Why the Indictment of Donald Trump Matters

The Fight for Justice Never Matters More Than When Fascists Are Trying to Pervert the Very Idea of It

Image Credit: Octavio Jones

Perhaps he can write his very own Mein Kampf while he’s in prison. It was apparently, after all, his bedtime reading. There’s been a lot of ink spilled already about the indictment of Donald Trump, and plenty more surely will be. Let me offer a few thoughts. Does it matter? Of course it does. This is an historic moment for America, and for the world. The first indictment of an American President?

I want to give you a more thoughtful, considered set of comments than you’ll hear from pundits, hopefully. You deserve that much, and you can be the judge of that.

What’s this case really about? A lot more, I suggest, than many think, even now. The way it’s framed so far — even on the thoughtful side — is the old line about a nation of laws versus a nation of men…people. That’s true, but in a much subtler way than is being talked about.

How do nations fail? How did America get here? What’s really happening to America — right now?

One side — the fascists, basically — abuse their way into power. They cheat, they defraud, they tell Big Lies — “the election was stolen!! Gay people are groomers!! Jan 6th was a peaceful protest!!” On and on it goes.

And then something crucial happens. When they gain power, they begin to rewrite the law. And they’re doing so in increasingly dire and dark and dangerous ways. Take what’s by now the canonical example, Ron DeSantis’s Florida. The law is being weaponized against…everyone. Kids, teachers, parents. Books banned, classes cancelled, words banned. Tip lines set up to “report” on families. Take the Supreme Court suddenly taking basic freedoms away from…more than half of society…women.

We think of “the rule of law” as a static thing. It’s not. The rule of law is dynamic, ever-changing, perpetually in flux. And what fascism does is perverts it. It rewrites the rule of law. Weaponizes it. In a very specific way.

What does the rule of law exist to do in a democracy? It’s there to institutionalize democratic values — certain values, the ones of peace, truth, equality, freedom, justice. It’s there so we can all enact them. Live them, without fear, every single day. And when we enact their opposites — hate, violence, lies, fraud, violence and so forth — at least in different degrees, we are breaking the law. And we are to be punished.

What does fascism rewrite the rule of law to do? To institutionalize anti-democratic values. Not peace, truth, justice, freedom, and so forth — but their polar opposites. Lies, hate, violence, etcetera. Now those values are institutionalized. They are enacted and enforced. The Gestapo — tip lines to report on teachers and families and students. The SS, volunteer paramilitaries of true believers — vigilante forces proposed in Texas and Florida. Book bans, word bans, history rewritten, entire kinds of people criminalized.

The law is not a static thing. And right now, what’s happening in America is an acute phase of fascism. The fanatics and lunatics aren’t just breaking the law. They’re way, way beyond that point of fascist collapse. They’re in power, and they’re actively rewriting it.