“For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”
Thus, wrote Thomas Paine in his 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense.
That the law should be king became a core principle of the U. S. Constitution. It is why President Theodore Roosevelt declared on December 7, 1903, “No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we require him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a favor.”
The principle of equality under the law held firm in our nation until July 1, 2024, when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court ruled that Presidents have complete immunity from criminal prosecution for actions falling under their “core constitutional powers,” defined as exclusive powers granted directly by the Constitution.
Exactly what this ruling actually means has yet to be decided because the Supreme Court left it up to lower courts to determine what presidential actions fall under “core constitutional powers.”
No matter, Trump interpreted the ruling to mean he has absolute immunity from prosecution for anything he does and has acted accordingly.
BUT…last Tuesday the overwhelming majority of American voters said NO to Trump having absolutely immunity from anything. We told him in no uncertain terms that he is accountable to us because we are the final arbiters of his fate as president.
We told him that it was NONSENSE when last year he said, “I’m not a dictator… but I can do anything I want. I’m the President of the United States,” repeating a claim he made in 2019.
What happened last week was that for all practical purposes, we removed Trump from office.
We may need to have him removed physically before his term is up, but for now we have severely limited his power to do whatever he wants to do, going even further in giving permission for our representatives in Congress to investigate him as our way of holding him accountable for his actions.
It is critically important that we understand that whatever else last week’s vote represented, it was first and foremost a stunning defeat of Trump and his MAGA Republican Party.
“I can’t think of a midterm that is more directly tied to a single person and their utter failure,” said David Holt, Mayor of Oklahoma City who is a Republican.
He went on to describe his party as “morally and intellectually bankrupt,” adding, “It feels like an entire country coming together and saying: Enough.”
That is exactly what Americans said in the mid-terms. Enough! Enough of Trump doing what he wants to do while ignoring what WE want.
Enough of Trump acting like he is the law when in fact he must live under the rule of law like the rest of us do.
It is almost impossible to overstate the significance of last Tuesday’s mid-term elections, and while no one saw it coming, it was a beautiful thing to watch unfold. An early Christmas present for sure.
It was utterly unique because never before has our nation had a president who was an existential threat to our democracy and the rule of law and so openly corrupt.
For the first time since he entered politics Trump has been shut down and shut-up.
He’s still president, of course, still capable of creating chaos, damaging the presidency, further fraying ties with our allies, making Ukraine’s fight for freedom harder, exacerbating the already disastrous Iranian war, and so much more.
But he is fast becoming politically irrelevant. Last Tuesday was his last election. Republicans will have no choice but to abandon the policies voters have now rejected. There is no upside for them to stand with Trump any longer. What is more, overriding his vetoes is now a genuine possibility.
Yes, there is much for Democrats to do, and everyone seems to know what that is, but in truth what matters more than anything else is that Trump will not be the one who sets the agenda for the next two years.
The American people have said unequivocally that we have had enough of his incompetence, his ego, his corruption, his moral depravity being the lead story every day.
He can fuss and cuss all he wants. He and Stephen Miller can hold hands and cry and vow to exact revenge on Trump’s critics and enemies, but at the end of the day nobody will care.
Their day has come and gone. They damaged a lot. They hurt a lot of people. It will in fact takes years before we know the full story of how bad the Trump presidency was.
But we will recover. He and all those who helped him never will. We know the truth about what they did and history will record it so future generations will know and the nation will never forget.
Sometimes you don’t know what you have until you lose it. We didn’t lose who we are as Americans and what kind of nation we want to continue trying to be, but we came close.
Last Tuesday we stepped back from the brink, and today feels so much better than it would had we not done so.
Good on us!
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