I began this post while listening to the House Rules Committee debating on the impeachment of Trump. This debate underscored the division that fractured our nation and how insidious the reality of the Big Lie remains. Republican Jim Jordan, Ohio, continued to defend Trump and use false equivalency as a defense. This argument was and remains one of the tools used to minimize the severity of Trump’s behavior. It is based on blatant lies. During the 25th Amendment debate another Republican Representative stated that “You’ve won the election. Why do you continue with this? Let’s just move on.” This minimizes the reality that the President and members of this Committee endorsed and promoted the Big Lie that led to the attack on the Capitol. Add now the double-standard defense that ignores four years of belligerency and threats.
Trump apologists push false reality when comparing Trump’s years of angry rallies promoting violence to the Black Lives Matter movement. A movement that promoted peaceful dissent that resulted in massive and almost universally peaceful protests all over the nation and the world. Democrats encouraged peaceful protests and did not threaten the government. Trump chose to be belligerent, repeatedly urging his supporters to come to Washington DC on January 6th saying that “It will be Wild.” In Trump’s defense, his supporters point to one moment when Trump said that the protest should be peaceful. They ignore the rest of his incendiary speech that claimed it was was a do or die situation and that they must show strength, thus inciting the protesters to become a mob.
During the entire summer of 2020, as people protested police violence and Floyd’s murder, the message from community organizers, religious figures, city officials and supportive Minneapolitans was that peace and restraint was the way to go. No one called for the destruction of local, state, or federal institutions. Many called for the rioters and looters to be held accountable. What is forgotten is that in Minneapolis, there were two separate groups of rioters. Local people and verified outsiders representing the Far Right. The right-wingers were here to intensify the violence by attacking small, neighborhood, black owned businesses and to start a race-war. There are videos of these actions.
In a strange way, this was a good thing. Finally, the rebellion has come out in the open for all to see. No longer hidden by rallies and thin excuses, we are confronted with an evil that has been building in the United States since 1866.
Over the years, the U.S. Government and the American People have failed to deal with the resurgence of racism and the growing privileges of our ruling elite. This has led to the spread of armed nationalist paramilitary groups. It has created a class of wealthy, privileged elite who do not fear the law and use it to punish the innocent.
Just one year after Lincoln’s assassination the new President, Andrew Johnson, permitted southern state legislatures to pass a series of racist laws, the Black Codes, that restricted African Americans ability to work, participate in government, and freely move about. These laws re-imposed conditions reminiscent to the bondage Black Americans had just been released from. It was slavery through debt and intimidation.
Northerners were enraged by these laws and the Radical wing of the Republican Party passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867. Johnson, because of his sabotage of Lincoln’s Reconstruction was the first President to be impeached. The Reconstruction Act of 1867 ensured that African Americans could participate in government and they were soon being seated in state governments and the U.S. Congress. This trend continued for about ten years. However, racism in the South and the North continued and within a decade reactionary forces had reasserted themselves. The Republican Party became more conservative and less egalitarian.
On 03/27/1876, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of three white men, convicted for participating in the politically motivated murder at least 100 Republican African Americans who were trying to protect the county courthouse from takeover by a mob of Armed Democrats who were disputing the results of a local election. The Colfax Massacre is a frightening foreshadowing of events 151 years later at the US Capitol.
The Federal Judicial Center summarized the Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. v Cruikshank, “The Cruikshank case arose from the 1873 Colfax Massacre, in which a group of armed whites killed more than a hundred African American men as a result of a political dispute. Three men convicted of violating the 1870 Enforcement Act – a law aimed primarily at curbing Ku Klux Klan violence that forbade conspiracies to deny the constitutional rights of any citizen – appealed on the grounds that their indictments were insufficient. When the case reached the Supreme Court, the Court sided with the defendants, holding that the rights they were alleged to have violated were not enforceable in this case. The First and Second Amendment rights to assembly and the bearing of arms were, according to the Court’s ruling, intended only to restrict the actions of the federal government and did not apply to the states or private citizens, and the Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection applied only to state action and again, not to the actions of individuals. The Court’s decision was further evidence of its narrow interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment as well as the federal government’s diminishing focus on Reconstruction.”
