What The Trump Feeding Frenzy Means

By Nick Dranias

Guilty or not, Trump is being afforded less dignity than a terrorist. And yet, one of the hallmarks of our country is the effort the law and our culture used to make to preserve the appearance of human dignity for even the worst of us. We see this whether it is the presumption of innocence for a murderer caught red handed; or the preservation of attorney-client privilege for the mob boss; or the exclusionary rule in which the violation of the right against search and seizure (or the possibility of a coerced confession) can throw out an otherwise solid case.

Even our tradition of free speech is for the ugliest of speech and the most wrongheaded ideas—other forms of speech rarely require protection. The ethic of keeping out of another person’s dirty laundry also used to be prevalent. For decades, FDR’s and Kennedy’s indiscretions were whispered about. And after a legion of abused women got nowhere, it took an intern’s semen-stained skirt to finally justify any real attention being trained on Clinton.

It is a bit of a mystery why these traditions of restraint exist. Why should bad people and bad acts get so many outs and so much latitude? One suspects it is because of the implicit recognition of the danger of the ease with which hatred and the smell of blood can generate a feeding frenzy that consumes us all. We have made it difficult to hunt and kill the worst of us because we know a jihad can get out of hand.

Not so much for our President. They have used FISA to conduct limitless warrantless surveillance of his political campaign. They have invaded and destroyed the ancient privilege of attorney-client confidence at scale. They have raided the National Enquirer’s hush money safe, soon to expose his (and others?) most embarrassing secrets by leaks to the world. They are raking him over the coals for bad acts committed daily by the average politico. And they have justified it all as part of an investigation into Russian collusion based on fraudulent opposition research, itself procured by Russian collusion with a foreign agent.

Trump is like an accused (or perhaps actual) adulteress in Saudi Arabia or Iran—buried up to his neck and then stoned. Whether or not he is a bad or even terrible person, this is not the rule of law. This is force. This is violence. This is rule by the mob. This is about being torn apart by jackals motivated by hate.

Welcome to the death throes of a Republic.