Commentary
-
Our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions on complex topics.
With 2023 upon us, I’d be remiss if I didn’t look into my crystal ball and give you my biggest prediction for the impending new year. Now, given all that’s gone down in 2023,
I do not think Donald Trump will face any significant consequences for his criming. Yeah, I know Attorney General Merrick Garland has been touting this whole, “no one is above the law” thing, and has recruited an elite special counsel to handle the Trump investigations.
Yet this whole time the Trumps have been allowed to continue to be lawless. I don’t think anything’s going to change next year.
And that’s not because I’m jaded. And I know we know I am. But it’s because I’m realistic about the society in which we live. The United States was founded upon a wealthy white male supremacy. Now that cis Christian, wealthy, white male supremacy if we’re going to be exact, but that is undeniable.
The Founding Fathers envisioned white male landowners to have power in our society, and they created this purported democracy set to serve that very framework.
So despite all of the advancements that we’ve made as a nation since 1776, the original vision still resounds to this very day. We see it everywhere, in every day. And all of the firsts that we’re still having in 2022, like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, also Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries, we also see the Founding Fathers’ vision.
When we look at today’s racial and gender wealth gap, the net worth of white families is nearly eight times as great as it is for the average black family. Also women, what we’re making still on average 83% on the dollar. We see it in evaluating how justice is rendered and so on. And yeah, there’s a lot of cis-het white wealthy men who are prosecuted and punished for their offenses. That’s undeniable. But still we see from the stats, studies and research that the average punishment is lighter, and that the penalties are lesser than what others face. The numbers don’t lie, and neither does the reality.
To hold Donald Trump accountable for his lawlessness, what that would do is threaten the very foundation upon which our society was built. And that is why the powers that be will find a way to avoid taking him down. Now, that’s not to say that Trump won’t be shut down in terms of his many companies being subjected to fines, convictions and all else.
I’m confident that the civil prosecutions will persist, especially given the recent 17-count fraud conviction in New York state court against the Trump Organization.
People are fed up with the Trumps flaunting their grift in our faces, from what Trump exploiting his position as president to make $1.4 million off of Secret Service detail, to hoarding and
hiding highly secret government documents that he may or may not have sold the foreign powers, to Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner somehow banking $2 billion off a deal with the Saudis.
We the People, especially the nearly 66 million who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, are exhausted.
Likewise, the GOP will do what’s necessary to keep the former president from splitting the republican vote with his 2024 presidential bid. They’ve already anointed their new golden boy in Ron DeSantis. And most of the right does not want Trump back in office. They will prevent that from happening, I assure you.
Still society’s gatekeepers, like Attorney General Garland, they simply are not prepared to treat Trump like they would an every day, marginalized person engaged in criminal enterprise. We know this by virtue of the fact that the evidence is insurmountable, yet 45 is yet to be perp walked. What else is protecting him other than his wealthy, white maleness?
Now I could be wrong.
I would love to see Donald Trump and his family face actual consequences for their rampant corruption and climbing. I would love to see the rules actually apply to everyone equally, holding Trump accountable would be huge. It would signal to We the People that the laws actually, in fact do apply to everyone. And it also implied our society that we’re inching closer to eclipsing the overt bias the Founding Fathers built into our system. But I don’t think that’s going to happen on any meaningful level anytime soon. Because we have a status quo to keep in 2022 and beyond.
-
Sonia Sotomayor can and should remain on Supreme Court
American public trust in the U.S. Supreme Court — and Americans’ belief that the court can behave free from the influence of politics — is low and getting lower. The court has a conservative majority, and recently ruled in favor of Donald Trump against the United States itself. Some liberals, concerned that Trump might move… -
Six disturbing takeaways from Project 2025
Former President Donald Trump has consistently claimed that he had no involvement with Project 2025, a 922-page blueprint for the next Republican president from a far-right think tank called The Heritage Foundation, saying he has not read it and does not know who is behind it. Project 2025 has numerous close connections to Donald Trump,… -
Forced prison labor is modern-day slavery in California
On this upcoming Election Day in California, in addition to voting for the next U.S. president, residents will decide on Proposition 6 — a measure to end the use of forced labor in prisons. While the California Constitution currently prohibits forced labor, it makes an exception for criminal punishment. This means prisoners without qualifying exemptions… -
Only Kamala Harris can be trusted with US nuclear arsenal
The 2024 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese peace advocacy organization led by survivors of the atomic blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since its founding after World War II, Nihon Hidankyo has lobbied for a world without any nuclear weapons, a goal known as “nuclear zero” or “global zero” among… -
Hold Impact Plastics accountable for employee hurricane deaths
On Sept. 27, eleven workers at a Tennessee plastics plant were swept away by floodwaters from Hurricane Helene while clinging to the back of a flatbed semitruck as the water rapidly rose. The truck was later struck by debris, causing at least 10 employees of Impact Plastics to be thrown into the floodwaters. Five workers…
Latest Opinions
-
Bolton says Gaetz, Gabbard should be investigated by FBI before confirmation
-
9 lawsuits filed against NYC’s congestion pricing plan
-
World’s top polluting cities unveiled by Al Gore, Climate TRACE at COP29
-
‘Tiger King’s’ Joe Exotic pens letter to Trump asking for pardon, role in cabinet
-
Trump appoints aide Steven Cheung to head White House communications
Popular Opinions
-
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum.