There is much furor over the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate; such Third World shenanigans are unprecedented here. Let’s review how we arrived at this nasty place.
In 2016 Trump got elected and, while new to government, had some good years. Along came the Covid epidemic - unprecedented in the last century. Like any disaster, natural or otherwise, the government tried to respond.
In the normal course of events during the epidemic the next presidential election occurred and was not postponed. Local officials in the states took a variety of actions in the name of making voting safer and easier in the face of widespread curbs of people’s mobility.
Many of these novel actions were honest, others were partisan in motive but alleged to be honest. In some cases state laws and regulations were violated under conditions where motives were at best murky. Hundreds of millions of "Zuck bucks" were spent in asymmetric get-out-the-vote efforts.
Trump campaigned to large, enthusiastic crowds in spite of the epidemic, Biden campaigned very little and then to handfuls of supporters. Trump won more votes than any prior Republican candidate but Biden appeared to have won even more, a much larger turnout than previously recorded.
It is easy to see how Trump could conclude “he wuz robbed.” I presume we’ll never know whether he was correct in that conclusion. The conditions were at least somewhat unprecedented and our system is not set up to deal with challenges to the honesty of our elections. Perhaps it should be.
In any event, Trump reacted to the situation as one would expect - with bluster and bravado - and Jan. 6 occurred. It was no insurrection but it was a riot and I believe some elected officials were frightened. The Capitol Police were unprepared and they both under and overreacted. National Guard troops - offered ahead of time - were refused as “bad optics.”
Trump affects those who dislike him like an earworm. TDS lives rent-free in their heads and won’t go away. Like any compulsion, TDS pushes its sufferers to do irrational things.
Pelosi’s Jan. 6 committee, composed entirely of sworn Trump enemies, is one irrational response. The FBI raid on his post-Presidential home is another.
It may eventually result in criminal charges against Trump, with AG Merrick Garland plotting revenge for the Supreme Court seat he didn’t win.
It has been a long and convoluted path to our present, unpleasant state of affairs.
