As the uproar over Alan Dershowitz’s defense of the President’s behavior gets louder, I keep thinking we need to get back to basics. I mean, this commentary has one obvious flaw, but a hidden one as well:
“He argued that if the president shot someone in the public square but believed it was in the public interest, it wouldn’t be an impeachable offense,” said J.W. Verret, a law professor at George Mason University. “But dictators always believe that what they are doing is in the best interest of the public — that’s the essence of an autocracy.” [WaPo]
The obvious, if minor, flaw, is that not all dictators are motivated by love of country. Hell, I’d say most are not. There is certainly room to believe that there’s a non-zero subset who simply love power and what it can do for them. Verret’s implication that all politicians do what they do out of love of country is naive.
But by following Trump’s, and by implication Dershowitz’s, claim that he could get away with shooting someone in the public square and get away with it, Verret misses the truly key problem with the argument, an appeal to one of the most fundamental keystones of the Republic:
Everyone is equal before the law.
Trump takes an action which is forbidden. If it’s granted that he can do it, then so can everybody else, otherwise, our keystone is upset and the entire structure, already trembling in the face of the corruption of the Republicans, comes tumbling down, soon enough to our woe.
Sure, we give out special passes. We permit self-defense claims in court in the case of homicide, allowing the jury to decide if a killing is justified or not. But there is no special Fog of Immunity for the President, regardless of party, even delayed prosecution, because, to delay justice is to deny justice.
For those readers who agree with Justice Kavanaugh, who would have us believe that the President should be able to delay prosecutions of themselves because they’re too busy and important, let me remind those readers that this is one of the contingencies for which Vice-Presidents should be ready.
In the end, we need to get back to basics, not be distracted by the handwaving, and if Trump is to be excused because of good intentions, so should everyone else. Just tell us your killing of your neighbor was because it would be good for the nation.
Or just admit the Dershowitz argument is just a load of crap and move on. Unless, of course, this is a setup.
