As I watched the announcement of the verdict in this week’s Donald Trump trial (not to be confused with last month’s trial, or next month’s trial), I finally had to admit the painfully obvious: our justice system is broken. And if we cannot rely on the courts as the last line of defense against corruption and abuse of power, we are done.
My husband was unsurprised.
I tease my husband that he’s always right, he’s just way too early. Before women stampede to the exits, I do realize that telling your husband he’s always right is… ill-advised. And there are plenty of times when I insist to my husband that he is quite wrong. But on big predictions, on macro-trends, he is alarmingly accurate. Only, as I say, he’s early.
So, 15 years ago, when he predicted the removal of Founding Fathers’ statues and memorials all over the country, I told him he was being an alarmist. Sound the alarm.
When he predicted the SCOTUS Obergefell decision would lead to people self-identifying as dragons and wanting to marry their cat, I said that was ridiculous. Now who looks ridiculous?
When he predicted “blood in the streets” many years before George Floyd and the “summer of love,” I scoffed. And then the blood ran.
And when he predicted that the inevitable result of the Left’s war on Truth would be our empire’s violent fall…. I ordered more ammo.
Most of us over 40 remember the day when the jury returned their verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. We all “knew” he was guilty, wasn’t he? But the jury said otherwise. What did this mean? We consoled ourselves that this was an isolated case, not the canary in the mine. “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit” was just a brilliant gimmick used by a creative defense attorney against a hapless prosecutor. And so we went on with our lives.
Certainly there have been many bad court decisions throughout history, many verdicts that seemed to ignore the evidence and the arguments. But the institution itself, here in the United States, still seemed intact. Until now.
This week’s conclusion to the sham trial of Donald Trump, on charges that don’t rise to misdemeanor status; supported by wildly irrelevant testimony from a money-hungry porn star and comically unbelievable testimony from a convicted felon and self-confessed liar; orchestrated by a judge who is not only fatally biased but also seems to believe he can dispense with any rules of law that are inconvenient to his desired verdict; in the midst of a presidential election in which the defendant is the leading choice of tens of millions of voters- all this has left me bewildered and deeply depressed.
My husband simply said: I told you so.
If we cannot trust the rule of law, if indeed the rule of law no longer exists; if we cannot trust journalists to dig up all the ugly facts no matter where they lead, if instead, the media buries us in a tidal wave of propaganda and carefully curated narrative; if election watchers and counters believe their duty is to find the result they desire — does our nation still exist?
Note: The definition of country: “land that is controlled by a single government.” Definition of nation: “a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.”
We are fast on the road to dissolving as a nation. Fracturing as a country will almost surely follow. It won’t be peaceful and it won’t be pleasant. I think I’m beginning to sound like my husband. Unfortunately, I am not early. In fact, I fear we are too late.