Going After a Defeated Political Opponent is the End of Democratic Life

11/14/2017—Well, I did wonder how President Trump would turn out to be Mussolini. That is the charge I put on my door at school in the days before the 2016 election. I wrote that everyone had an obligation to vote for Hillary Clinton because Trump might be the last President elected.

But then I thought for a long time that I had overreacted. President Trump has enacted many policies I disagree with and proposed many more, but he had not in any way taken aim at democracy.

Now he has. President Trump has now apparently convinced the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton’s handling of the State Department.

Let me add that my concern has nothing whatever to do with evidence of corruption by Secretary Clinton. There has been a lot of evidence supporting allegations of pay-to-play surrounding the Clinton Foundation and the government.

So, this entry is not about innocence. I am not defending Clinton.

Her guilt or possible guilt in anything has nothing to do with it. In other countries, a change of Party Administration means that opposition figures will be prosecuted. Those countries quickly lose their democratic qualities.

In America, politics has never been a blood sport. You leave the former President alone and honored. You don’t investigate his associates. You don’t jail your opponent.

Because if you do, then next time that is what the Democrats will do. You can investigate anybody.

Who is to blame for this descent into authoritarian government? Well President Trump of course is the immediate cause. But aren’t the Democrats trying to destroy President Trump for encouraging the Russians to hurt his opponent?—he did that right out in the open during the campaign. No independent prosecutor was needed. And don’t we all know the Democrats would have done the same in a heartbeat?

And didn’t the Republicans, including President Trump, do all they could to destroy President Obama’s credibility and ability to govern, including falsely, oh so falsely, claiming he was not born in Hawaii? It turns out that payback is a bitch not just for one person but for everyone.

Do I know how to stop this destruction of my country? No. Are we incapable of stopping? Unfortunately, yes.