America blew it.
I generally support special prosecutor Jack Smith’s indictments of Donald Trump. The classified documents case is open-and-shut, as far as I can tell. As for the charges dealing with the former president’s attempt to steal the election, they are a heavier lift as a strictly legal matter. Some charges may not clear the evidentiary and legal hurdles in their path, but they are still worth bringing.
Trump supporters disagree. Their arguments span from anti-American idiocy (Trump is America’s Alexei Nalvany) to good faith, nuanced, complaints about the insufficiency of the statutes Smith is relying upon.
But even if Smith has the law and evidence entirely on his side, the fact that we’ve come to prosecuting a former president is proof of the breakdown of republicanism.
Without the populist polarization of our politics, a man as unfit for high office as Trump would never get near the presidency.