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When the Constitutional Convention assembled in Philadelphia in May of 1787, delegates reportedly shuttered the windows of the State House and swore secrecy so they could speak freely. To that end, we’ll never really know if they truly intended, as some suggest, for the 2nd Amendment to protect citizens’ rights to wield an AR-15 in a preschool.
That said, we don’t have to wonder what our founding fathers, having just successfully fought off the British monarchy, meant about the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power. It was, George Washington declared, “what will separate this country from every other country in the world.” Which is why when someone attempts to undermine that principle, so core to our nation’s founding, they must be prosecuted.
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Enter a porn star, a con man, and the Manhattan district attorney, threatening to undermine everything.
At a moment when the stakes couldn’t be higher, it’s hard to understand exactly what Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg was thinking over the past several weeks. His case, apparently predicated on the word of a convicted con man (ex-Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen) and centered around an adult film actress who, 11 years after her alleged Trump-romp, surfaced weeks before an election trading her silence for $130,000 in cash, appears weak by all counts.
Maybe I’m wrong and Bragg uncovered massive fraud, but I struggle to believe that, given that the famously aggressive Southern District declined to prosecute the case years ago. Absent a real smoking gun, it appears to be little more than a books and records class A misdemeanor upcharged to overcome a lapsed statute of limitations and become a felony.
New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg leaves after former U.S. President Donald Trump's indictment by a Manhattan grand jury following a probe into hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, in New York City on March 30, 2023.
Jeenah Moon/ReutersSome (myself included) believe Bragg brought the hush money indictment because he got heat for ducking another Trump case last year. Others claim he’s attempting to show that no one is above the law. The second theory is difficult to swallow when, for the prosecutor in question, history suggests Mr. Trump should have been sent on his merry way with little more than a desk appearance ticket.
And at this unprecedented moment in American history, the public doesn’t have anywhere to turn for objective fact finding or guidance.
On the one hand there’s Fox News who, to the shock of almost no one, actively lied to its viewers for months about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. On the other, it’s hard not to question MSNBC’s motivation when their ‘round the clock coverage on the importance of holding those in power accountable and Trump’s reckless disregard for the law, prominently and repeatedly spotlights Michael Cohen—a convicted perjurer, tax evader, and campaign finance fraudster—solely because his current professional persona fits with their politics.
Meanwhile, the “less partisan” networks feature pundits predicting indictments with the same gusto that college frat boys demonstrate during a fantasy football draft—appropriate, given that many Americans feel our political and justice systems have been reduced to a game, with the referees, our “non-biased” press, clearly rooting for one of the teams of which they’re supposed to be reporting objectively and without favor.
Yes, it is safe to say we are all stupider for living through this period in our nation’s history.
Michael Cohen, former attorney for former President Donald Trump, exits a New York Courthouse in New York City on March 10, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz/ReutersBut most Americans aren’t on Twitter, nor are they watching cable news. To the quiet majority of Americans who aren’t hyper-partisan, indicting a former president of the United States is a big deal, not something to be pursued lightly. That’s why, if prosecutors felt it was time to take that unprecedented step, Americans want the indictment to be airtight. Beyond reproach. Worthy of the historic severity of criminally indicting a former President of the United States. Otherwise, what’s the point?
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The public’s belief in our political ecosystem matters.
American democracy is both voluntary and tenuous. It requires a press the public perceives as unbiased, a justice system it believes is not political. And for the government to impose laws and taxes, the American public has to know there are consequences when rules are not followed. Absent that, as we saw on Jan. 6 when the United States more closely resembled an unraveling third world country than a democratic first world leader, all bets are off.
Early polling suggests the impact of Stormy-gate has Republicans rallying behind the former president, the American public statistically deadlocked over their approval of the indictment, and more than six in 10 Americans believing the Manhattan district attorney's case involving former President Donald Trump is mainly motivated by politics. Put that together with Americans’ fundamental distrust of mainstream media—trust so low that nearly half of Americans now believe news organizations deliberately mislead them—and we are headed for a crisis so severe it could unravel the basic fabric of our democracy.
In a country where everything is hyperpolarized and parties blindly fall in line, it’s hard to remember that in 1974 Republicans voted with Democrats to subpoena then-President Richard Nixon and to approve the articles of impeachment over his involvement with the Watergate break-in and subsequent coverup. That same year, the American trust in the media stood at 70 percent; today that number is 34 percent.
The problem, of course, is that the perception of the initial Trump indictment being viewed as political is not about short term gains or losses in the polls. It’s that it undermines the very real cases that are in the pipeline, cases that raise questions about whether or not the President of the United States, sworn to uphold and defend the constitution, engaged in treason, attempted to overthrow a duly elected government, or meddle with the sanctity of the electoral process.
The investigations being conducted on Jan. 6 and election interference in Georgia are of such great institutional import that they test the very fiber of democracy and the Constitution of the United States. And for democracy to continue functioning, we need the buy-in of the American people as to both the gravity of these crimes—and that the justice system prosecuting them is free from political influence.
In a lot of ways, it’s not surprising that Jan. 6 happened. People fundamentally haven’t trusted the system for years—Trump’s election proved that. He then spent his term actively eroding faith in institutions that are the pillars of our democracy. The answer is not to erode it further; we should all be working towards restoring that faith. Without it, the entire system falls apart.
George Washington knew that.
Let’s hope the rest of us wake up to it soon, or we’ll be in for the real storm.
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