The unsigned newspaper editorial is a vaunted tradition: a local institution taking – one hopes — a gutsy group position.
Most of my working life I wrote them for editorial boards of which I was a member.
Most times I felt good — that the editorial I wrote was not a repeat of a rerun of a review.
One exception tended to be at the end of sensational, lengthy trials when all that could be said had been.
Hence, I almost didn’t read the New York Times editorial, “Trump’s crime against the American public” after Donald Trump’s 34-felony conviction in Manhattan.
What else to conclude that a jury hadn’t?
The Times editorial board didn’t belabor it.
Importantly, it didn’t focus on a trial. It focused on a trail.
Of criminality. Of unabashed and unmitigated malfeasance.
The Times chose not to relitigate the one time thus far his criminal acts got adjudicated.
Unlike the Republican Party.
Like steel on steel, these words rang in the editorial, denouncing Trump’s “chronic impulse – to override democratic norms and the law.”
“Chronic impulse.” Let’s focus on that.
A major political party has fallen for an outlaw. He’s proud of it. He’s willing to lead that party in that lawless direction. Voters cannot allow it.
This is a man indicted for 88 separate crimes, now guilty on 34 of them.
It’s a staggering sweep of irresponsible and illegal actions.
Rather than acknowledge the rottenness so evident, supporters assume a unified “discredit” mode:
Discredit the Justice Department, the FBI, state courts, district courts, judges, prosecutors, grand juries. Discredit election administrators, poll workers. Discredit Capitol cops.
All to give cover to one chronic miscreant.
Come on, Republicans. There could be one errant claim for which Trump stands accused. Maybe two. But all of them?
And these matters are not the end of the reckoning he faces along a trail of misconduct.
Still pending: the civil suit filed by victims of Jan. 6 – the day Trump sat and watched his supporters ransack the U.S. Capitol.
Still pending: the IRS audit of Trump’s taxes. He might owe as much as $100 million for such deceits as twice claiming the same massive write-off for his tower in Chicago.
Add that to the staggering costs to us – you and me – directly from this man’s actions, from the carnage and destruction at the Capitol, to the frivolous lawsuits, to the baseless appeals, to the trials to come.
And it’s not just the trials Trump rightfully faces. It’s also what’s to come for many who bought into his con.
The Times editorial rightfully pointed to the extent to which, like the Capitol rioters, Trump has managed to “push others to break the law for political gain.”
Here we’re not only thinking of the cast of characters facing criminal charges in Georgia – two having pleaded guilty already — for racketeering.
There’s also the Republican activists in Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan and Georgia charged in fake electors plots.
“Everything Trump Touches Dies” is the name of Rick Wilson’s book. That’s an overstatement, of course, but it barely exaggerates. How about, “Everyone Trump touches gets indicted.”
On the same page as the Times editorial about the contagion of Trump, columnist Jamelle Bouie made the most important point – indeed, the only point that matters, even with Trump’s felony convictions.
“It has not been the institutions or the guardrails that have restrained the former president; it’s been ordinary citizens who, when given the opportunity, have not hesitated to hold him accountable.”
They will have that opportunity again in November.
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