Some Words from Jennifer Rubin

 From The Washington Post

March 8, 2024 

by Jennifer Rubin

What caught my eye Biden has known for months he would face four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump in the general election. But with former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s departure from the raceand the Supreme Court keeping Trump on the ballot, the general election now begins in earnest. That means Biden, Republicans and the media face critical decisions. First, Biden must decide if he wants to ignore Trump’s criminal cases. He certainly should not comment on the specifics of those cases (for fear of giving Trump grounds to appeal). However, while Trump spends weeks in courtrooms, Biden has the opportunity to make the election into a referendum: Do voters want to let Trump escape prosecution? If Trump wins, he likely will either pardon himself or simply instruct the Justice Department to drop federal cases. He no doubt also will demand state courts halt their cases while he is in office. That would be antithetical to the rule of law, an outlandish effort to put himself above the law. The Trump campaign itself is a scheme to avoid the criminal justice system. Biden can present the stark choice: Do we rescue Trump from 91 criminal charges by putting him in the White House? Moreover, Biden can remind voters that Trump thinks the presidency empowers him to act without fear of criminal liability. Trump’s counsel explicitly argued there are no consequences for a president’s overtly criminal acts (e.g., assassinating opponents). Biden should bring the argument to the country (and implicitly to the Supreme Court, which is considering Trump’s immunity case) that a president with this imperial outlook will upend our democracy. Second, Republicans have reached a moment of truth. If Haley, former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) and former president George W. Bush recognize the threat Trump poses to democracy, the rule of law and America’s national security, they cannot merely withhold support. Do they continue to speak out against his election — or even endorse Biden, the only person who can prevent Trump from regaining power and sinking our democracy? They can enlist supporters under the banner of something along the lines of “One Election.” (If Trump wins, there might be no others!) As Cheney has said, We “can survive bad policies. We can’t survive a president who goes to war with the Constitution.” Now it’s time for these Republicans to make that endorsement decision. Third, mainstream news outlets must decide how to cover the general election. Do they finally cover Trump’s obvious defects, zero in on the implications of installing a Vladimir Putin sympathizer and confront the danger of another Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection if Trump loses? To date, the traditional print and TV news operations have refused to cover the race as they would a foreign contest between a democratic candidate and an authoritarian bent on overturning democracy. Some insist Trump’s campaign is pivoting from grievances to serious “policy”! However, traditional media still have time to reveal the true nature of the MAGA movement, its leader and its cult followers. News outlets at any time can drop the false equivalence and educate themselves and voters. The brilliant Democratic strategist Michael Podhorzer, for example, puts the MAGA movement in the context of the old Confederacy (which geographically overlaps GOP electoral strongholds): You can think of MAGA as a fascist movement or as the “legitimate” expression of a theocratic Red Nation that is in a cold war with the Blue Nation, or both. (In the 21st century, the Red Nation has also been making inroads in the purple states.) Either way, the MAGA movement is an enemy of liberal democracy and has taken over the Republican Party. Its and MAGA’s continued success in building its preferred version of America depends on the political class’s stubborn refusal to call out the Republican Party for what it has become. No matter how many times the Confederate Faction signals that it does not accept the legitimacy of the American project, we refuse to believe them. We reflexively reinterpret attacks against America as mere disagreements or empty rhetoric aimed at their MAGA base, even as our attackers lack no clarity about their own intentions.  . . . In reality, our choice in November is whether to keep giving the benefit of the doubt to rebels who believe that theirs, not ours, is the legitimate cause. The mainstream news can reach out to any of the numerous expert historians on authoritarianism and the Lost Cause mind-set that still drives MAGA politicians. (E.g., Texas insists it can nullify federal immigration policy.) There is still time to explain to voters that the election will determine if we enter a fascist era that rejects democratic pluralism and cedes power to a dangerous strongman. (While news organizations are looking for experts, they should consult some candid mental health professionals to explain Trump’s mental state and seeming linguistic deterioration).