If a Republican Is Convicted of 34 Felonies in a Lonely Forest, Does He Make a Sound?

An old thought experiment, with an accountability twist

Last week, the former president of the United States of America was convicted of 34 felonies in a New York state court after a six week trial that included a spirited defense by three top-flight and wildly expensive criminal defense attorneys.

It’s still shocking to read, even if by this point it’s no longer breaking news.

A 12-person jury of regular (and incredibly brave) folks looked at the evidence and agreed that he broke New York law when he cooked the books as part of a conspiracy to keep America from finding out that he had had sex with an adult movie actress while his wife was home with an infant son.

The facts are gross, which is why felonies were committed to keep them under wraps until after the 2016 election, which turned on the votes of 79,646 people in three states.

It’s hard to remember a time when the Republican Party was ready to throw Don overboard as being too much baggage. But after the Access Hollywood tape, in which he said he could grab women by the [you know the quote], plenty of Republicans came out firmly and forcefully against Trump. It was a delicate moment in the campaign.

If this story had come out, at that time, the whole world could have been very different.

Information matters. Story matters.

It matters so much – it is so powerful – that Trump was willing to break laws to preserve the story he had going, and to prevent information that hurt him from coming out.

And so it has been intensely frustrating to watch, over the last few days, Democrats stifle one another and discourage openly discussing the story of this verdict and its implications.

I can understand taking a beat and a breath. After all, a jury unanimously convicted the former president of 34 felonies. That’s historic. It’s the equivalent of an earthquake and a tsunami and a tornado all wrapped up in one.

It’s reasonable, and pretty smart, to take a second and regain your balance.

But you don’t then look around and pretend that we all didn’t experience the same earthquake.

Unfortunately, that’s how some Democrats have internalized the advice they’ve gotten: to be silent, change the subject. “Don’t go there.”

Friend, maybe that works in blue districts in blue states where everyone agrees with you. Or maybe it works in blue districts in red states. But it doesn’t work in most of America, where ignoring the elephant in the room just makes you look like you’ve got terrible eyesight or you’ve got something to hide.

I get it – these are hard conversations. It’s an uncomfortable factual scenario (to put it mildly). And conflict is tough; someone might disagree with you because they heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from a local radio host who heard from an expert on Fox News that the whole thing was rigged and “Biden” and “lock her up” or whatever.

But remaining quiet – saying nothing – doesn’t help combat the lies that those people have been told – and which will continue unabated, unless we push back with the truth.

Remaining quiet doesn’t help explain to your neighbors, who are good people, that this verdict isn’t evidence of a corrupt system. This verdict is evidence of our system working exactly as it was intended, and holding even the most powerful people accountable for their actions.

Biden had nothing to do with this case, and the red state legislators and governors who are claiming otherwise know better. Our system of government has state courts and federal courts. State courts adjudicate state laws, and state prosecutors prosecute state law crimes that are based on state statutes written by state legislators.

Federal courts adjudicate federal laws, and federal prosecutors prosecute federal law crimes that are based on federal laws written by federal legislators. As president, Biden is charged with implementing and enforcing federal laws.

He’s got nothing – nothing – to do with state laws, like the ones that Donald Trump was convicted of violating.

And here’s the other thing to remember: “States’ rights” advocates know this stuff by heart. Notwithstanding their Biden-blaming tweets and press releases, so do the state legislators and red state governors who write and enforce state laws like those Trump has been convicted of. They’ve been using our two-tiered system to gain advantages in red state legislatures since RedMap in 2010. The Yale-educated U.S. Senators who sign onto letters decrying Trump’s “politicized” conviction know full well the distinction between state and federal courts, and that Biden had nothing to do with this litigation.

But they are all flooding the zone with confusing messages that blame Biden anyway.

Why?

Because they understand the power of information. They understand the power of story.

And they know their goal: galvanizing their base (that will follow them unquestioningly) and confusing the rest of the voting public. Trump’s now a convicted felon, and has to thread a very specific needle: use the trial to get maximum outrage and donations from his MAGA base, while keeping the rest of the country confused and relatively disengaged. That’s not an easy task.

