We Are No Longer A Nation Of Laws.
It's not just the Alvin Bragg Trump show trial, it's everywhere.
Among the many things that have been revealed in the Trump Era, perhaps the most important is that Democrats no longer believe in the rule of law. While the Trump indictment was the most famous example recently, it is not alone. Two other instances were just as revealing and telling.
Before turning to those, let us revisit the debacle of the Manhattan District Attorney’s ridiculous charges against Donald Trump. We now have the indictment, and it is basically what was anticipated—a series of stacked counts of falsifying business records for the purpose of influencing the election.
One would think that Alvin Bragg has other pressing problems than a seven year old election. Moreover, his decision to charge itself likely is that which he accuses Trump of, election interference.
Even assuming it were not a “novel legal theory,” it relies on many presumptions and completely ignoring all exonerating facts. Given that no former president has ever been charged with a crime, you would have thought that the first one would be rock solid. The fact that Alvin Bragg’s ridiculous charge was so weak itself is proof that Democrats no longer respect the rule of law. The indictment itself is even worse.
Bragg is charging that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s payoffs to Stormy Daniels, allegedly on Trump’s behalf, violated election laws. You can read the indictment here. While the indictment doesn’t specify which laws, based on everything that has been leaked (illegally), it appears to be Trump’s supposed failure to report the payments as a campaign expenditure. Bragg appears to be suggesting that because the payments were made to influence the 2016 presidential election by shielding Trump from negative attention, they constituted campaign expenditures and failing to list them as such violated New York law.
Among the problems with the “novel legal theory” is that a State district attorney has no power to charge for Federal election law violations. In addition, the Federal Election Commission did not consider the Daniels payment to be an election violation. Just as importantly, Bragg must navigate the fact that Trump had many reasons other than negative campaign attention to make the payment. Among other things, his prenuptial agreement with Melania contains a clause that requires him to pay millions for infidelity. In addition, stories about an alleged affair with a porn star would have damaged his name brand. One could write for days and still not list the many potential reasons for the payment other than the 2016 Presidential Campaign. For any prosecutor abiding by the Nation’s laws, this would end the inquiry.
This is why the FEC did not consider it a violation and why the Federal government did not charge any supposed election crime before the statute of limitation expired. In fact, Bragg’s legal theory has never been used successfully against a candidate, even when the statute had not passed.
Bragg’s decision to charge this novel legal theory despite its problems and the fact that the time for filing it had passed is proof positive that the Democrat Party no longer abides by the rule of law. If one is not moored by the rules, then anyone can be charged with anything anytime. This is precisely what Democrats believe and the Trump indictment is but one example.
Which brings us to the two other examples. The first is the Senate Judiciary Committee’s decision to try and revive the Equal Rights Amendment. The proposed Amendment was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on October 12, 1971, and by the U.S. Senate on March 22, 1972, thus submitting the ERA to the state legislatures for ratification, as provided by Article V of the U.S. Constitution. Congress had originally set a ratification deadline of March 22, 1979 for the state legislatures to consider the ERA. Through 1977, the amendment received 35 of the necessary 38 states. It never received the necessary 38 dates before the deadline, which was extended. For years, this ended the matter. Then, the Democrat Party was taken hostage by persons who do not respect rules or traditions.
On January 15, 2020, almost forty-one years after the original deadline, Virginia ratified the ERA. In normal times, it would have been considered a symbolic measure. These are not normal times.
Soon, Democrats began claiming that the Amendment had been ratified. This was too much for even Ruth Bader Ginsburg who rightfully explained that the necessary ratifications did not come in a timely fashion. Well, on Tuesday of this coming week, the Democratically controlled Senate will try to make the same baseless argument. This literally is just ignoring the rules and making up the “law” as you go along. But this is where we are now as a Country.
The other example of Democrats’ disregard for “democracy” or the Constitution is Biden’s EPA is said to be planning strict auto pollution limits to ensure that electric cars make up two-thirds of new passenger vehicles by 2032. The EPA is not elected. When is was created, electric vehicles did not exist. One would assume a decision this monumental would require that a bill makes its way through Congress and be signed by the President. Not in the Democrats’ world. Just get some government agency to make a decree.
You may say what you wish about the Democrat Party, but you cannot say that it believes in the rule of law. The Party is just fine with those that win “elections” making all kinds of decisions without any check on their power.
We all know where this leads. Perhaps if more people wake up to the reality, we might just avoid it.
What allows the leftist brain to repeatedly ignore the long term cost to the good by pursuit of the presumed good by any means.