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"When Your Enemy Falls, Do Not Rejoice" [1]

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Date: 2023-08-15

Scrolling through the comments last night after the Georgia indictments were announced, I was dismayed by the sheer volume of gloating expressed, and I was reminded of the line from Proverbs 24:17, the title of this diary.

Yes, Trump did — and continues to do — existential damage to our country, our planet, social norms, democracy . . . the list is almost endless. Yes, he deserves to be held accountable in a court of law for his crimes. No, he should never be allowed anywhere near the corridors of power. But. . .

First, it’s bad optics to gloat. It gives Trump’s allies an excuse to claim the charges are nothing more than political persecution and misuse of the legal system.

Second, it’s bad for us psychologically. We are better than that. If the roles were reversed and this were Biden up on charges, you can bet Trump would be doing a victory jig like the one Hitler did when he accepted France’s surrender in 1940. Biden, you will notice, has not only kept quiet, he has ordered his entire staff to say nothing either.

Third, Trump’s comeuppence is nothing to rejoice over, because it shows how far we as a nation have fallen that such a person should ever have been given that kind of power, much less that he remains to this day a major malevolent force in our affairs and the likely nominee of one of the two major political parties, with a good chance of getting his hands on power again. Hillary Clinton had it right: Hillary Clinton Says ‘I Don’t Feel Any Satisfaction’ From Trump Indictments

Less than an hour after a grand jury in Atlanta returned indictments in the 2020 election interference case in Georgia, Hillary Clinton on Monday called the developments “a terrible moment for our country.” The indictment, released late on Monday evening, charges former President Donald J. Trump in a sprawling case. Before the charges were made public, Mrs. Clinton gave a previously scheduled late-night interview on MSNBC. She said that she felt “great profound sadness” that the former president had already been indicted on so many other charges that “went right to the heart of whether or not our democracy would survive.”

This from the woman that Trump threatened to “lock up” for daring to stand in the way of his run for the Oval Office.

We can — we must — feel relief that the system still works (so far) to protect us from the kind of person Trump is, and to punish him when the protections fail. We should be gratified that justice, however belatedly, is finally being done. We should be glad that democracy is recovering (yet remaining vigilant to ensure the recovery succeeds). But we should not gloat.

(PS: The photo has nothing to do with the diary; we just came back from a safari in the Serengeti and I wanted to show off a bit. But if you want to compare Fani Willis to a lioness, I won’t deny I thought of it, too.)

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/15/2187415/--When-Your-Enemy-Falls-Do-Not-Rejoice

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