Opinion | Trump Stays Free, however Our Sentence Continues

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On Monday, a buddy breathlessly and sheepishly emailed: “Sure, I admit it: I’m watching the motorcade from LaGuardia to Trump Tower. It’s like O.J.’s Bronco experience! And I swear, the lead automobile within the motorcade seems to be like a white Bronco! Might this be an inside joke by the N.Y.P.D.?”

As scrumptious — certainly, bewitching — a risk as this could be, I discovered myself shrugging. I didn’t watch the motorcade, nor may I watch the arraignment, although lengthy have I fantasized about seeing Donald Trump perp-walked, mug-shot, fingerprinted, shackled, summarily convicted and motorcaded straight from courtroom to the South Road Seaport and put aboard a ship for St. Helena.

Why am I not jubilating, wallowing in a deep, heat bubble bathtub of schadenfreude? Why, as a substitute of buzzing “Ding, dong, the witch is lifeless!” am I urgent buttons on the distant management to see what else is on — some politically themed film, say, the place the president roughly gracefully accepts proof of his villainy, resigns and helicopters off to exile in, say, California? These had been the times. As an alternative, what’s presently on extra resembles “Groundhog Day,” a replay of a film about replay.

A lot as I hope to see justice served — if not, at this late level, piping scorching — it feels as if we’re those who’re already in jail. Mr. Trump got here down that escalator into the foyer in 2015, making this the eighth 12 months of our sentence in Trump Jail.

Is there hope of parole? Stays to be seen. Despair is a mortal sin, and but … who is aware of? We’re relentlessly, remorselessly advised by some constitutional poobah that even when convicted an individual can 1) run for president or 2) be president. Who knew?

Mr. Trump’s fame got here largely from a actuality TV present, each episode of which concluded along with his snarling at somebody and telling them they had been fired. His genius was to make us individuals on this garish melodrama. Although many people — however, alas, apparently not sufficient of us — yearn fervently to fireplace him, he has proved unfireable. Teflon, Kevlar, no matter your metaphor for “unassailable” — he endures. The present is renewed for one more season. The idea of changing into ridiculous and tiresome by “leaping the shark” doesn’t apply. The larger the shark, the upper the bounce. On to the Capitol! Hold Mike Pence! — who was final heard bemoaning the “weaponization” of justice. Oh, the humanity!

I didn’t tune in dwell however I did see the picture of Mr. Trump on Monday, getting into the foyer of his eponymous tower, the place eight years in the past he sentenced us to imprisonment. He didn’t look blissful. Who would? But one puzzled if, deep down inside, he was. Regardless of the circumstances — WITCH HUNT! — he was precisely the place he craves to be: the orange omphalos on the heart of our world.

Years in the past, a now disgraced community tv C.E.O. noticed with out disgrace that Donald Trump’s first run for workplace may not be good for the nation however he was certain good for his community. These scores are by way of the roof!

Whom the gods would destroy, first they bestow upon them monster scores. When Tucker Carlson lays his head upon his pillow after one other day of bread and circuses, does he reconcile defending a person about whom he confided to colleagues, “I hate him passionately” with suggesting to viewers that now may not be a great time to hand of their AR-15s? If he succeeds at this contradictory jiu-jitsu, he deserves a black belt in cognitive dissonance.

Democrats, it’s stated, by no means miss a chance to overlook a chance. It might be time to revise this hoary axiom, for it’s the Republicans who’ve blown one alternative after one other. Not simply two impeachments. Because the historian Jon Meacham factors out in The New Yorker, Republicans in Congress may have invoked the clause within the 14th Modification that bars from public workplace anybody who makes an attempt to overthrow the federal government.

This was the bottom hanging fruit of all, however the occasion of Lincoln and Reagan didn’t increase a hand. In the identical interview Mr. Meacham, creator of an admiring biography of George H.W. Bush, additionally expressed utter bafflement that Mr. Bush’s lifelong shut buddy and consigliere Jim Baker admits to voting for Mr. Trump — whom Mr. Baker despises virtually as a lot as Tucker Carlson does — not as soon as however twice. A lot as I miss Mr. Bush, I’m grateful he’s not round to listen to this.

The present will go on, endlessly renewed for one more season. There will probably be extra indications — sorry, indictments. The canine will bark, however athwart the previous proverb, the caravan is not going to transfer on.



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