Liz Cheney: Statements by agents investigating Trump 'could well be treason' https://t.co/ViG9DSrsXY— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2019
If you are old enough to remember the book, odds are you never knew it came from an epigram by Sir John Harington:
"Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason?
Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason."
If you don't remember the book, it's what fired off the John Birch Society, bane of "liberals" and liberal democracy through the defeat of Goldwater up until the rise of Reagan, who effectively replaced it. The emphasis was on the idea of "treason," which is not the legal definition of the crime set out in the Constitution (famously the only crime defined in the Constitution. Congress can decide what "high crimes and misdemeanors" are for purposes of impeachment; it can't decide what treason is.). Ironically, treason was used then, by the Birchers, hell-bent on protecting the Constitution as they understood it, and by Trump and his adherents today, proving the reasons why treason was strictly defined in 1789; so it couldn't be used as a political crime.
But the point I wanted to make was: Trump & Co. are using the term the same way it was used (most recently) by the Birchers, and for the same purpose: power. The Birchers were convinced they alone had the right ideas and therefore the right to run America.
Everything old is new again.
Conviction is a powerful thing; but then it becomes an excuse for eliminating everything that doesn't conform to that conviction. Or, in the case of Trump (and probably Cheney), it's just used to further ignorance and as another way to punish one's "enemies". Which, again, is why treason is a specific crime aimed at the United States of America; not at whoever is President or, in the case of the FBI agents, a candidate for President.
But the point I wanted to make was: Trump & Co. are using the term the same way it was used (most recently) by the Birchers, and for the same purpose: power. The Birchers were convinced they alone had the right ideas and therefore the right to run America.
Everything old is new again.
Conviction is a powerful thing; but then it becomes an excuse for eliminating everything that doesn't conform to that conviction. Or, in the case of Trump (and probably Cheney), it's just used to further ignorance and as another way to punish one's "enemies". Which, again, is why treason is a specific crime aimed at the United States of America; not at whoever is President or, in the case of the FBI agents, a candidate for President.
No comments:
Post a Comment