Inmate #P01135809 and the mugshot seen round the world
Trump's 4th indictment is more evidence that no one is above the law but the fight to save our democracy is far from over.
In early April 1775, citizens of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, worried about their liberty, stockpiled long guns and ammunition in the town of Lexington. During the night of the 18th British troops, determined to seize those weapons, marched out of Boston. When they arrived at the town square the next morning a group of about 70 men were gathered on the village green. Someone opened fire and what became the Battle of Lexington and Concord began.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, a far better philosopher than poet, nevertheless wrote,
By the rude bridge that arched the flood
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
On August 24th of this year, just two days ago, the democracy that grew from that moment in Lexington proved that no one is above the law.
Call it the mugshot seen round the world.
An edited version of the booking photo of former President Donald Trump released by the Fulton County, Georgia Sheriff’s office on August 24, 2023.
Mr. Trump and, for that matter, most of today’s GOP, may not understand the inevitable end of their insurrection. But the slow work of justice is grinding them down.
Instead, Mr. Trump would have his supporters see a wronged hero in that mugshot. It is a fantasy fewer and fewer Americans believe.
Mr. Trump arrived in Washington with extraordinary power. He had remade the GOP in his image. He and his party controlled the Senate and the House. They held strong majorities in most state legislatures. They would soon capture the Supreme Court.
What did he and his party do with all that power?
They did not build infrastructure.
They did not invest in new American manufacturing capabilities.
They did not launch a transition to cleaner energy sources.
They did not increase working Americans’ share of the wealth their work creates.
They did not make our schools better or our streets safer.
Here’s what they did do:
They gave huge tax cuts to the wealthy.
And in state after state, where they could, they undermined voting rights and gave away taxpayer money to companies that provided them with campaign cash.
Overseas, they coddled dictators and undermined democratic coalitions.
It took their mishandling of a terrible pandemic to get most of America to look past their dishonest rhetoric and see their record for what it was.
The notable progress since 2020
Since then, we have made great progress. No other democracy has successfully thrown a tyrant out of office once he gets in. We did. Then, we held to our decision despite the conspiracy to undo it-- crimes for which Mr. Trump and his co-conspirators now stand charged. In the following months, the armed wing of the MAGA movement, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and others, have fallen to the awesome power of the rule of law. Now, when Mr. Trump calls for angry crowds to appear, only a pathetic few come by to gawk.
Meanwhile, Democrats used the slim majorities they had in power to do the things the GOP would not. To bring us out of the pandemic. To restart the economy and to redesign it so that all Americans can benefit. To fight climate change. To restore our global leadership.
What’s next?
Mr. Trump’s multiple indictments and mugshot, coming three years after he left office reminds us that honest justice takes time. But with another election on the horizon, time is not our friend. You and I cannot wait but must instead do the hard political work if the justice system is to have the time it needs to do its job. And beyond preserving that system by holding the Executive branch, there remains a lot of territory to win back. After all, the forces of autocracy still control several state legislatures, the US House of Representatives, and they have a profound influence over our Supreme Court.
The recent Republican primary debate proved that a once great American political party is no more. The GOP as a party, and those vying to lead it pledge to support Mr. Trump for President, even if he is convicted of trying to overturn his election.
America needs two political parties that challenge us with ideas about how to move our democracy forward. We have one. The other is no longer interested in democracy. Now would be the time for conservative patriots to start a new party committed to right of center ideas and to American democracy. But they will not.
So, the burden of saving our democracy falls to us. Happily, “us” is a big word. It includes the growing majority of Americans who now see where we are. It includes all those who are no longer fooled, no matter how cunningly autocrats wrap themselves in the stars and stripes, no matter how brilliantly they use words like freedom and prosperity to mask their illiberal agenda.
In this moment we can imagine ourselves as the ones outside the Constitutional Convention who asked Ben Franklin what sort of government they were devising inside. We can imagine his answer was meant for us, “A Democracy, if you can keep it.”
The thing about that mugshot? It’s not that we now see Mr. Trump for who he is. But because it reminds us that in our country no one is above the law, we see ourselves proudly for who we are.