I’d thought avoiding Trump stories would help avoid giving him free press, but that ship has sailed. At this point, I think most of us have become resigned to the upcoming Biden-Trump II presidential contest. If I had any hope remaining for the Republican Party, I’d be strongly advising everyone I can think of to register R so they could vote against him twice. But I don’t. The only strong contenders are either insane, hopelessly mired in Trump’s muck, or have declared war on Mickey Mouse.

It’s been observed that this will be treading on blessedly new legal ground. Former presidents are never indicted, and it’s not because they’ve failed to engage in criminal activity. Most were a bit more discreet about it, mind you, but not all.

• Grant presided over one of the most corrupt administrations in history. No thought of prosecution.
• Harding’s “Ohio Gang” included five prosecutions for bribery and two suicides after destroying records. No debate as to whether he was in on it; not even the slightest chance of prosecution.
• Truman’s administration saw 166 lower-level IRS employees fired on corruption charges. Nothing stuck to anyone appointed, and Truman got off clean.
• Tax evasion charges narrowly missed LBJ, striking down former secretary Bobby Baker instead. Several sex-based scandals were buried, some with shocking brutality.
• Nixon avoided charges for unacknowledged gifts amounting to $18,000 as VP, then avoided charges relating to Watergate. VP convicted of tax fraud. 17 close aides convicted, including on an illegal campaign fundraising scheme that Nixon was aware of. No prosecution.
• Reagan’s campaign successfully robbed Carter’s (DebateGate) and allegedly conspired with Iran over the hostage situation. Three massive bribery scandals rocked his first term and Iran-Contra the second. Thirty-plus convictions. No thought of prosecution.
• Bush II fired eleven U.S. Attorneys without explanation. Investigation found millions of deleted emails on a private server, and 13 top aides resigned to avoid having to testify. No prosecution.
• Obama is alleged to have verbally signed off on the gunwalking operation Fast And Furious, which eventually led to massive scandal, multiple resignations, and thousands of military-grade weapons going to cartels across the border. Not even a chance of prosecution.

And these are just the high points.

In point of fact, U.S. presidents are generally speaking immune from prosecution, but for some reason Trump isn’t. There’s a legitimate argument to be made that attempts to send him to jail are politically motivated, though it’s disingenuous to discount the possibility that he’s a sufficiently odious person to have made them personally motivated instead. More pressing, however, is the sheer incompetence of his legal and advisory team, which repeatedly failed to prevent his taking egregiously illegal actions on the record and in public. By comparison, Nixon’s people at least destroyed the tapes.

Yes, we have to acknowledge that the motives of the prosecution are not necessarily pure. They so rarely are; prosecutors are politicians, after all is said and done, and they rely on their records to propel them into higher office. (Just look at Kamala Harris, justly shot down by Tulsi Gabbard in their debate, yet somehow still V.P., God help us all.) It’s a sad yet unavoidable fact that prosecutions are rarely dispassionate pursuits of justice but instead efforts to accrue convictions en masse. In this case, someone’s likely to try for Senator off the free press.

But we can’t blame politics or ambition entirely. I keep coming back to the utter ineptness of Trump’s people, something that reflects incredibly, unbelievably poorly on the management abilities of their employer. Only a blindly foolish autocrat surrounded by powerless yes-men could possibly have made the string of arrogant blunders that Trump did on and leading up to the events of the 6th of January.

Nixon’s people at least destroyed the tapes.

Bear in mind: I’ve never called it an attempted coup, or anything other than a riot that was permitted (and perhaps encouraged) to get out of hand through widespread incompetence and spite. It was nasty and unpleasant, but no more so than the days-long protests in Lafayette Park that led to the torching of a White House outbuilding. Democracy wasn’t threatened; politicians were afraid, and rightly, but what of that? Politicians are often threatened. It comes with the job.

Even the present charges are not unique to him. In 2016, half the country went around marching, and loudly proclaiming that the Electoral College really ought to overturn the election. Clinton didn’t personally, but her campaign did, as did everyone from George Takei to Kamala Harris. So that’s not the issue either, not really.

For Trump to have acted as he did was insanely out of touch with reality, and for his advisors to have permitted it was criminal. Any man who assembles a team that does their jobs so very poorly has no business running a cub scout troop, much less a country.

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