PA-01: Is there a line Fitzpatrick won't let Trump cross?
Brian Fitzpatrick boasts that his experience in foreign law enforcement gives him an edge. His experience in Washington gives him an edge. But the question begs — does Mr. Fitzpatrick truly understand what laws are all about?
Herman Melville’s classic American short story, Bartleby the Scrivener, asks that very same question. In the story, a Wall Street lawyer employs a clerk who after some hard work continually declines to do any more tasks. Bartleby repeatedly responds to the lawyer’s demands with the refrain — “I would prefer not to.” At its core, the story understands that the essence of law is understanding where to draw the line between behavior that is acceptable (doing your job) and behavior that is not (preferring not to).
Statutes, court decisions, every trial that takes place in Doylestown and Norristown asks those same questions. Did the defendant or did the parties do things that violate criminal or civil norms? Did a spouse do anything that violates the fundamentals of caring for family?
The leader of Mr. Fitzpatrick’s Republican Party is a classic Bartley for our times. Donald Trump prefers not to follow the laws (be they statutory laws or just laws of fair play). He prefers not to read, not to converse with adversaries, not to listen to the experts who know.
He was impeached (and justly so) for using a foreign power to try to find dirt on an American citizen — his opponent. Mr. Trump has fired people who were investigating him, failed to let key witnesses testify, and made clear his utter contempt for any judges or the judicial process that he can’t control. He is friends with dictators and has contempt for European and other democracies. He commutes the sentence of a political supporter.
https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/opinion/columns/more-voices/2020/09/12/there-line-fitzpatrick-wont-let-trump-cross/3470650001/
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