A Guardrail of Political Stability Is About to Be Tested

by Conrad Black

One of the two ultimate guardrails of stability in American politics is about to be tested. The burning question now is whether the Democrats will use the Department of Justice to try to defeat the renascent force of Donald Trump with politically motivated indictments.

This was almost certainly the inspiration for the asinine and outrageous intrusion at the former president’s home in Palm Beach. The controversy over that caper enabled President Joe Biden to cut his disapproval margin by approximately half to a deficit of only 10 percent. But Trump won a tactical success in shunting the issue to a special master, which has quieted it down through to the election. Last week, a former U.S. prosecutor told MSNBC that she expected Trump to be indicted over his attempt to persuade then Vice President Mike Pence not to certify Electoral College results presented by some of the contested jurisdictions.

All litigation is a craps game; American federal prosecutors win 98 percent of their cases, 95 percent of those without a trial, because of the immense practical advantages that they have through the plea bargain system over even a very well-founded defense. And in any jury trial in the District of Columbia, it’s effectively a criminal offense just to be a Republican, as the Democrats routinely carry over 90 percent of the vote in D.C. in presidential elections. Disgraced FBI Director James Comey chose to overlook Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s destruction of 33,000 subpoenaed emails ahead of the 2016 election—a possibly far more serious breach of the law than anything that could remotely be conjured from Trump’s conduct.

But this argument that Trump criminally mishandled documents that he took with him when he departed as president is spurious, as is the nonsense that Trump himself committed any offenses on Jan. 6, 2021. Some of the militantly anti-Trump legal experts have torqued themselves up to cheerlead for a slam-dunk legal victory if they just indict the ex-president. This is bunk on the legal merits, and it would crash through one of the guardrails of the American political system, that prominent politicians and especially ex-presidents are not subjected to frivolous and vexatious, politically motivated indictments.

Such an initiative now would be the ultimate criminalization of electoral politics and would ring a fire bell that the entire constitutional system is in acute danger. The supreme crisis of the post-Reagan bipartisan and political establishment is almost at hand.

The other ultimate guardrail of political stability is that the judiciary won’t entertain overturning the apparent result of a presidential election. This was demonstrated in the Bush–Gore election of 2000, and again in 2020, when at all levels the courts refused to judge the merits of the constitutional arguments in 19 lawsuits over voting and vote-counting changes effected in swing states and allegedly contravening the constitutional assignment of the obligation of fair presidential elections to the state legislatures, and that, in selected states, those elections weren’t fair. (These suits are not to be compared to the wild goose chases of Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell.)

The greatest nightmare of the post-Reagan bipartisan political establishment has returned. The Bushes, Clintons, Obamas, Biden, Romney, and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell all thought they had seen the last of their Trump nightmare after the 2020 election, and comforted themselves with the fact that the ogre couldn’t return. Anti-Trump commentators scolded Republican officeholders for being too afraid of Trump voters—they had convinced themselves that Trump had become a melting electoral iceberg.

When Trump-supported candidates won almost all of the Republican primaries, the thought that Trump might be more than a freakish and evanescent apparition startled them out of their complacent torpor.

Trump’s support isn’t so fragile, and the assault of the Washington “swamp” isn’t a passing aversion. He, almost alone, saw in 2016 the proportions of the disillusionment and anger of the lower half of American income earners, and he exploited this anger in sweeping almost all of the Republican primaries in all regions of the country, and winning an astounding upset victory in the general election.

He wrenched the Republican Party away from the proverbial country clubs and placed it like a great hen on top of traditional Democratic fiefdoms of Hispanics and African Americans and generally disadvantaged voters, and made huge inroads in these areas by the application of vintage capitalism to poor districts—incentivizing investments there and cutting taxes.

Despite out-spending Trump 2-to-1 and having the often rabid support of 95 percent of the national political media, the Democrats had to have recourse to profound changes in voting and vote-counting rules—potentially millions of allegedly harvested ballots couldn’t be verified as authentic, and a switch of fewer than 50,000 votes in three states would have flipped the Electoral College to Trump.

The almost totalitarian effort to stamp out any question about the 2020 result has failed. “Election deniers” are approximately half the country, and their numbers will grow when a Republican House of Representatives lifts the rock on some of the Democratic skullduggery. This will be the merit of the Durham Report—it has been a failure at judicial retribution, but it will be a horrifying embarrassment to the Democrats.

The most perceptive analysis of these matters in the past few days came from J.R. Dunn writing in the American Thinker on Oct. 5. He referred to what he considered a “slow, dull-witted, and utterly inept” effort by the bipartisan political establishment to stage the greatest American bloodless assassination since Watergate.

He cited a series of events showing the brutish lawlessness of Trump’s frightened enemies: the raid at the former president’s house, the doubling of the size of the IRS and the recruitment by it of gunmen “willing to use lethal force,” and Biden’s nonsensically histrionic speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a few feet from where Benjamin Franklin allegedly said at the end of the Constitutional Convention in 1788 that Americans would have “a Republic, if you can keep it.”

