1/2/2021 Americans’ acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy | Donald Trump | The Guardian

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Americans’ acceptance of Trump’s behavior will

be his vilest legacy
Robert Reich

Sun 27 Dec 2020 01.00 EST

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1/2/2021 Americans’ acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy | Donald Trump | The Guardian

Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to re-elect Donald Trump – 46.8%of the
votes cast in the 2020 presidential election – don’t hold Trump accountable for what
he’s done to America.

Their acceptance of Trump’s behavior will be his vilest legacy.

Nearly forty years ago, political scientist James Q Wilson and criminologist George
Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no
one cares if windows are broken there. The broken window is thereby an invitation to
throw more stones and break more windows.

The message: do whatever you want here because others have done it and got away
with it.

The broken window theory has led to picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in poor
communities. But America’s most privileged and powerful have been breaking big
windows with impunity.

In 2008, Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out while
millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet no major Wall Street
executive ever went to jail.
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In more recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the
members of the Sackler family that own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did
nothing. Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers.
Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe.
Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police under their command
repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans.

Here, too, they’ve got away with it. These windows remain broken.

Trump has brought Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the
impunity to the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious
highest office in the windowpane of all – American democracy.
land, wielding a The message? A president can obstruct special counsels’
wrecking ball to the investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to
most precious dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors general who
windowpane of all find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse
American democracy congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake
information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax
returns, accuse the press of being “fake media” and
“enemies of the people”, and make money off his presidency.

And he can get away with it. Almost half of the electorate will even vote for his re-
election.

A president can also lie about the results of an election without a shred of evidence –
and yet, according to polls, be believed by the vast majority of those who voted for
him.

Trump’s recent pardons have broken double-pane windows.

Not only has he shattered the norm for presidential pardons – usually granted because
of a petitioner’s good conduct after conviction and service of sentence – but he’s
pardoned people who themselves shattered windows. By pardoning them, he has
rendered them unaccountable for their acts.

They include aides convicted of lying to the FBI and threatening potential witnesses in
order to protect him; his son-in-law’s father, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, witness
tampering, illegal campaign contributions, and lying to the Federal Election
Commission; Blackwater security guards convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians,
including women and children; border patrol agents convicted of assaulting or
shooting unarmed suspects; and Republican lawmakers and their aides found guilty of
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shooting unarmed suspects; and Republican lawmakers and their aides found guilty of
fraud, obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations.

It’s not simply the size of the broken window that undermines standards, according to
Wilson and Kelling. It’s the willingness of society to look the other way. If no one is
held accountable, norms collapse.

Trump may face a barrage of lawsuits when he leaves office, possibly including
criminal charges. But it’s unlikely he’ll go to jail. Presidential immunity or a self-pardon
will protect him. Prosecutorial discretion would almost certainly argue against
indictment, in any event. No former president has ever been convicted of a crime. The
mere possibility of a criminal trial for Trump would ignite a partisan brawl across the
nation.

Congress may try to limit the power of future presidents – strengthening congressional
oversight, fortifying the independence of inspectors general, demanding more
financial disclosure, increasing penalties on presidential aides who break laws,
restricting the pardon process, and so on.

But Congress – a co-equal branch of government under the constitution – cannot rein in
rogue presidents. And the courts don’t want to weigh in on political questions.

The appalling reality is that Trump may get away with it. And in getting away with it he
will have changed and degraded the norms governing American presidents. The giant
windows he’s broken are invitations to a future president to break even more.

Nothing will correct this unless or until an overwhelming majority of Americans

recognize and condemn what has occurred.

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