The GOP’s scorn over the Trump investigations affirms the racist disconnect of its ‘law and order’ messaging
Republican rhetoric has long focused on how theirs is a party that respects the rule of law. But that principle only seems to apply when the accused is Black and poor, not white and rich.
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It’s odd to watch conservatives twist themselves into knots while trying to defend Donald Trump.
The former president allegedly used campaign funds to repay his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, for making a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump is accused of using the $130,000 payout to buy Daniels’ silence about an alleged affair. Now, on the heels of a grand jury investigation initiated by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Trump might be indicted as early as this week, and for the first time in U.S. history, a former president could be hurled into the criminal justice system.
That puts America squarely at the center of a raging debate on race, class, position, and power. If Trump’s wealth and status as a white former president shield him from prosecution, the status quo remains intact. But if Trump can be charged with a crime after an investigation headed by Bragg — a Black prosecutor — then America has become a place that our nation’s founders never imagined. It has become a place where no one is above the law.
Conservative Republicans fear that possibility, and that’s why the same people who claim to believe in law and order and states’ rights are working feverishly to undermine those very ideals.
Even without full knowledge of the charges Trump might actually face, the Republican chairmen of three powerful U.S. House committees sent a joint letter to Bragg demanding his testimony before Congress. In that letter, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil accused the New York Democrat of improperly using federal funds for political purposes.
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“Your decision to pursue such a politically motivated prosecution … requires congressional scrutiny about how public safety funds appropriated by Congress are implemented by local law-enforcement agencies,” they wrote.
Never mind that they don’t know if federal funds were actually utilized in the investigation. The facts don’t seem to matter now. Neither does that law-and-order messaging so many Republicans have used to talk their way into office. Law and order applies mostly when the images of criminals are Black and poor. It rarely pertains to cases where the alleged offender is white and rich.
The same could be said for the principle of states’ rights. So long as the state is working to decrease or eliminate the rights of people of color, conservatives support the concept. But when the power of the state is wielded by Black people — in this case, Bragg — its use must be questioned, undermined, or even stopped.
That’s what I believe Trump’s allies are trying to do. And for those who don’t think their attempts are steeped in racism, consider Trump’s own words when he referenced Bragg, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, all of whom are Black prosecutors leading separate investigations against Trump.
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“These prosecutors are vicious, horrible people,” Trump said last February at a Texas rally. “They’re racists and they’re very sick, they’re mentally sick. In reality, they’re not after me. They’re after you.”
By declaring that his legal troubles are the result of Black people targeting his overwhelmingly white following, Trump taps into the paranoia and anger that drives white supremacy. He also proves what I have come to believe — that Trump is but a symbol.
He epitomizes the hope that America can go back to the time when everyone knew their place and no one would question the system.
That’s why this pitched battle for the soul of our country is about much more than Donald Trump. It is about our national identity. Are we a country where the cult of personality grants immunity from justice? Or does America fit John Adams’ vision as a “government of laws, not men”?
If, in fact, we are the place our founders wrote about, then we must prove it by casting aside our differences and prosecuting Donald Trump. If he is charged, tried, and acquitted for his role in the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, the mishandling of classified documents, election interference in Georgia, or illegal hush money payments in New York, so be it.
However, if the facts lead to one or more guilty verdicts, Trump must pay the cost for what he’s done.