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In Praise of Merrick Garland [1]

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Date: 2023-07-08

I know that a lot of us are understandably frustrated by our Attorney General’s reluctance to go after Trump for January 6 at the beginning of Biden’s term. It’s been positively infuriating to have Trump posting on Un-truth Social and holding hate rallies all over the country, stirring up his base and threatening his adversaries. He should have been put behind bars two years ago! In the meantime, the Justice Department has been targeting the foot soldiers from that day, moving laboriously up the ladder to arrive at bigger and bigger prey, like Stewart Rhodes, sentenced to 18 years.



So when are we going to see some accountability for the Trump White House and the former guy himself? Well, it looks like that may finally be happening, although it’s getting perilously close to the election, and we can only hope it’s not too late. But I have two points to make in suggesting that we may be better off with Garland’s snail-like approach.



First, there’s the fact that Jack Smith, who is absolutely the right man for the job of bringing Trump down, would in all likelihood not have been available before now. It isn’t necessarily due to Garland’s planning that things worked out this way, but we can credit him for choosing Smith when it finally came time for him to act. At the time I was skeptical, but now I couldn’t be happier that Smith is in charge.



Second, now that so many of the January 6 participants have been handed jail sentences, some of them substantial, both they and others looking on are either unable or unwilling to engage in further violence in support of Trump. Have you noticed the small “crowds” of Trump supporters at his two arraignments? Between law enforcement and journalists, they’ve been totally outnumbered. I am cautiously optimistic that Trump won’t be able to create mass chaos going forward, especially because at least some of his people feel he’s let them down.



What Trump is able to do, unfortunately, is whip up unbalanced individuals to attack those like Obama who are on his enemies list. I’d like to see him remanded, but that’s up to the judges in his cases. In the meantime, though, it seems to me that Merrick Garland’s approach is having some positive effects. Maybe he didn’t plan it that way, but it’s good news nonetheless.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/8/2179974/-In-Praise-of-Merrick-Garland

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