To Prosecute Or Not To Prosecute

To prosecute or not to prosecute, that is the question

You know when you really want something very badly but you know that it’s likely bad for you? Happens a lot. It’s emotion wrestling with reason. Sometimes what you want is clearly wrong and easy to dismiss, like if you feel urges while looking at your son’s girlfriend (hopefully, that doesn’t happen a lot). Other times, it’s like whether to take one more piece of chocolate cake. That’s a struggle.

Our country is now facing one of those struggles. Those of us who despise the man who will soon be an ex-President feel a desire deep in our gut to see the Orange Menace behind bars dressed in clothes to match his face. In the short term, that will feel like New Year’s Eve and your first fuck combined. But, in the long term, will it be worth it? Will giving in to our desire here be as dangerous as doing a son’s girlfriend or as benign as eating an extra piece of cake.

The argument in favor of chasing the soon-to-be Moron-in-Chief into a locked cage is very compelling. Not only will it give us a feel of justice achieved, it actually will  be justice achieved. More than that, it will have a lasting prophylactic political effect. It will send a valuable lesson to future dictators-in-waiting that being President is not a ticket to lie, cheat, steal, disrupt the gentle balance of our democratic system, or do any of the multitude of other indignities that we have watched Trump so readily engaged in these past four years. 

As is so often said, “no one is above the law.” But, what does that even mean – “no one is above the law?” On its surface, it’s obvious. The law should apply to everyone the same way. That interpretation, though, ignores an important part of the phrase – “the law.” The “law” as it presently exists, treats the President very differently than it treats the rest of us. Do the taxpayers give you a free house with butlers and maids? Do you have the power to pardon people? Can you claim Executive Privilege and shield your conversations from investigators? And the Justice Department even tells us that a President can’t even be charged with a crime while in office. Of course, this does not mean that “the law” protects Presidents from anything they do, but it does mean that “the law” can be applied to Presidents differently than it is applied to the rest of us, including in the context of prosecutorial discretion.

In addition, there is the practical impact of prosecuting a former President. Simply put, that’s what banana republics do (by the way, I like bananas and think linking them with poorly run countries is unfair to that particular fruit). Do we really want to look like that, even if the reasons for doing it in Trump’s case are justified.

Beyond that, and more important, it will energize the Trump mob. This is hardly the time to increase the cracks in our body politic. It is a cliché, but an appropriate one, that this is a time to heal. Prosecuting the idol of the intellectually idle will certainly not serve that end. 

Trump will not be going away. He’ll be swallowing up air-time one way or another. He gets ratings and there isn’t a news network that can exist without him. He’ll be electrifying his sycophants with “alternative facts” at a whole new level. Can you imagine the kilowatts of juice he will provide while he is under investigation or indicted? Then comes 2024. Biden likely will be too old to run again. Harris will be the presumptive candidate – a candidate seen by those juiced up Trumpies and others as a black woman who gave us socialism. Chances of her winning under those circumstances? Similar to the chances of Kim Jung-Un winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Do we really want to feed the monster? Instead, will it be better to starve that ogre and, to extend the metaphor one step too far, swallow our urge for retribution?

So, as rewarding as it might feel, the picture of Trump as somebody’s prison boyfriend is one, for our own good, we may just have to keep as a treasured fantasy.