I’ve overheard or been involved in quite a few conversations lately that contained the phrase, “I’m not a lawyer, but…” I won’t bore you with the details except to say that these conversations involved appeals to the due process clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The context, of course, was what took place in the Southern District of Manhattan last Thursday in the trial of former President Donald Trump.
Trump was convicted of falsifying business records, which under New York State law is a misdemeanor except that Alvin Bragg, the district attorney, elevated the charges to felonies with the help of former Department of Justice attorney, Matthew Colangelo, among others. Bragg was elected on a pledge to “get Trump” and, unfortunately, that’s what he did. I say unfortunately, because I naively thought that we were beyond show trials and weaponizing the legal system in such a blatant way to “get” political rivals. How wrong was I? If Netflix decides to make a drama based on the trial, I suggest they call it “Sons of Tammany.”
But something else happened this week that I found even more disturbing. It involves the wife of United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Apparently, she likes to fly flags at their Virginia residence and summer home. Some on the Left have taken offense at this, since the flags include ones of a religious and patriotic nature as well as an upside-down American flag, signifying distress. They claim that flying these flags prejudices Alito against their cause.
What cause is that? you ask. The Supreme Court is about to hear arguments concerning the January 6th protest and whether Trump acted lawfully in his capacity as President during that protest and the subsequent storming of the Capitol. This is the “immunity” issue you probably have heard about.
Honestly, I have something of a soft spot for Alito. He is a Jersey boy whose father was an Italian immigrant who earned a master’s degree and worked for New Jersey state government. His mother, Rose, was a schoolteacher. He attended Ivy League schools and went into the Army after ROTC. I remember him from his nomination hearings in 2005 and the disdain with which Senator Ted Kennedy, no pillar of virtue, treated him.
I thought of that again just this week when Alito issued a defense of his decision not to recuse himself from the January 6th cases. In a letter to two Senate Democrats, he put the flag issue in the context of a “very nasty neighborhood dispute” and described how a certain neighbor put out a sign attacking his wife personally and then “trailed her all the way down the street and berated her in my presence using foul language, including what I regard as the vilest epithet that can be addressed to a woman” (see PBS NewsHour).
It’s a republic, ma’am, if you can keep it.
Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 in response to the question by Elizabeth Willing Powell, “Have we got a republic or a monarchy?”
Here’s the thing. I am not squeamish when it comes to these things, but I am amazed at the crudity some people display concerning politics. To make a spectacle of yourself in the street with a justice and his wife because they do not agree with your ideological agenda is disgusting. But it’s not just politics. You see this kind of behavior everywhere. It’s what happens when adults have no self-control and act like brats.
I see it on the road. People are tense, anxious, and hyped up about getting to where they have to go. God help you if you get in their way. Maybe I notice it more because I have less to do now that I am retired. That’s possible. I drive three miles down the road to the gym and twenty miles to see family on Sunday. So, I do not spend a lot of time behind the wheel, which is a good thing, since I admit I have become an awful driver. I just don’t get driving anymore, but that’s another post.
The upshot of all this–a show trial, obscenities in the street, road rage–is that I worry about our country and the lack of civic virtue. Frankly, I am shocked by our unwillingness to see issues from other people’s point of view and to concede error for the sake of the common good and truth. Now, it is all about power, but the obsessive quest for power can bring down a republic. It turns out they’re more fragile than we thought.
Image credit: feature by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis at Google Cultural Institute, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21880454. Want more? Go to Robert Brancatelli. The Brancatelli Blog is a member of The Free Media Alliance, which promotes “alternatives to software, culture, and hardware monopolies.”