It’s made easier if we shy away, refuse to engage on the topic, and expect people to “see it for themselves.”

Because – unlike every every elected Republican who’s tweeted or gone on T.V. to wail about the verdict – guess who doesn’t remember much about our two-tiered justice system?

Plenty of average Americans who had Civics in High School about 20 years ago (if at all).

So it’s pretty risky (and I’d say unreasonable and unfair) to stand back and rely upon people to thoughtfully dig back into their dusty recollection of the state/federal justice system … and craft their own understanding as to why every Republican elected official around them says that Biden was behind Trump’s verdict is dead wrong.

Especially – especially – if all of the Democrats are silent.

We need to do that work for them.

Photo by BS d'Avalonia on Unsplash

As I was mulling all of this over this morning over my morning coffee, I saw that Politico is reporting that Democrats are concerned about Hunter Biden’s trial this week – worried that it “could be a political drag on the president and his party.”

In some ways it’s tough to square this concern about potential political fallout for Biden from the trial of his (unelected) son with the hesitation to lean into the other candidate’s actual felony criminal record to explain why having a convicted felon in the Oval is a terrible idea. But it’s understandable. Because it’s driven by Republicans constantly messaging about Hunter Biden. We know about his addictions, his laptop, even his sexual history. There’s no part of this man’s life that has been left to the imagination.

His trial has absolutely no practical implications on our government. But that doesn’t matter. The Republican messaging machine churns out content about it all day, every day.

Because they understand the power of story, and the power of information.

They know they can create a reality where Hunter Biden’s trial and conviction matters, if they talk about it forcefully enough and often enough.

The conversations that we have about what matters … influence what matters.

And that’s when I remembered the old thought experiment: if a tree falls in a lonely forest, does it make a sound?

You’re supposed to ponder: If someone’s not there to experience something firsthand, did it happen?

Friend, if someone is convicted of 34 felonies, but people refuse to talk about it, and we refuse to include it in our collective experience of this election … did it really happen? Did it really matter?

It does matter. We need to make it matter.

These are tough times, fraught with tough conversations. We need to dig into them, not turn our backs on them.

Let’s get to work.

Small Deeds to Do for June 4, 2024

Here’s the part where – if you are so inclined – we roll up our sleeves and engage in what I like to call Action Therapy. Each Tuesday I share a Small Thing to Read, a Small Event to Attend, and a Small Call to Make or Action to Take. You can tuck these actions into your week with ease – and know that you’re doing something today to make tomorrow better.

Small Thing to Read

Pro Publica published a bombshell report yesterday detailing the financial benefits witnesses in the Trump trials have gotten. It’s a must-read! Multiple Trump Witnesses Have Received Significant Financial Benefits From His Businesses, Campaign

Check out this lede paragraph: “Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump’s media company.”

Read the entire article here: https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-criminal-cases-witnesses-financial-benefits

Small Events to Attend:

This morning the Senate Health and Human Services Committee had a hearing about the impact of abortion bans on healthcare, titled: The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America

This event was livestreamed, so here’s the link to watch the recording! https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/the-assault-on-womens-freedoms-how-abortion-bans-have-created-a-health-care-nightmare-across-america

On Tuesday night, Big Tent is hosting another event at 7pm eastern - this time with legal expert Barb McQuade, and senior Boston Globe opinion writer Kimberly Atkins-Stohr. From the event description: “They will discuss McQuade‘s new book,  Attack from Within. The conversation will explore how disinformation is shaking the foundations of democracy, while discussing urgent, actionable strategies to empower the public, bolster the media, and safeguard truth-based politics.”

Sounds like an amazing event! Register here: https://www.bigtentusa.org/event/barbara-mcquade/

Small Action to Make

If you’re into writing postcards: Postcards to Voters is writing for Michael Kripchak in OH, who is in a June 11th special election for OH–06. That’s an open congressional seat, and Michael is a great candidate with a lot of momentum. As a special election, turnout will be low (estimates of 8-10%) and your postcards can make the difference. But TIME IS RUNNING OUT. So if you are interested in writing for his campaign, sign up today and get those cards in the mail! Sign Up Here

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