Punish Them

In his most recent New York Times column Charles Blow opens with something with which I agree completely:

Never trust politicians. They are craven. It’s an occupational attribute.

Sure, there are some who are good people, tell the truth most of the time and chose careers in politics for the right reason — public service rather than personal aggrandizement.

But, politics as a genre is about power, and power corrupts.

The higher up the political ladder a politician climbs, generally speaking, the more vicious they have likely had to be and the more viciousness they have had to endure. Also, they have had to shake more and more dirty hands to raise the obscene amounts of money now needed to run campaigns, and they have likely had to make unsavory compromises in service of their own advancement.

Now, I can name some politicians who I think have largely avoided these pitfalls, but their numbers are few.

Regular readers will note how closely that tracks with themes I’ve sounded regularly here. He closes with something with which I agree in principle although not in detail:

I say that we must prosecute all people who have committed crimes and punish all those who have broken rules. The rule of law can’t simply be for the common man; it must also be for the exalted man. Because only then will the ideas of fairness and justice have meaning.

The exception I take is that he’s referring to Trump’s supporters in the Congress and elsewhere which is tarring with far too broad a brush. Between those passages he names Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Lindsey Graham but he fails to make a case that they have either broken laws or rules.

I won’t defend either Trump or his supporters. But if the “crimes” to which he refers is encouraging people to get out and demonstrate it will be hard to find any politician, Republican or Democrat, who has not violated it. President Trump urged Vice President Mike Pence to commit an impeachable offense which is itself an impeachable offense. Pence demurred. Further, there is an argument that his encouraging his supporters to demonstrate, which as far as I can tell did not meet the legal definition of incitement, was an impeachable offense as well.

Cruz, Hawley, and others have done that too and there’s an argument they could be impeached for it. However, not only do I think that criminal prosecution would be a bridge too far, it would further inflame the situation, another step on our path to becoming one of the phony republics we have derided all of my life. If you’re going to call for the rule of law it must comport with the actual law.