Trump must be convicted

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

If You Love America, You Want Donald Trump Convicted. Here's Why.

After the failed insurrection of January 6, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky—last seen getting extorted via telephone by the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, with the consequence of Trump being impeached but not convicted—said the following about America: “After something like this, I believe it would be very difficult for the world to see the United States as a symbol of democracy.”

Zelensky’s sentiment is understandable, yet nevertheless difficult to stomach coming from the leader of a country plagued this century by dubious elections influenced by hostile foreign powers, dramatic violence in its streets, and politically motivated incarcerations. (Candidly, the United States has likewise been beset by the first two of these of late, and if Trump had had his druthers, there would have been Vladimir Putin/Alexei Navalny–style political persecutions sunup to sundown for four years. Indeed, many Americans forget how many death penalty-eligible crimes Trump accused his political enemies of, and with what frequency he demanded their arrest.) But even if we see the truth in Zelensky’s words, and even if we note that they could have been uttered with equal veracity earlier in Trump’s term, they remain difficult to bear. Americans are not accustomed to having our commitment to democracy looked down upon by leaders of former Soviet republics that are still undergoing the pain of separation from a grotesque totalitarian kleptocracy.