Contempt
The test
In another lifetime, I lived four blocks east and three blocks north of the Frick Museum on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. During the years I lived there, I visited the Frick two or three times a week. I was recently listening to Aimee Mann’s latest album, the phenomenal Queens of the Summer Hotel, and her track “At the Frick Museum” brought me back. It’s a Vermeer that catches her eye. For me, it was a Corot, “The Boatman of Mortefontaine,” located on the first floor, hanging on a wall just outside the first gallery. I was drawn to its stillness and the lean of the birch trees, the temple in the distance, and the gentle, almost ethereal quality of the light.
I was drawn to the Frick in part because of the Corot, yes, but also because the intimate collection has an astonishing range, with superb paintings from the Renaissance through the 19th century. And yet, I can’t remember the last time I was there. It’s amazing how easily, how quietly, things fall away.
But we need art, we need creative purpose, we need community more than ever—not because things are going to get worse, although this is a distinct possibility, but because we deserve better than the constant grind of injustice, threat, and uncertainty.
So, whatever happens after today, please, go to a museum, a botanical garden, a street fair, a play, a library. Join a knitting group or a book club or a theatre group. Write, paint, build, draw, quilt—breathe.
“It’s a test for the rule of law.” “It’s a test for the Department of Justice.” “It’s a test for President Biden.” This is what we’re being told by the very serious papers of record, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Unfortunately, framing the issue in those ways is both misleading and wrong.
The actual test is this: Do the leaders of the Republican Party care enough about the rule of law, American democracy, and the oath they took to uphold and defend the Constitution, to tell the truth about the indictments being brought against Donald Trump?
The answer, at least so far, is emphatically “no.” Elected Republicans, do not care about any of those things; nor do they care about the knock-on effects of amplifying the kind of dangerous rhetoric that led to January 6th as evidenced by the easily debunked and patently obvious lies they’ve been telling since Donald broke the news of his own indictment. These lies include the following:
Joe Biden was behind the indictment of Donald Trump.
Jack Smith and the Department of Justice decided to bring the indictments.
There is a double-standard and Donald is being treated unfairly.
As to the first, Joe Biden, like almost every other one of his predecessors (with the notable exceptions of Richard Nixon and Donald), has allowed his attorney general, Merrick Garland, and the DoJ to act independently of him. Additionally, he has never expected the AG to interfere on his behalf. This is inarguable when you consider that the DoJ is continuing to represent Donald in E. Jean Carroll’s civil case against him; the DoJ is nearing a charging decision in a case against Hunter Biden that it’s been pursuing for years; and Merrick Garland appointed a special prosecutor to look into President Biden’s possession of classified documents dating from his days as vice president*.
As to the second, while the Department of Justice is lodging the charges against Donald, they are doing so because a Miami grand jury of Donald’s peers made the decision to hand down an indictment based on the evidence that was presented to them.
As to the third, there has always been a double-standard for Donald—and it has always been in his favor. Elected Republicans and his followers are reacting to the fact that, for only the second time in his life, Donald is being treated appropriately based on the crimes he’s committed. (I’m not going to bother to say allegedly—we know what he did.) And just think about how long it took us to get here.
* Whether Garland appointed the Biden special counsel out of a supra-abundance of caution or because he is craven, I don’t know. But in doing so, he gave weight to the right’s false equivalence. When Kevin McCarthy was asked, "Was that a good look for the former president to have boxes in a bathroom?" he answered "I don't know. Is it a good picture to have boxes in a garage that opens up all the time? A bathroom door locks.” He was referring to the fact that some of the documents in Pres. Biden’s possession were found in the garage of his private home—not a members-only social club. To emphasize his point, McCarthy even made the up and down garage door motion with his hand. Sadly, he did not provide sound effects.
Of course, leaders of the Republican Party aren’t content with lying; like the man they follow, they are compelled to stir up violence. Also, they are cowards and wannabes who won’t lay their bodies on the line for any person, any principle, or any ideal any more than Donald would. Their followers are merely cannon-fodder who are being instructed, in ways increasingly less subtle, to provide cover for the man who was just arrested on 37 counts in a Miami Federal Court.
Kari Lake, who has lost the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race more times than Donald has lost court cases, recently gave a speech in which she was clearly borrowing from the absurd meme that’s been going around in which Donald says, “In reality, they’re not after me. They’re after you. I’m just in the way.” But Lake flipped that on its head. “If you want to get to President Trump,” she said, “you’re going to have to go through me and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me. Most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.” Also, that is a threat.
Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) tweeted, “We have now reached a war phase. Eye for an eye.” I’m sure he was being metaphorical. Either way, I’d like to offer this: if a Democrat did one-tenth of what Donald is accused of by all means indict, try, and convict that person.
On June 8th, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), another pathetic cosplayer using pseudo-military language to rile up his anti-American constituents, tweeted “[Donald] said he has ‘been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM.’ This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. Hold. rPOTUS has this. Buckle up. 1/50K know your bridges. Rock steady calm. That is all.”
Two days later, this clear call to arms was followed by this tweet (which makes me wonder if Mr. Higgins received a visit from the F.B.I):
“Patriots, we’ve manipulated the MSM to establish deep commo, now copy this… do NOT trip the wire they’ve laid for you. Maintain your family. Live your life. Know your bridges. Hold. Let Trump handle Trump, he’s got this. We use the Constitution as our only weapon. Peace. Hold.”
Unfortunately, the tweet calling for “peace” only got 1.3 million views while the original tweet, which is still on Twitter, received 4.6 million views.
But they are not simply supporting Donald, they are explicitly going after the mechanisms of the institutions that are, for better or worse, necessary in order for us to get beyond the very tragic circumstances in which we find ourselves.
On the other hand, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to say anything, which is, in its way, just as dangerous.
Every single Republican, from McConnell on down, knows better. They know what’s at stake. Those who are lying know they’re lying. Those who remain silent know they are emboldening the liars.
The problem is, once you activate the people with the MAGA hats and the comically large Trump flags, it’s almost impossible to get them to stand down. Mass violence is less of a concern now than it was on January 6th, first of all, because law enforcement is much more prepared; secondly, because the leadership of many of the organizations Donald placed on standby in 2020 has been disrupted; and third, because a lot of the participants in January 6th are currently serving lengthy prison sentences.
Much more troubling is the potential for stochastic terrorism—isolated acts of violence carried out not by a “lone wolf” but by somebody who is loosely connected to, and who feels empowered by, the rhetoric coming from the right. These are precisely the people Donald is speaking to.
What we’re about to learn is just how far down this road the Republican Party is willing to go. For the last seven years it has proven itself to be completely committed to enabling, supporting, and championing Donald Trump at the expense of everything else.
We know with Donald there is no bottom. For the Republicans, is there no line? Is there no line he can cross that will make this Republican party stand up, take notice, and stop the madness? The signs are not good, so the rest of us need to be prepared for anything that might happen next.
It’s going to be up to the media and the Democratic Party to set things right.
As to the former, its normalization of Donald and his abnormal behavior should shake us to our core—their coverage suggests that his long history of committing crimes is already “baked in.” They take it in their stride, just as they have his racism, misogyny, and authoritarianism.
As for the Democrats, they have not yet wrapped their head around the fact that Donald has figured out something most others have not: white evangelicals, the white working class, the Proud Boys and their ilk, aren’t voting against their self-interests, they are voting for what is of most interest to them and what most animates them—white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and hatred of the other.
What we are collectively facing is a test to see whether this country can set itself right. This is a test we have failed repeatedly throughout the centuries. One aspect of this case that makes the situation more fraught, is the knowledge that Donald’s indictments and criminality intensify his followers’ devotion to him. The same if true for the entire Republican Party, with very few exceptions.
We have to hope that this indictment, in conjunction with the others, will be the brick wall that Donald’s impunity crashes into.
But that impunity has always been self-perpetuating. The creeping authoritarianism he embraces is now galloping. And his road to the Republican nomination for the presidency has just become easier.
How embarrassing, how tawdry—how very Donald.
Chuck Yeager, October 14th 1947 said “just before you break through the sound barrier, the cockpit shakes the most.”
Chuck Yeager was the first test pilot to successfully fly faster than the speed of sound. Engineers did not know if he would survive the flight as they worried the sound barrier was like flying into a brick wall.
The past eight years have shaken the life out of many of us both literally and figuratively.
We are on the precipice to take flight to a new level of greatness for our country or hit a brick wall.
Thank you Mary for flying with us and being one of our pilots!
Maybe every time someone complains about Trump being treated differently the response should be, “oh, so you want us to stop treating him better than anyone else would be treated?”