We root for the Superbowl. We watch two teams battle it out after having prepared for it for days, months, and years. They play fair because they play within a set of rules that give clear consequences for players or coaches or anybody who breaks those rules. Referees decide what rules were broken and what the consequences are. All sports are played where the best team wins by their skill at achieving their goal. If a player punches a player, or sabotages their opponents, or eavesdrops on them, they might even be stripped of their win. They might be barred from playing again.
Playing by the rules is American. As a matter of fact, America itself is founded on that principle too. The Rule of Law. It’s the doctrine that defines, just like in sports what is ok and what is not and what the consequences are, taking the responsibility or power away from individuals to haphazardly do what they want or apply unequal justice to equal circumstances.
It is a special gift that 350 million Americans are fortunate to have lived by the Rule of Law. Our laws aren’t perfect. But they can be made better. Just as the Constitution was amended with the Bill of Rights and then more amendments to follow, like the 14th Amendment, which, which aside from the issue now before the Supreme Court also ensures due process and equal protection under the law.
This is is a contract with every American, applying to babies, CEOs, even criminals, and tax cheats. It is a contract. The Rule of Law protects Donald Trump too.
The rule of law is there to give Americans stability in their hearts that they will be treated fairly no matter what they are accused of or how in debt they are.
This is why it’s so particularly disingenuous and nauseating to hear that that same indicted President, comfortably from his American home, continuously over years leverages EVERY POSSIBLE AVENUE OF DUE PROCESS and equal protection, using millions of taxpayer dollars being charged in 91 criminal counts against him, with judges and investigators, the Justice Department, and hundreds of researchers, while at the same time is threatening let our NATO Allies fall victim to Russia because they haven’t paid their bills!
It’s a disgusting display of hypocrisy. Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills. Donald Trump cheats. He attempted to steal an election.
And yet a mob continues to hold him above liability. That’s not how the rule of law works.
Will our “referees” do their job? Will he face the consequences for his behavior? Sadly, unlike sports, it’s not so simple. People have died. People get death threats. People get blackmailed. And our instant replay just doesn’t seem to work as well.
A loud powerful minority of Americans keep saying they have “alternative facts”. That the election was stolen. It’s another form of cheating.
They used to call it “fair and balanced”, now they plead it’s just “entertainment”. And they receive no consequences. And now the truth is individually fed to people as they swipe through a newsfeed tailored specifically for their brain cells. And still, no consequences for disseminating not what is factual, but what grabs the most attention and returns the highest ROI.
What comes out of this is that the meaning, interpretation, and enforcement of laws themselves become so contorted by the different audiences that in their place, another kind of rule emerges. The Rule of Fear.
Congresspeople are afraid to go against Trump. Teachers are afraid to speak out. Every day people are afraid to exercise their First Amendment rights. They are afraid of the harm that will come to themselves or their families. Senators are being threatened, public servant poll workers, educators. The Rule of Fear is already here.
The difference between sports and politics is that sports has rules only. But politics can squander them all away leaving only fear in their place.
There are people of many nations that can now claim #MeToo. China, Russia, Turkey, India, Myanmar, N. Korea, and now Chile, El Salvador, Argentina, across Europe, and also Israel.
We have an opportunity to not prevent the iron fist of authoritarianism to take hold in America. The biggest experiment in how a civilization can succeed or fail is before us. We can devolve into yet another failed brawling tribal nation as so many have before us, or we can draw the line and make those hard calls that perhaps our Justices are too afraid to make.
Face it, you know if they bar Trump, they’ll be getting death threats.
It’s from that mob, driven by Trump feeding on fear that we must take our country back from. We’ve seen this mob before. Will we learn from our past? The Rule of Law, unlike with sports, must be protected by being upheld.
We have heard what Trump will do in office. We have seen the fear and anger he spreads.
This election, in 245 days, we must ensure that we are the clear majority who tells the world, that our citizens are safe, that our allies are safe, and that we are there for them.
There is only one person and one team that can do that right now. And every ounce of effort you have must be spent making sure that that team is given very single vote. Team Biden and the Democrats are the only way in 245 days, to ensure we have a place in the world of democratic nations.