Trump’s
vilest legacy
Trump has
brought impunity to the highest office in
the land,
wielding a wrecking ball to the most
precious
windowpane of all—American democracy.
By Robert
Reich - Nation of Change - December 28, 2020
Most of
the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to reelect Donald Trump—46.8
percent
of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election—don’t hold Trump
accountable
for what he’s done to America.
Their
acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy.
Nearly
forty years ago, political scientist James Q. Wilson and criminologist
George
Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community
signals
that no one cares if windows are broken there. The broken window is
thereby
an invitation to throw more stones and break more windows. The message:
Do
whatever you want here because others have done it and got away with it
The
broken window theory has led to picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in
poor communities.
But America’s most privileged and powerful have been
breaking
big windows with impunity.
In 2008,
Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out
while
millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet no major Wall
Street
executive ever went to jail.
In more
recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the
members
of the Sackler family who own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did
nothing.
Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud
customers.
Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max
Jetliner
was unsafe. Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police
under
their command repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans.
Here,
too, they’ve got away with it. These windows remain broken.
Trump has
brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a
wrecking
ball to the most precious windowpane of all—American democracy.
The
message? A president can obstruct special counsels’ investigations of his
wrongdoing,
push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors
general
who find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse
congressional
subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his
opponents,
refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being “fake
media”
and “enemies of the people,” and make money off his presidency.
And he
can get away with it. Almost half of the electorate will even vote for his
reelection.
A
president can also lie about the results of an election without a shred of
evidence—and
yet, according to polls, be believed by the vast majority of those
who voted
for him.
Trump’s
recent pardons have broken double-paned windows.
Not only
has he shattered the norm for presidential pardons – usually granted
because
of a petitioner’s good conduct after conviction and service of sentence –
but he’s
pardoned people who themselves shattered windows. By pardoning them,
he has
rendered them unaccountable for their acts.
They
include aides convicted of lying to the FBI and threatening potential
witnesses
in order to protect him; his son-in-law’s father, who pleaded guilty to tax
evasion,
witness tampering, illegal campaign contributions, and lying to the Federal
Election
Commission; Blackwater security guards convicted of murdering Iraqi
civilians,
including women and children; Border Patrol agents convicted of assaulting
or
shooting unarmed suspects; and Republican lawmakers and their aides found
guilty of
fraud, obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations.
It’s not
simply the size of the broken window that undermines standards, according
to Wilson
and Kelling. It’s the willingness of society to look the other way. If no
one is
held accountable, norms collapse.
Trump may
face a barrage of lawsuits when he leaves office, possibly including
criminal
charges. But it’s unlikely he’ll go to jail. Presidential immunity or a selfpardon will protect him.
Prosecutorial discretion would almost certainly argue
against
indictment, in any event. No former president has ever been convicted of a
crime.
The mere possibility of a criminal trial for Trump would ignite a partisan
brawl
across the nation.
Congress
may try to limit the power of future presidents—strengthening
congressional
oversight, fortifying the independence of inspectors general,
demanding
more financial disclosure, increasing penalties on presidential aides who
break
laws, restricting the pardon process, and so on.
But
Congress—a co-equal branch of government under the Constitution—cannot
rein in
rogue presidents. And the courts don’t want to weigh in on political
questions.
The
appalling reality is that Trump may get away with it. And in getting away
with it
he will have changed and degraded the norms governing American
presidents.
The giant windows he’s broken are invitations to a future president to
break
even more.
Nothing
will correct this unless or until an overwhelming majority of
Americans
recognize and condemn what has occurred.