logo

English
                 

Politics Mea Culpa?!

2020.12.30 10:42

이병붕*63 Views:169

I know many of you to read Guardian but in case you missed one recent article, I would like to share this with you;

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/26/americans-acceptance-of-trumps-behavior-will-be-his-vilest-legacy

 

Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to re-elect Donald Trump – 46.8% of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election – don’t hold Trump accountable for what he’s done to America.

Their acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy.

Nearly forty years ago, political scientist James Q Wilson and criminologist George Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no one cares if windows are broken there. The broken window is thereby an invitation to throw more stones and break more windows.

The message: do whatever you want here because others have done it and got away with it.

The broken window theory has led to picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in poor communities. But America’s most privileged and powerful have been breaking big windows with impunity.

In 2008, Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out while millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet not no major Wall Street executive ever went to jail.

In more recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the members of the Sackler family that own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did nothing. Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers. Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe. Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police under their command repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans.

Here, too, they’ve got away with it. These windows remain broken.

Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious windowpane of all – American democracy.

The message? A president can obstruct special counsels’ investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors general who finds corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being “fake media” and “enemies of the people”, and make money off his presidency.

And he can get away with it. Almost half of the electorate will even vote for his reelection.

A president can also lie about the results of an election without a shred of evidence – and yet, according to polls, be believed by the vast majority of those who voted for him.

Trump’s recent pardons have broken double-pane windows.

Not only has he shattered the norm for presidential pardons – usually granted because of a petitioner’s good conduct after conviction and service of the sentence – but he’s pardoned people who themselves shattered windows. By pardoning them, he has rendered them unaccountable for their acts.

They include aides convicted of lying to the FBI and threatening potential witnesses in order to protect him; his son-in-law’s father, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, illegal campaign contributions, and lying to the Federal Election Commission; Blackwater security guards convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians, including women and children; Border Patrol agents convicted of assaulting or shooting unarmed suspects; and Republican lawmakers and their aides found guilty of fraud, obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations.

It’s not simply the size of the broken window that undermines standards, according to Wilson and Kelling. It’s the willingness of society to look the other way. If no one is held accountable, norms collapse.

Trump may face a barrage of lawsuits when he leaves office, possibly including criminal charges. But it’s unlikely he’ll go to jail. Presidential immunity or a self-pardon will protect him. Prosecutorial discretion would almost certainly argue against indictment, in any event. No former president has ever been convicted of a crime. The mere possibility of a criminal trial for Trump would ignite a partisan brawl across the nation.

Congress may try to limit the power of future presidents – strengthening congressional oversight, fortifying the independence of inspectors general, demanding more financial disclosure, increasing penalties on presidential aides who break laws, restricting the pardon process, and so on.

But Congress – a co-equal branch of government under the Constitution – cannot rein in rogue presidents. And the courts don’t want to weigh in on political questions.

The appalling reality is that Trump may get away with it. And in getting away with it he will have changed and degraded the norms governing American presidents. The giant windows he’s broken are invitations to a future president to break even more.

Nothing will correct this unless or until an overwhelming majority of Americans recognize and condemn what has occurred.

 

We are in deep shit, aren't we?!

Worrying,

BB Lee

No. Subject Date Author Last Update Views
Notice How to write your comments onto a webpage [2] 2016.07.06 운영자 2016.11.20 18193
Notice How to Upload Pictures in webpages 2016.07.06 운영자 2018.10.19 32347
Notice How to use Rich Text Editor [3] 2016.06.28 운영자 2018.10.19 5923
Notice How to Write a Webpage 2016.06.28 운영자 2020.12.23 43839
8843 연꽃 따는 노래 2024.05.01 정관호*63 2024.05.01 9
8842 훈민정음의 비밀 [5] 2024.04.25 운영자 2024.05.01 55
8841 부산정치파동과 미국의 이승만 제거계획 2024.04.25 온기철*71 2024.04.25 21
8840 코너킥으로 웃었다... 황선홍호, 일본 제압하고 8강으로 [5] 2024.04.22 황규정*65 2024.04.25 30
8839 [시조]懷古歌: 회고가 [1] 2024.04.21 정관호*63 2024.04.21 11
8838 부산형무소 살해사건 2024.04.20 온기철*71 2024.04.20 18
8837 육군 방첩대. 미군 CIC, 그리고 김창룡 2024.04.17 온기철*71 2024.04.25 20
8836 김구의 일생과 암살의 원인 2024.04.14 온기철*71 2024.04.25 18
8835 OPERA MIGNON: Connais tu le pays [1] 2024.04.12 정관호*63 2024.04.12 25
8834 “쏘니,너와 함께 뛴건 행운!”, 400경기 감동 축하영상 [5] 2024.04.06 황규정*65 2024.04.22 33
8833 길에서 만난 한식 [1] 2024.04.03 정관호*63 2024.04.09 33
8832 돌아오는 기러기 [1] file 2024.03.27 정관호*63 2024.04.18 46
8831 이강인-손흥민 ‘골 합작’ 한국, 태국 3-0 완승…월드컵 최종 예선 진출 성큼 [2] 2024.03.26 황규정*65 2024.03.27 43
8830 1945년 8월 15일 오후 강릉 홍제정 안마을에서 [2] 2024.03.19 정관호*63 2024.03.24 76
8829 이승만은 왜 김구를 제거 했을까? [1] 2024.03.17 온기철*71 2024.03.18 52
8828 My Grandson [1] 2024.03.15 노영일*68 2024.03.18 107
8827 蜀相(촉상): 촉한 승상 제갈량 [1] 2024.03.15 정관호*63 2024.04.12 59
8826 1945년 8월15일에는 서울에 아무일도 없었다. [1] 2024.03.13 온기철*71 2024.03.14 53
8825 왕소군 고향에서 [1] 2024.03.08 정관호*63 2024.03.20 57
8824 정약용; 늙어가면 친구가 점점 없어진다. [5] 2024.03.06 온기철*71 2024.03.08 87