The slow crawl to justice
I have framed over my fireplace a home a newspaper clipping from the New York Times’ front page that reads, “Trump Incites Mob: Rampage in Capitol Leads to Evacuations.”
Its dated Jan. 7, 2021.
We're rapidly closing on the third anniversary of the chaos, lies, anarchy and conspiracies surrounding the pivotal election of November 2020 and the violent Jan. 6 riot that followed. I never want this far from my mind or from my vision – to remember just how dangerously close we came.
As a political scientist, far more than ideology or party, I love and value stability, mechanics, law and order. The weird and the violent, deviance and radicalism in this system of ours — from any political direction — sends me over the rail. “Don’t they see this is a fragile, fine-tuned piece of clockwork, here?” I howl.
But I was wrong. This structure is tougher than anyone could have imagined. Those folks who decided to abandon law, peace and good common sense in the post-election period are all – albeit slowly – being processed through that same system they sought to disregard.
I used to have another headline – this one from the New York Daily News. It was passed down to me by my dad, and read, simply, “Nixon Quits.”
“Tricky Dick” was preceded by a host of his cronies – Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson, Liddy, Sturgis and the rest. “The Boss” could do little for them. So, he did nothing and then the door slammed shut and Nixon had nowhere to go except to the lawn and the helicopter and the plane to Cali to wait for his pre-arranged pardon. The rest of them went to jail, for shorter or longer stretches. Chuck Colson even truly changed his life, founding a legit prison ministry. But Nixon lived out his life – bitter, paranoid, and cynical but free to the end. The system won. Justice won. The country won.
In the here and now, the judiciary is catching up. More than 1,100 people have been charged and hundreds processed through the system. The foot soldiers, like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, are headed for decades in the federal slammer. A few others ― especially those who attacked cops — will do serious time. An awful lot of the folks going before the bar, in my view, were simply wretched dupes of a scheme, hatched and launched by an evil cabal of contemptable liars, who used them to their own ends. Sad for them ― certainly for their families, and for the country.
Contentious elections are hardly rare in the US. The Bush/Gore election of 2000 stands out in relatively recent history as one where legitimate issues could be raised about everything from the election process to the vote count. The issues were battled out in various venues and resolved by the Supreme Court. And when George W. Bush was declared the winner, Al Gore capitulated and jetted off to other projects. Had it gone the other way, Bush would, I am sure, have done the same.
As I checked in with the Times and the Post’s email alerts this past week, the pins were falling in the election interference case. Lawyers Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Cheseboro, along with bail bondsman Scott Hall, have all pled guilty and agreed to testify against any other of the 15 holdouts still left by the time of the trial. In other news, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is broke — tangled up in his own litigation messes. A pathetic figure. Even the “My Pillow” guy, Mike Lindell, is being hoisted aloft – stuck in multiple trials for lying. His businesses in apocalyptic debt, his products dropped by Walmart, and unable to afford a lawyer, the whole knot of revolting excess is finally unravelling.
But I can’t help but think someone’s missing from this miserable parade.
But he’s free. For now. And running for President. Again.
Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College. He is also a columnist for The Ledger.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: The slow crawl to justice
