How does the Supreme Court ignore the elephant in the room? And what he has done!
Actually, the elephant, at the time the lawyers were arguing before the high court the issue of presidential immunity, was sitting in a Manhattan courtroom.
Donald Trump is a criminal defendant — answering to allegations involving a sleazy magazine publisher known for printing outrageous and salacious lies to which a large part of America succumbed on a weekly basis, and payoffs to a porn star — charged with falsifying records to hide the entire sordid affair. So to speak!
The Supreme Court has always been that last great bastion of democracy — man’s experiment in self-governance — as a protection for everyday Americans against the excesses of the legislative or executive branches of government .
Lately, though, thanks to the elephant who wasn’t in the high courtroom, the Supremes have appeared manipulated in a way that looks more like executive or legislative action (politics) rather than the high purposes of interpreting the law of our land, the Constitution.
We shall soon see the result of their efforts when they decide a very simple question for most Americans: In the United States of America, is it true that nobody is above the law?
Whatever they decide, it is clear that Trump’s being called to account for the riots he led on Jan.6, 2021, will just have to wait. Perhaps until after the 2024 elections have long been decided or perhaps until the 12th of Never.
Either way the voting public — which seems interested in learning what an American jury decides about Trump’s guilt in the matter — will not get satisfaction. The people will just have to do the job themselves.
As an aside, perhaps the greatest of ironies may result in Trump being laid low by the porn star. Perhaps not.
What has become clear is what noted historian Doris Kearns Goodwin explained after the Supreme Court hearing Thursday.
As a student of history practically without peer, she suggested that in our democracy the weighty issues of the day, especially the issues left unresolved by the plodding nature of the court calendar or perhaps other motivations, will have to be decided right where the Founding Fathers intended.
At the ballot box!
That means the time will soon come — this November — when American citizens will have to decide for themselves whether Trump broke the law by trying to lie, cheat and steal the 2020 presidential election from us.
There is no easy way. The courts won’t help. Trump won’t have a sudden moment of moral clarity in which he confesses his many sins. And onetime responsible Republican leaders won’t have spine replacements sufficient to alert GOP voters to the danger of electing Trump — again.
But there is a failsafe in our democracy. The vote.
That means we have to do the real work of citizenship. We have to pay attention. We have to consult credible news sources. We have to ignore the ads and pay attention to the truth. And we can’t TikTok our way through the motions of separating fact from fiction.
And then we have to vote to do what, so far, our criminal laws, our justice departments and our all-too-cumbersome court processes have failed to accomplish.
America has no room for kings and monarchs. Getting rid of the king is why the Founding Fathers created this wonderful country. Instead of a monarchy, they gave the job of self-governance to the people.
It is all so simple. Come November, there will be no one else around to do our job for us.
It’s time for American citizens to go to work. We must vote as if our democracy depends upon it!
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.