Trump made a mockery of American democracy. Why are Americans shrugging this off? | Opinion
Donald Trump faces four indictments, 91 criminal charges and hundreds of years of maximum prison time combined.
This is a former president who — according to the latest grand jury indictment in Fulton County, Georgia — participated in a “criminal enterprise.” Trump and 18 co-defendants are accused of trying “to unlawfully change the outcome of the election” in 2020. Among the 13 felony charges he faces is one count of violating the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act and two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery.
Most of those charges are related to a fake elector scheme by the Trump campaign in which a slate of “alternate” electors in Georgia would cast electoral votes for Trump instead of Joe Biden. The president of the most powerful democracy in the world allegedly tried to steal an election.
We can’t say it often enough: This is serious. Americans cannot shrug this off or normalize it, no matter how many times Trump gets indicted.
Yet it feels like business as usual. Not only is Trump favored to win the GOP presidential nomination, he’s also neck and neck with President Biden in the 2024 general election, according to a July poll by the New York Times/Siena Poll.
More than a cult
Trump’s support cannot only be explained as the product of the cult-like power he has over his MAGA base, which accounts for roughly 40% of Republican voters who believe those indictments are nothing but a conspiracy against him.
Besides the Georgia case, Trump also is accused in federal court of conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruct an official proceeding in his efforts to overturn the election. Another federal indictment accused him of unlawfully retaining national defense information — a threat to national security — including classified documents related to military activities and the nation’s nuclear program. He’s also facing charges in New York of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.
It’s hard to believe different prosecutors in different jurisdictions and states would get together to file bogus charges — and jeopardize their own careers — as part of a “deep state” plan to stop Trump from returning to the White House. It’s hard to believe dozens of witnesses, including several Republicans, would lie under oath to hurt Trump or that members of a grand jury would also be part of the conspiracy against the former president.
Yet if the latest New York Times poll is right — and we’re still a long way from the presidential elections — many Americans either believe Trump’s alleged crimes didn’t occur or they think they aren’t that big a deal. Only 51% of all registered voters said they believe Trump committed serious crimes; slightly more said Trump threatened democracy. If they don’t believe media accounts, they should all read the Georgia indictment for themselves.
Too much to care about?
Maybe Americans are experiencing indictment fatigue and have become desensitized to Trump’s mounting legal problems. Maybe Americans expect Trump to be dishonest and, faced with confirmation that he is, shrug it off. Maybe it’s inflation and Biden’s low approval ratings. Maybe this is the result of the age of disinformation, where Americans believe different things according to their political leanings.
For all of Trump’s attacks against our democracy, our institutions have held up. The criminal-justice system is doing its part, investigating and filling charges as prosecutors see fit. Trump tried but couldn’t overturn an election. His supporters disrupted but didn’t stop Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results.
But a democracy isn’t supported only by institutions housed in venerable buildings. The people, not just prosecutors and elected representatives, must do their part.
If a significant portion of voters don’t believe Trump attacked the nation he swore to protect, if they think the four indictments he faces are a work of fiction, then our democracy is in trouble. If Americans don’t care he might have committed crimes as long as their 401(k) and the economy are doing well, then America is also in trouble.
Either way, that means the American public doesn’t trust democracy or doesn’t see it as important enough to defend.
Trump’s threat to America is to be taken seriously.
BEHIND THE STORY
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