To those of us who grew up in the south, and are old enough to remember what “justice” looked like during Jim Crow, Trump’s impeachment is a big Deja Vu.
Donald Trump has done something no president of any actual Democracy has ever gotten away with: declared himself to be immune from the law and our nation’s Constitution. He is getting away with it because the Republican Party, its elected officials and its voters, care more about having a dedicated supporter of the Conservatives wish lists than the law or the Constitution.
As for the jury Donald Trump will face during impeachment, he is one of their own. There was never a chance that our current incarnations of Republican office holders could ever administer equal justice to one of their own. Never.
The House impeached Trump for obstruction of Justice. Trump declares that he will continue to prevent any witnesses or documents being made available. Ever. And not a peep of objection by Republicans in the Senate.
Atticus Finch was representing a black man before an all white, male, southern jury in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The impeachment counterpart is the House Managers who will be defending the Democratic led House before an almost all white, overwhelmingly male, Republican jury.
In the novel, Atticus was a defense attorney, but for those who knew the south, he was a prosecuting the south’s unjust justice system, and the House Mangers must prepare to do the same. Trump and the Republican Senate are on trial.
This same Senate Republican jury is the same Republican Senate that has countless times demanded the harshest of penalties for what they asserted to be some of the most grave offenses to our rule of law and Constitution, but only when Democrat was their target.
Every white person in the south knew there was not equal justice for blacks. You knew it if you were fighting for equal rights, and you knew it if you were a racist. And it was just the way it was. It was all legal. They went through the motions while the outcome was predetermined. It was all a sham and jurors all slept like babies for the injustice that was inflicted because the legal process was followed. Their legal process for blacks..
Nothing has changed. Today, every Republican in the Senate knows exactly what is going on. Every Republican on our televisions, on the internet and radio, and in our newspapers knows exactly what is going on. And everyone is pretending that following a process, whatever it is, makes the proceeding legitimate.
It won’t. We will be told by the victors that Trump has been exonerated; that this outcome now means that is true. Evidence does not matter, only the verdict of those in power. There were good people in Maycomb, but it did not matter.
What I understand, and what I still see when Atticus does his best, is that neither his best or the truth mattered to those jurors. Not at all. Each of those white men on the jury understood that if they were to “side” with a black man over a white man then their life as they knew it would be destroyed.
In dispensing with any pretense, Mitch McConnell, my Senator, revealed himself to be exactly what the jurors in the fictional town of Maycomb were. Preserving each Republican’s preferred life as they know it is all that matters.
I hope that our democracy does not face the same fate as Tom Robinson. But if we continue to allow ourselves to be governed by men like those Maycomb jurors would elect, then America will become captive to their mob.
I say mob, and I often see republicans and their voters characterized as belonging to a cult. The truth is worse. They belong to a hate group. Just like the Maycomb jurors. They belong to a political organization long committed to using hate speech to convince its supporters that Democrats are anti-American, anti-God, treasonous, dehumanized invaders hell bent on destroying every Republican’s way of life. They believe in this hate, hate that has continued to be spewed 24/7 across Fox, radio, TV and cable, and in print media. An entire American industry devoted to spreading hate, lies, and misinformation to its target Republican audience.
Today, the leaders and supporters of the Republican cause believe that achieving their ends, removing democrats from power, justifies whatever means they use. These same leaders and supporters also know that if they were to actively dissent from either these goals or the tactics being used that they would likely face personal attacks and perhaps professional/financial retribution. Their life as they have know it might be changed.
Democrats can be Atticus. Democrats can be right about everything, and Republicans can be wrong about everything. Democrats can speak the truth, and Republicans can lie like rugs. The law and the Constitution can be on Democrats side, and for over 30% — 40% of our country’s population, none of that matters beyond lip service and the waving pocket Constitutions.
Impeachment in the Senate is the time to put the spotlight on the duplicity of the Republican voters. It is not a time to worry about offending moderate Republicans who have turned their blind eyes for decades. It is the time to make it clear to the rest of the nation that just as Trump and the Republican Party are fighting the public’s right to the truth about our leaders, they will also continue to fight against a Democratic Congress that places the rights of the public and its needs first.
Republicans in the House and Senate have obstructed any and every investigation of Trump in fealty to placing the Party’s power above the law. The damage to the rule of law has been done by Republicans at each and every step, and stands in stark contrast from their attitudes when it was they who were investigating Democrats.
Impeachment in the Senate, if it goes as I expect from McConnell, will be confirmation that America is now openly led by an authoritarian leader and his enabling political party. Judges will continue to be selected for their fealty to the Republican Party and its legal needs and wants for keeping power.
Atticus, the Democrats, will lose. This is a given.
The measure of the Democrats will be in their fight. What democratic voters take away from their fight will have significant influence in motivating voters for this fall.
Atticus may continue the fight another day, but without change, we better get used to seeing much more of the likes of the jurors from Maycomb, except they won’t be jurors, they will be wearing the black robes. For a very long time.