Blog#141- 12/25/22
A MORAL MANDATE
By Richard Davis
The U.S. Department of Justice has an opportunity to show the world that this country has an understanding of how not to repeat the worst events in human history. Jack Smith has been appointed to oversee the case against the most evil President ever to sit in the oval office. I hope that he is a student of history and that he understands how it is possible for a tide of fascism and human cruelty to sweep through a society if unchecked in its early stages.
If Trump is not punished for his attempt to overthrow the government of the United States then the door will be left open for others, such as the far right wing of the Republican party, to build a movement to continue to subvert the rule of law and open the door to not only minority rule but a new brand of fascism.
The January 6 committee has made a clear and compelling case against Trump showing that he alone is the reason that the insurrection happened and that he was the leader of a seditious movement to overthrow the government. The committee’s report is a gift for Smith and he should be able to use all of that evidence to make an airtight case against Trump and a number of his allies.
In the words of committee chair Bennie Thompson,
“I believe most Americans will turn their backs on those enemies of democracy. But some will rally to the side of the election deniers, and when I think about who some of those people are, it troubles me deep inside. White supremacists. Violent extremists. Groups that subscribe to racism, antiSemitism, and violent conspiracy theories; those who would march through the halls of the Capitol waving the Confederate battle flag. These are people who want to take America backward, not toward some imagined prior greatness, but toward repression. These are people who want to roll back what we’ve accomplished. I believe that those who aligned with the scheme to overturn the election heeded Donald Trump’s call to march on the Capitol because they thought taking up Donald Trump’s cause was a way to advance their vile ambitions…We can never surrender to democracy’s enemies. We can never allow America to be defined by forces of division and hatred. We can never go backward in the progress we have made through the sacrifice and dedication of true patriots. We can never and will never relent in our pursuit of a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all Americans.”
There are similarities to Trump’s rise to power and the rise to power of Adolph Hitler. Hitler was someone who re-invented himself and created lies about inferior races of people in order to conquer the world. His ambition knew no bounds and he was able to convince millions of people that he was making the world a better place.
As Hitler developed plans to kill millions of Jews, Roma and others he deemed unworthy the world stood by and did little to stop the mass murder. Those who survived the Holocaust felt obliged to tell the world their story so that this kind of horror would not be repeated.
But the world is a complex place and genocide, torture and the power of dictators continues to plague our world even into the 21st century. The standards of morality should be clear to most people but they do not matter when someone is able to use political power for evil ends.
Trump and his allies have not yet committed genocide but their kind of rhetoric and their ability to mobilize present a threat that must be stopped now. If not, the United States will enable a new morality for all of the current and would-be autocrats and dictators of the world.
There must be criminal prosecution if this republic is to survive. Jack Smith, do the right thing.
