The central "myth of America" has just been cleanly exposed by President Donald Trump — but it's been staring onlookers in the face for centuries, a New York Times columnist wrote Tuesday.
Americans genuinely believe their nation operates as a country governed by law, where justice remains impartial. However, the reality dating back to the Civil War is the complete opposite, wrote Jamelle Bouie.
Throughout American history, the powerful have frequently escaped accountability for their actions. And now, Trump isn't even trying to hide it.
Nothing makes this more starkly clear than the January 6 uprising five years ago today, as Trump urged on the perpetrators: “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
But, despite his part in an insurrection, "Trump isn’t just a free man — he is, once again, the president of the United States," Bouie wrote.
"The myth of America says that this can’t happen. But as we see, our history tells us a different story. Our history says that we struggle to hold the powerful accountable. Our history says that we would often rather look the other way than contend with what it means for presidents and other high officials to break their oaths and turn their power against the republic. Our history says that with enough power, and if you’re the right kind of American, you can escape consequences altogether and die a citizen in good standing."
Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States and commander of a rebellion that killed hundreds of thousands, spent only two years in federal custody after the Civil War. His indictment was dismissed, and he lived as a free man until his death in 1889, Bouie wrote.
The Southern press response was overwhelmingly positive. The New Orleans Daily Picayune editorialized that "The funeral should be a demonstration of respect and love that would be the grandest and most impressive that had ever been witnessed in this city, and should be conducted on such a scale as to show the world that the South, in the face of sectional abuse and criticisms, does not hesitate to honor in the profoundest manner the memory of the greatest of her sons."
More than a century later, President Richard Nixon died peacefully after abusing his constitutional oath in what became the most notorious presidential scandal of the modern era, Bouie wrote.
Despite his guilt, Nixon left office with his freedom intact and received a full and unconditional pardon from Gerald Ford.
Between Davis and Nixon are countless lesser figures whose crimes were either erased or never acknowledged.
But Trump has taken it to the next level, the columnist wrote.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith stated in a deposition before the House Judiciary Committee about Trump's part in the Jan. 6 uprising: "The attack that happened at the Capitol, part of this case, does not happen without him."
"Trump tried as much as he could to overthrow the Constitution," Bouie wrote.
"That his was an almost farcical and shambolic attempt at an autogolpe does not change the gravity of what happened. And yet, Trump isn’t just a free man — he is, once again, the president of the United States."
He went on, "There are many ways to diagnose the state of the nation, but if there is a sickness eating away at American democracy, it is our culture of elite impunity. Trump is at once a symptom of this disease and its apotheosis, a living representation of all the ways the United States has encouraged, tolerated and rewarded the most selfish and antisocial behaviors imaginable, at least among a certain class of person.
"And with the full might of the federal government in his hands, Trump hopes to institutionalize impunity — to make it the only rule, both here and abroad."