In 1876 Lincoln’s dream died. He had wanted to heal the nation after the Civil War with a Reconstruction that would slowly welcome the Confederate States back into the Union as they made democratic changes to their governments and, also, guaranteeing liberty and self-determination to the millions of freed slaves. Since 1866, racism and its companion authoritarianism have been on the march.
In 1896 the Supreme Court decided Plessey v. Ferguson, by upholding the 1890 Louisiana law, Separate Car Act the Supreme Court codified the hateful tradition of “separate but equal” that institutionalized the racial segregation of public facilities. This affront to human dignity would continue for almost 70 years until it began to crumble, starting in 1954 when the Supreme Court decided, Brown v. Board of Education, and outlawed segregation of public education. Separate but Equal was further curtailed with the Civil Rights Act, 1964, and the Voting Rights Act, 1965. Of interest is, Plessey v Ferguson was never explicitly overturned by the Court. It’s a zombie in the shadows of our law.
Thus, throughout our history racists have been members of our federal Legislature, Supreme Court, and Presidency. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Trump are the most recent examples.
It was the 1974 Pardon of President Richard Nixon by Gerald Ford that set the precedent that holding him accountable was too divisive and dangerous and, thus implying that the President is above the Rule of Law because he is too important, in essence saying the President Is The State. This is the heart of all monarchies and dictatorships. This idea was legitimized in some people’s minds. It would grow more prevalent among conservative Republicans over the next 46 years. Now there is a militant minority who wants to impose an authoritarian government on the U.S. and has acted to do so.
There has been a trend of pushing limits, rule breaking, and lawlessness in the Republican Part. It started with Richard Nixon’s Watergate Scandal and continues through today at both State and Federal levels. Nixon never saw trial or conviction, but 58 other people tied to the Watergate scandal did go to jail. Reagan had two scandals; the most notable the Iran-Contra Affair, where he ordered the federal crimes of trading weapons with Iran then using the Iranian money to support the Nicaragua rebels, Contras. Congress had passed laws prohibiting involvement in the Nicaraguan civil war involving the Contras and Sandinistas. These two crimes landed 27 members of his administration or their associates, behind bars as well, while Reagan was chastised but received no meaningful punishment. With Trump only history will show the true scope of Trump’s criminality. However, it is possible to say that the were 34 people indicted and 6 Trump associates convicted.
What about Carter, Clinton, and Obama? Carter and Obama had no administration members be indicted and go to jail. Clinton’s administration had 2 indictments, 1 was acquitted and the other was convicted but later pardoned. In the last six administrations, three Democratic and three Republicans, there were 2 Democratic indictments with 1 conviction; Republicans had a total of 134 indictments and 91 convictions. The persistent pattern is that Republicans are more likely to push limits and break the law than Democrats, indicating a lack of respect for rules or the laws that enforcement.
Nixon’s crimes are not in the scope of this blog. Suffice it to say, Nixon was guilty of instigating the breaking into of the Democratic offices, in the Watergate Building complex, to steal information that could be used by Nixon and Republicans to undermine the Democratic Presidential Campaign of 1974. Nixon also ordered his closest advisors to obstruct the investigation. While Nixon never saw trial or conviction, 58 other people tied to the Watergate scandal did go to jail.
The nation was strongly divided concerning Nixon and his impeachment. Up until the almost end, Republicans preferred a light sentence and his speedy departure. Democrats wanted the laws upheld and an impeachment trial consummated.
On September 8th, 1974, President Gerald Ford issued a pardon to disgraced ex-president Richard Nixon. It was one of the biggest mistakes in United States history. It avoided doing the necessary hard work of following the Rule of Law and attaining Justice.
President Ford’s announcement of his pardoning Nixon clearly shows that the short-term expediency of politics outweighed the long-term benefits of working to deliver Justice. It would send a strong message forward to all future Presidents and officeholders that breaking the law will not be tolerated. It did not happen.
Ford’s pardon set the stage for our current crisis.
Documents
Text of Richard Nixon’s Pardon
Coming Soon — Gerald Ford’s Announcement of Nixon Pardon