President Donald Trump has done so much damage to the formerly steadfast pillars of democracy that it's often difficult to single out any one disastrous act, other than the obvious, such as January 6 and militarizing the homeland. But the indictment of former FBI director James Comey may break the strongest last wall buttressing one of history's most resilient republics.
There seems to be nothing left, no rule, no law, no moral, no ethic, no obligation — nothing that can restrain Trump's id when free to "rule," as demonstrated by the unprecedented order to charge Comey. Mark this development as his most significant anti-democratic moment in term two, one that might take two generations to overcome.
Perhaps the near-defining characteristic of third-rate dictatorships is the automatic imprisonment of one's political rivals. Just call modern Republicans a "junta," and it all starts to at least sound normal.
Yes, the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden charged Trump and many others with crimes. But Biden did not direct any charges (One might argue, and many have, that he should have been more involved, from very early on.)
There are no allegations that Biden contacted Attorney General Merrick Garland about any one charge or that Garland was politically motivated. Indeed, not only did Garland foot-drag the milquetoast effort, he even brought in a special prosecutor midstream, creating catastrophic delay. And the Right still calls it "lawfare.”
Not it seems to now matter, but it's worth mentioning that Trump and cohorts most certainly did enough to at least be charged with crimes. The federal government pleaded with Trump for years to return critical documents, even sent binding subpoenas as warnings — begging to settle, only to be ignored. Moreover, the attack on Congress on January 6, 2021 and the third-rate conspiracy to vitiate certification of Biden's win were as corrupt as they were unprecedented and should have been far more aggressively prosecuted.
There is simply no comparison. Every objective person, including nearly every Republican member of Congress, knows this to be true. They are simply that beholden to Trump. One man, not a value, idea, or program, one man — a symptom of deep disease in our body politic. MAGAs are absolutely giggling and high-fiving this as if it were a playground scrap.
The Jeffrey Epstein files must be really bad. But that's actually beside the point, which makes this even more destructive.
It all results in what we have now — real "lawfare," because none of these "Trump enemies" committed any crimes in the normal sense, and literally everyone also knows it, with the possible exception of Trump himself, who seems to believe that it is criminal to be his antagonist. Comey didn't even charge Trump!
Making matters even worse, we had Trump issue what might have been an absurd error in tweeting, not texting, Attorney General Pam Bondi, instructing her to indict his "enemies" and then firing his own appointed U.S. Attorney for Eastern Virginia in order to bring about these charges. This jaw-dropping move is actually all out in the open. He announced the f–––––g thing!
All hope to pull Trump back on the Comey matter now falls to the judiciary.
Other than our actual Supreme Court, the district judges and circuit courts have largely been the most stalwart constitutionalists pushing back against the viciously whimsical and deeply personal tyranny from above. “Saving democracy" was never contemplated when drawing up a district judge's job description. Still, there is some hope that the federal judge will throw Comey's case out based on vindictive prosecution. We will see. But without regard to the end result of this case, the damage is done.
The overriding problem here is that the usual "American solution" to insanity is to bide time, wait for the public to regain some sense, find this untenable, and democratically throw all things MAGA out of office. Such a move would allow criminal charges to be brought against Trump for personally directing the "payback" while profiting so handsomely from the office. Except we now face two problems with that scenario, and right about there is where someone starts looking two generations down for a real fix.
First and foremost, if an administration is willing to simply charge enemies with crimes, honest prosecutors be damned, there is absolutely no guarantee that this administration will even contemplate allowing a real election ever again. People rarely consider it, but Russia has elections, too. They just don't mean anything because they're predetermined by Vladimir Putin.
Please look at where we are headed and consider whether Trump will ever allow himself to be exposed to "an outsider" who may review his actions. He is already directing what looks to be elections of the Russian variety.
Second, even if this country came to its constitutional senses, wrestled through real elections, and voted in a Democrat with Trump term-limited out, the fact that "Project 2029" should include putting these people in jail then just continues the pattern. The party in power charges the former with crimes, even when it's obvious that only one party does it in bad faith. Even the good answer is catastrophic.
And that's what makes the Comey indictment such a landmark.
Pretend momentarily that this country actually does return to sanity in 2028 with President Newsom, Buttigieg, or Whitmer. One could make a very persuasive argument that it would actually be better to simply wipe the slate clean and pretend none of this ever happened, rather than bringing yet another round of charges against a former administration. Let history imprison these people.
Sadly, even though that might prove to be the best option, that too is a hallmark of a failed government. Simply ignoring blatant criminality in order to "move on" allows future administrations to push further into abject corruption and self-dealing. A lawless Oval Office may be accepted as the price the powerful pay for being rich, free, and alive, all at the same time.
All that said, it becomes too apparent why this indictment is a bomb of a development.
Noted above, this could easily take two generations to fix, but keep in mind that there's no rule saying it ever must be. And so here we are. As far as critical dates and developments in the Trump attack on real American exceptionalism? This matter is actually every bit as important as January 6th. Don't be fooled.
One could spend all day analyzing and critiquing Comey's tenure as head of the FBI. Some of us fully believe that he had no good choice when presented with Hillary Clinton's emails. But no sane person believes he is a criminal, and even if Comey shaded his testimony in favor of one view, he would be no different, indeed likely less so, than anyone else to ever testify before Congress, especially an independent director answering to hostile political hacks.
It all just makes it worse. Comey is just so obviously not a criminal, but he is equally clearly someone Trump just hates.
Mark this day as the one on which a U.S. president simply called for the head of someone who infuriated him. Know, of course, as history surely will, that Trump did it, almost alone. It took 240 years to get here and one man to bring it all down. But stop licking wounds for a moment and try to track where it all goes into the near future.
Take an honest look at the lay of the land. There doesn't appear to be an off-ramp in sight. Perhaps President Malia Obama and Gen Z can sort this out.
But they'd better start thinking about it now because this is far bigger than even the headlines relate.
- Jason Miciak is a past Associate Editor at Occupy Democrats, author and American attorney. He can be reached at jasonmiciak@gmail.com
