As the late David Graeber emphasised, elections are not democratic, they are aristocratic. A truly democratic way of appointing leaders is via a lottery. The Presidential election is all about two elite candidates going around spruiking their noble lineage and exclusive qualities for the top job. There is nothing democratic about those who vie for the presidency of the United States. It takes enormous sums of money and bucket loads of influence to even get a start in this contest. It is much more kingly than democratic. Therefore, the very idea of Presidential immunity is deeply disturbing.
SCOTUS Hears Trump Presidential Immunity Appeal
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has decided to hear Donald J Trump’s legal appeal from prosecution on the grounds of his presidential immunity. The federal court of appeals unanimously denied this immunity in December 2023. Most legal pundits predicted that SCOTUS would refuse to hear this appeal. They were wrong and SCOTUS also granted a stay on the court case scheduled to try the election interference indictments brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith. It is hard not to infer political partisanship in their decision and support for the idea that the justices are slow walking the Trump indictments.
“if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent men or bad citizens, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.”
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy In America: Volume I & II
Partisan Politics On The Supreme Court
SCOTUS is made up of 6 conservative justices appointed by Republican administrations and 3 of these by Trump. There are 3 more justices on the full bench considered to be more liberal appointments by Democratic administrations. The US system of government places the Supreme Court in the position of final catcher when all else has failed to resolve itself via Congress and the Senate. The justices are appointed for life and have few to no oversights in place regarding their own official behaviours. There have been numerous reports about members of SCOTUS receiving lavish gifts and money from billionaire benefactors who happen to be on the conservative side of politics.
Clarence & Ginny Thomas Doing The Dirty For Trump
Indeed, there are real questions about the independence and integrity of Clarence Thomas. His wife Ginny Thomas was, also, closely involved with the Trump attempt to steal the 2020 election via the fake elector scheme. There is no evidence that Clarence Thomas has or will recuse himself from hearing these matters. There is no doubt that the GOP has shifted to a new level of shamelessness in their blatant disregard of the rule of law in America in the 2020’s. Trump is clearly a compulsive liar and the whole world knows this. He has been convicted in a New York civil court of massive business fraud and fined some half a billion dollars. Trump has also been convicted, again in a New York civil court of libel against E. Jean. Carroll and fined a further $92 million dollars. It is clearly inferred in that matter that he raped the plaintiff and then denied that. That the Republican Party would nominate a rapist, liar, and convicted business fraud as their candidate for the 2024 presidential election is a damning indictment on America.
Trump: Getting Away With It
Getting away with it – could be the tagline for the Trump campaign in 2024. That the highest court in the land is seemingly a co-conspirator in the crimes committed by Donald J Trump should make the international community think twice about their ongoing involvement with the US. Former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull has called the Donald Trump threat to democracy and the international community a very real and impending danger. In a two party political duopoly, if one of these parties is blatantly involved in criminal activities, then, this nation can no longer be relied upon to play its part as a democratic leader in the international community. Until this situation is resolved through the successful criminal prosecution of Trump and his associates and the GOP cleansed of this taint I would not be depending upon the just behaviour of this once great ally.
Autocratic Misuse Of Power & Corruption In America
The very idea of Presidential immunity is deeply disturbing in the 21C. The whole concept reeks of autocratic misuse of power and corruption. The Republican Party under Nixon embraced the slaver, white supremacist, evil of the south in return for the votes it would bring. Ever since then, it has been a slippery slope for what was once Abraham Lincoln’s party. Politics has been the undoing of the American experiment. Politicians turning away from doing the right thing for the political advantage of doing business with scumbags and repellent human beings. Big business has bought most of Congress and purchased their silence on matters that most affect the American people. Gun laws – where a clear majority of Americans support a tightening of laws around buying them. Military grade automatic weapons should not be available to members of the public. A woman’s right to control her own body and reproductive rights is not something that a minority of GOP politicians should be determining. Crazy Bronze Age notions from the Old Testament should not be guiding lives in the 21C. There is a strong unscientific taint amid the backwater strongholds of the Republican party in the US. The politics of grievance is their specialty, where they focus on blaming others for stuff in people’s lives. The so-called culture wars and anti-woke. Meanwhile, the real culprits, Corporate America, goes about fleecing the working poor of whatever they can. The GOP is a strange mix of big business, Christian Nationalism, and non-college educated folk. Stupid is as stupid does, I suppose.
Trump wanted to become President of the US because he knew that it would provide him with the greatest level of immunity from prosecution in the land. He has been breaking the law and lying compulsively for most of his life. He was born into extreme wealth via his father Fred Trump, a Queen’s property developer. Trump has never know what it is like to have to make your own way in life without material advantages. People who abide by the law and do the right thing are left impotent following encounters with Trump. The blatant lies he tells and the front he presents to the world leaves most flummoxed. Dealing with a virtual mob boss is outside of most folks remit. Trump has left the old GOP stunned in his wake. American institutions have failed to deal with Trump. The glaring holes in the nation’s regulatory fabric have allowed him to waltz through. The rule of law does not apply to the very wealthy and the politically powerful, it clearly seems. Only money talks in America.
Robert Sudha Hamilton
“The legal question the court will decide is “whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office,” the order said.
Even if Trump loses, the trial could not take place until well into election season, raising questions about whether it will take place at all before Election Day in November. If Trump were to win his appeal before the court, the charges would be dismissed.”
©HouseTherapy
