Not even former presidents are above the law
In the debate around the criminal indictment of a former president, one argument especially arouses my curiosity. Even some ordinarily thoughtful observers say it’s a terrible thing, automatically suspect and even clearly wrong for the Justice Department to indict a former president of a different political party from the current president.
If we ignore the tragically cynical assumptions from which such an idea springs, let’s for a moment imagine how the government would work if American citizens, based on their politics, weren’t liable for the consequences of crimes. Could Democrats be investigated or prosecuted only by Democrats, Republicans likewise? Given immunity, could those out of power include crime in their political agenda?
The evident absurdity of such scenarios makes me wonder how those who argue against indictment expect American society and government to work at all. Are Americans truly capable of no better? Must we really become our own Ireland during the Troubles?
The United States’ founding principle was the rule of law. Let’s keep it.
ZACH ETHERIDGE, ATLANTA
Indictment of Trump could help propel him back into office
For the first time in history, a former president, Donald Trump, has been indicted by a federal court in Florida on charges that he mishandled classified documents located in his Florida home.
The mainstream media and President Biden’s supporters are chortling between feigned verbal outrage over Trump’s perceived, yet-to-be-proved criminality. They think that now maybe Biden can win another term.
But legal battles against Trump have rallied his supporters in the past, bringing him higher approval numbers. Will this historical indictment also rally independents and moderate Democrats in favor of Trump? Will they also see this indictment as a political attempt to defeat Trump?
This indictment of Trump, thought to be a life raft coming to the rescue of a sinking Biden presidency, might just have propelled Trump back into the White House.
BECKY SMITH, ROSWELL