He also made the point that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s reaction to the invasion of the former president’s house was inadequate. He could have ordered the state police not to cooperate with the FBI raid, and instead of condemning it, he blandly insinuated that it was excessive.

For all those who think that the OBushinton era and the ghastly Biden revival of it has failed and must be replaced by an administration that will uproot the Washington establishment as Andrew Jackson did in 1829, and will reorient the country in all major policy areas, Donald Trump is the only candidate.

Only he will lower taxes, close up the border again, end the sanctuary cities, eliminate unemployment through investment and tax incentives, and redefine legitimate national interests in the world in agreement with paid-up allies and supported by strongly motivated Armed Forces with a non-political senior officer corps and armed to the teeth with the most efficient weapons in the world.

If the Trump-backed Senate candidates win two of Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in three weeks, Trump is the almost certain Republican nominee. And a malicious and unjust indictment will ultimately assure his election as president. Even the unaccountable and over-armed U.S. prosecution service won’t get away with what the desperate Democrats are contemplating.

First published in the Epoch Times.

image_pdfimage_print

5 Responses

  1. Nothing to see here but a lot of hysterical propaganda. The Demagogue was caught with boxes and boxes of classified materials in his possession. That’s illegal. And let’s not forget the guy’s making a very public speech inciting his followers to attack the Capitol, after weeks pushing lies about the 2020 election.

    It’s demagogues like Donald Trump and their fanatical followers (like Conrad here) who have done much to try to test the limits of political stability in this country.

    _________________________
    “In the four years since, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of understanding his narrow win in 2016 as the upset it was, they were told forecasters were going to be wrong again. Me serving up green beans to viewers who had been spoon-fed ice cream sundaes for years came as a terrible shock to their systems.”

  2. President Trump’s residence was burglarized in an illegal seizure. It is very plain that the President has access to all classified materials and is himself the final decider of what is classified and/or declassified. This was all perpetrated under a warrant which we were not allowed to see. What Trump is testing are the limits of our current tyrant’s stability.

  3. “President Trump’s residence was burglarized in an illegal seizure”

    Not true. Trump’s property was raided as part of a methodical investigation. The FBI obtained a search warrant.

    “It is very plain that the President is the final decider of what is classified and/or declassified.”

    Not true and disingenuous. I’m pretty sure you’re aware that while the President has the power to order materials declassified, they don’t automatically become declassified just because the President of the United States, on leaving office, decides to take them home with him without telling anybody.

    “a warrant which we were not allowed to see.”

    Again not true. The Department of Justice obliged you by having the search warrant unsealed. All anyone has to do to read it is type a search term or two.

    “What Trump is testing are the limits of our current tyrant’s stability.”

    A laughable claim. There are many things that could be said about Joe Biden’s presidency. Calling him an incompetent or even detrimental is reasonable and open to debate, but to call him a “tyrant” is absurd and the sign of a fanatic.

    Drink less Koolaid.

    _________________________
    “In the four years since, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of understanding his narrow win in 2016 as the upset it was, they were told forecasters were going to be wrong again. Me serving up green beans to viewers who had been spoon-fed ice cream sundaes for years came as a terrible shock to their systems.”

  4. That Koolaid guy? ….. Well I don’t think I’ve read cyclops thinking like that in ANY publication. Even the craziest media outlets don’t come close to the utter closed mind beliefs and faith in the party that this individual posts,

    It reminds me of some of the scenes in “The Pink Panther” where Inspector Clouseau won’t believe damning evidence placed in front of him because he’s in love with the suspect

    I’m assuming it’s an individual although it’s more likely a room full of zealots with a Jim Jones type leader orchestrating the daily indoctrination.

    Stop with your ridiculous “green beans and ice cream analogy” It’s poorly constructed and gives the impression that it’s been composed by a schoolkid.

  5. Oh yeah, it’s me who’s the close-minded fanatic. Not you for fervently clinging to your belief in a demagogue and refusing to acknowledge the plain facts about his actions.

    Your insults are amusing and display a complete lack of self-awareness. Insults are also all you’ve got, because the facts are totally against you.

    _________________________
    “In the four years since, Fox viewers had become even more accustomed to flattery and less willing to hear news that challenged their expectations. Instead of understanding his narrow win in 2016 as the upset it was, they were told forecasters were going to be wrong again. Me serving up green beans to viewers who had been spoon-fed ice cream sundaes for years came as a terrible shock to their systems.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

New English Review Press is a priceless cultural institution.
                              — Bruce Bawer

The perfect gift for the history lover in your life. Order on Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon, Amazon UK, or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Order on Amazon or Amazon UK or wherever books are sold


Order at Amazon, Amazon UK, or wherever books are sold. 

Order at Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK or wherever books are sold.

Send this to a friend