“WHERE DO I START?”

NOVEMBER 26, 2024 – Back on a suitably balmy early evening in October 2018, I ventured over to Target Center in downtown Minneapolis to witness the goings on surrounding a Trump rally inside the home of the Timberwolves. The festivities were a mere five blocks from my office. I’d tried to garner a ticket to the rally itself, but the event was sold out, so I had to be satisfied with whatever spectacle might be happening outside the arena.

Peaceful protesters filled the streets and sidewalks around Target Center. Judging by their attire and other aspects of outward appearances, the people seemed to represent a broad swath of local society—old, young, scruffy, frumpy, well-heeled, and respectfully casual. They were motivated and unified by their contempt for the Charlatan in Chief.

Their homemade signs were the most memorable aspect of the dense gathering. Every conceivable affront and offense committed by Trump had been dialed up and painted onto large placards affixed to long handles. Some signs were whole legal briefs in neat but comparatively small print that could be read only at very close quarters. Other messages—“IMPEACH TRUMP!”—were more succinct. Many were humorous—“WE SHALL OVERCOMB.” But the one that captured the broadest take on things was, “WHERE DO I START?!”

That question struck at the heart of Trump’s puzzling success; a question that would be most aptly symbolized by the image of a bed of nails. Since 1776, the classic downfall of every American politician could be depicted by a cartoon featuring John or Joanne Q. Public showing a mix of pain and anger as s/he lies down over a single sharp spike—a single scandal—in the middle of a bed. Trump’s astonishing success, however, is the result of many sharp spikes—a comfortable and therapeutic “sadhu board,” or bed of nails, developed in India 2,000 years ago for relieving back pain by stimulating the nervous system and improving blood circulation. Even we who are appalled by the sadhu board have adapted to it; to Trump’s perpetual frontal assault on all the principles and norms of behavior that we were taught in school, religious instruction, civic groups, the workplace, and by parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends and associates who modeled decent, respectful behavior and an appreciation for pursuits that edify heart, mind and soul.

The Indian bed of nails—the protester’s “WHERE DO WE START?” sign at that 2018 anti-Trump demonstration—was on my mind yesterday when the U.S. District Court Judge Chutkan dismissed the January 6 case against Trump.

On command by Trump and his captive rightwing media megaphones, all too many voters—already lying comfortably upon the bed of nails—viewed the January 6 case (not to mention the documents case and Georgia election interference case, which, of course lies outside the purview of the DOJ) as a politically motivated “weaponization” of the Department of Justice. At the same time and particularly now in the wake of yesterday’s dismissal, many anti-Trump voters are decrying Merrick Garland’s “delay” in appointing the special counsel (Jack Smith) to investigate Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on American democracy. Between these two opposing sentiments—Republican MAGA mania and Democratic criticism of Garland—is an Everest of irony: Garland put prosecutorial precision ahead of politics. As a serious lawyer and mindful of the likelihood of MAGA blowback if he acted too hastily, the attorney general made sure that sufficient evidence existed qualitatively and quantitatively to justify appointment of Jack Smith as special prosecutor to investigate potential criminal acts by the former president—while in office. Smith, in turn, took a meticulous approach to examining evidence and applying law to facts and obtained a grand jury indictment against Trump.

This approach was not “weaponization” of anything, despite MAGA propaganda, nor did the process involve inexcusable delay, as many Democrats assert.  Garland’s method and Smith’s as well were in active respect for the rule of law; the rule of law—manifest most critically in the proposition that no one in this country, not even the president of the United States, is above the law.

Of all the nails in the bed, the work of the House January 6^th Committee and dismissal of the case against Trump should worry us most if we believe in democracy and what we say we hold dear: our individual independence, welfare and prosperity, all of which are inextricably tied to the common good. Case dismissal effectively placed Trump above the law, offending an inviolate principle of American democracy. Worse, the context was not a DWI or use of illicit drugs or some other act having nothing to do with actual governance, such as removal of classified documents and refusal to return them. The January 6 case involved the wholesale violent, contemptuous overthrow of the U.S. Constitution—an unlawful act that targeted the heart of our governmental structure.

If we are divided today by rhetoric, we are even more divided by worsening disparities of wealth, income, education and opportunity. These disparities do not bode well for democracy’s future. None of them can be addressed successfully outside a robust democracy. A robust democracy cannot be achieved and maintained without a solid foundation. A solid foundation is impossible without the re-bar of the rule of law.

Trump successfully thwarted the rule of law by a three-step charade: 1. Claim himself as the victim; 2. Convince his followers that they too are victims; and 3. By rushing to his rhetorical and electoral aid, his followers would find their own vindication. It was as simple as a stage magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Showman that he is, Trump ran off with the prize—the hat the rabbit, and his assistants—his lawyers—behind the curtain hanging around three sides of the table. The theater audience were left poorer, since Trump ran off with the ticket revenue too.

But most detrimental to us all, he left lots of people believing his sleight of hand; believing that he was an innocent victim of “weaponization.”

Yet, amidst this blow to democracy, we mustn’t dismiss or grow weary of condemning the many other nails in the sadhu board: Trump’s (and family’s) many emoluments linked his governmental position to pre-existing  business interests; Trump’s “belief”[1] that anthropogenic climate change is a hoax; his fear-mongering by distorting the significance of a small number of outliers (rapists, murderers, grand larcenists) among undocumented immigrants; vicious and superlative indictments—without facts or even factual allegations—of anyone who opposes him; the direct threat to women’s health and freedom resulting from his pandering to the anti-abortionists; his insistence on loyalty and billions—physical attractiveness—as the leading qualifications for appointment to powerful positions; his overt affinity for autocrats; his appeal to isolationists, but not because he knows or understands a thing about foreign policy; his decision to impose hefty tariffs on our main trading partners, thereby inviting a punitive backlash and threatening American prosperity; and bringing all full circle, his threat to send his sycophantic minions on a retributive campaign against the patriots in the Department of Justice, who saw their duty to be . . . upholding the rule of law. The list—the sadhu board—goes on.

The nails will leave puncture wounds, which, if unattended, will become infected and diseased. Ironically, their individual significance is camouflaged by their numerosity. In combination they will weaken the body politic, the body economic, the body social.

To reverse course, we must first recognize the destructive direction in which we are headed.

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© 2024 by Eric Nilsson

[1] By now anyone paying attention ought to see that Trump believes in nothing except what immediately benefits his own sorry ego.