Olbermann vs. Trump #31: To Heal America, Biden Must Prosecute Trump, Family, Enablers. All Of Them.
There are laws in this country and Trump broke nearly all of them.
I revere the President-Elect, but he is hinting at not prioritizing pursuing prosecutions against Trump, and his crime family, and his staffers. Obama did the same thing even after Bush inadvertently confessed to war crimes, and the message was clear to future Republican presidents (namely, Trump): If there are no consequences for illegal acts, they cease to BE illegal.
To ignore or slow-walk prosecutions is to say not just to the current White House miscreants that not only are you above the law, but if you or others wish to break the law later, you will be able to get away with it.
If we should have learned one thing from Trump it is that this not a nation of laws, it is a nation of traditions. Representative government in this country is not only not sacrosanct; it is full of self-destruct buttons that didn’t detonate – this time -- more thanks to luck than thanks to skill. As I have always believed and stated, the preservation of democracy is less the result of those of us who have fought and strived to protect it, and more the result of the stupidity and carelessness of the morons who wish to destroy it. In short, the next Donald Trump will not be nearly as stupid as this Donald Trump.
Democracy will emerge from this nightmare but will not emerge intact. The only thing a President with a small majority in the House, possibly a minority in the Senate, and a theocratic Supreme Court can do, is to protect democracy by keeping its enemies from hurting it further.
At minimum, put the fear back into the fascists.
So. Prosecute Trump. Prosecute Pence and the COVID-19 deniers. Prosecute Stephen Miller. Prosecute Pompeo. Prosecute Giuliani and Ellis and everybody else involved in the attempted coup. Because the only thing these people understand is fear, and they should live their lives in constant fear that if they ever try anything like this again, they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Prosecute. Them. All.