KY GOP’s endless loyalty oaths to Trump undermine our democratic institutions | Opinion
The trial of Hunter Biden started on Monday to determine whether he is guilty of three felony charges related to his purchase and possession of a gun while he was a drug user.
Biden, President Joe Biden’s middle son, has been an obvious mess whose substance use disorder took him in many deranged directions over the years before he got sober.
So here’s my question for Attorney General Russell Coleman, and various other Kentucky Republicans who determined the New York court system was utterly dysfunctional when it convicted Donald Trump on 34 charges: If the federal court jury in Delaware finds Biden guilty, is justice still “corrupt” and just “politics”?
Surely, if Hunter Biden’s dad has as much control over the court system as Republicans accuse him of having, the son wouldn’t even be facing a trial and answering to criminal charges brought forward by his father’s U.S. Department of Justice.
Trump wasn’t found guilty by one judge. He was found guilty by a jury of 12 peers. That’s our system and it’s worked for more than 225 years.
In other words, if you constantly undermine U.S. institutions like courts and elections, swear they are riddled with fraud and corruption when they have results you don’t like, what happens when you win an election or get the verdict you wanted? Slink away in a puddle of hypocrisy?
I realize that asking for rational thought from our state or national political scene is a bridge too far these days. But Coleman, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and State Treasurer Mark Metcalf are attorneys who most certainly know better than to undermine our justice system with reckless statements that do nothing but virtue signal to Trump.
MAGA politics have distorted our reality so much already that there’s a very good chance our next president could be a convicted felon who tried to pass off hush money to a porn star he had an affair with as legitimate campaign expenses.
And really, that’s the least serious of the charges he’s facing right now.
If he wins, I guess our election system works. If he loses it doesn’t.
Something else happened Friday that was drowned out by craven politicians decrying our justice system over the Trump verdict: “2000 Mules,” a documentary and book purporting to describe alleged election fraud in 2020 was taken out of circulation by its production company, which apologized for it.
“2,000 Mules was produced by right wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who was himself convicted of a felony for campaign fraud in 2014.
The damage has been done, of course. As the New York Times said: “More than a million people watched “2,000 Mules” in just the first two weeks after its release in May 2022, and the film grossed over $10 million. Its unfounded allegations became an article of faith for an untold number of Americans convinced that the election had been stolen.”
But it was wrong. “Mules” were not stuffing ballot boxes. Nor were the New York court jurors bought off by the Biden administration.
It would be great if we could expect our elected leaders here in Kentucky and around the nation to uphold the basic foundations of our democracy by telling the truth.
In the end, it’s all we’ve got to go on.
This story was originally published June 4, 2024 at 12:00 AM.
