than Hail Trump. A few will be contrite about their drunken stupor and the games they have played, but most will simply clear their throats and start to act seriously again. The first thing they will do will be to declare that the game of law that Trump has played needs to revert back to the rule of law that has always guided our nation. We do not follow the divine right of kings in this land and the Kingdom of Trump is now going to be subject to a new game of laws altogether. Good luck with that, Donald.