“The scandal is what’s legal” was a saying in Washington for a long time.
Politicians commit blatantly corrupt acts every day, abusing power for their own political benefit or personal enrichment. Nevertheless, almost none of them ever face prosecution — misdemeanor or felony charges. Partly, it’s because proving intent is real difficult.
Largely, we don’t sic law enforcement on every politician who does something corrupt or immoral because we know that few things are more corrosive than a political system where the government prosecutes its political rivals and tries to send them to jail.
This is why Donald Trump’s 2016 “Lock Her Up” campaign in 2016 struck so many people as dangerous.
“Trump’s Promise to Jail Clinton Is a Threat to American Democracy,” was the Atlantic’s headline on a 2016 piece by Yoni Appelbaum.
“A candidate who accepted the nomination to chants of ‘Lock her up!’ crosses a dangerous line,” Appelbaum wrote. “This is also not how democracies work. Elected officials do not jail their foes.”
Appelbaum was right: It was bad Trump promised to prosecute Hillary Clinton, and it was good he didn’t mean it.
The norm that Trump promised to smash in 2016, the Rubicon he threatened to cross, remained sacrosanct for nearly eight more years, until this week. Democratic politician Alvin Bragg, funded by the Democrats’ most important funder George Soros and assisted by Biden Justice Department alumnus Matthew Colangelo, convicted the opposition leader on incredibly flimsy charges.
Trump’s critics rightly point out that those charges are connected to truly immoral and corrupt actions by Trump. Trump cheated on his wife with a porn star, and then his shady professional liar of a lawyer paid her hush money in an effort to keep the story out of the news during the 2016 election.
Immoral, yes. Corrupt, sure. Illegal? Maybe a misdemeanor. But this is precisely the sort of corruption we try to let democracy handle — not prosecutors.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has enriched herself wildly while in office. This is clearly corrupt. She arranged a congressional hearing on a bill simply because it would benefit her donor who was also a business partner with her husband and son. Pelosi also earmarked $10 million to help billionaire donor Tom Steyer.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) uses the threat and promise of public policy to shake down hedge funds so they will donate to Democrats and hire his aides as lobbyists.
Democratic superstar Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) commits blatantly corrupt campaign finance shenanigans as a matter of principle.
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These are just three Democrats off the top of my head who corruptly abuse their power. I have never called for their prosecution. I still won’t. But there is no longer a principle or norm in American politics protecting them. Their only protection is that Democrats control the local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies where they happen to live.
So now every race for district attorney, attorney general, and president is a race in which the losing party faces jail time. This is what the Democrats have wrought.