If Donald Trump walks while only Jan. 6 bit players are punished, our democracy is doomed

Jan. 6 rioter Stephen Ayres isn’t nearly as deserving of our sympathy as the U.S. Capitol police officers to whom he apologized this week. Still, I did feel for him as he testified about being conned into marching off to stop a steal that Donald Trump knew wasn’t happening. And if we keep prosecuting insurrectionist minnows like Ayres — 874 rioters had been arrested at last count — but then let the flounder-in-chief swim free of the net, the former president’s coup attempt will have succeeded, not in denying Joe Biden’s rightful election, but by doing grave damage to our democracy. Because eve...