The Indictment of Donald Trump Is American Democracy’s Last and Final Chance

How Many Donald Trumps Does It Take to Destroy a Democracy? We’re About to Find Out

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Finally. Good and decent people of the universe, rejoice. It’s…indictment day. Donald Trump faces a very, very long time behind bars. Jack Smith, the…scary-looking…former war crimes prosecutor now at the Department of Justice finally delivered the charges, and they’re incendiary. It’s not just that this is the first time a former US President’s faced federal criminal charges. It’s much more than that. Trump’s been charged under the Espionage Act. Let me put that in a more objective way. A former American President’s just been indicted on multiple federal criminal charges, at least one of which is under the Espionage Act. 

It doesn’t get more historic than that, really. So go ahead and rejoice for a moment, and then let’s come back down to earth and talk about what all this means.

Sadly, It doesn’t mean that Trump can’t run for President. It doesn’t even appear to mean — weirdly — that he can’t hold office. And the GOP knows that, which is why it’s uniting around Trump, with a new set of Big Lies. It wasn’t a grand jury of everyday Americans which decided to charge Trump — nope, it was Joe Biden. This is a politically motivated prosecution — not one that’s run, by all appearances, independently, meticulously, by the Department of Justice, and led by a former war crimes prosecutor.

This Big Lie’s already the GOP party line. From “leader” Kevin McCarthy to fanatics like Josh Hawley, it’s on every faithful party member’s lips. And that is a very, very big problem — and a warning sign.

So. What does all this mean? How will it play out? First, let’s break all this down objectively.

What’s happening here is a democracy now at profound conflict with…itself. One of the branches of government, the judiciary, is trying to hold another, the executive, to account — for matters of espionage. It doesn’t get graver than that. If you can’t trust a President not to…engage in espionage…what can you trust them with?

Meanwhile, though, that former President’s party is deliberately sowing misinformation and disinformation about what all this is. It’s calling it effectively a witch hunt, motivated by politics — not justice, integrity, consequences, basic codes of conduct which must apply if anything, even more to a President than a rank and file functionary. And by casting in these obviously Orwellian, extreme, perverse terms — it’s making its base of hardened fanatics angry. It’s stoking the flames of rage. The sense of persecution that already motivates the Trumpist base.

We’re the real victims here! We always have been? Of…who…precisely? Of gay people! Of women! And kids! Of…of…books! Of Disneyland! I put it that way to make a point — these grievances are manufactured, artificial. What Trumpism is about is what it’s always been about, which is essentially…

What is the GOP doing when it stokes the fires of MAGA rage by saying all this — a President being charged with espionage, for Pete’s sake — is a witch hunt? It’s thumbing its nose at the rule of law. Take a moment to really reflect on that with me.