Another day, another reality-defying cartoon from Lisa Benson published by the Valley News (Oct. 14). This one depicts a donkey representing the Democratic Party with a speech bubble reading, “No one is above the law,” standing next to a character representing federal prosecutor Jack Smith, who’s shown holding what are labeled “GOP Phone Records,” with a guilty look on his face.
I’m not aware of any evidence that Jack Smith, who reached the top of his profession through merit, has a sterling record and is highly regarded by his peers, mishandled any GOP member’s phone records. I am, however, aware of a pervasive pattern in the Trump administration that has, tragically, become the go-to methodology among elected and appointed officials in the current iteration of the Republican Party: distraction, denial and deceit.
The evidence I see, and which has been supported by numerous U.S. courts of law, suggests that when today’s Republican officials holding national office want something to be true, they pretend it is. Republican leader Donald Trump has been extraordinarily successful at getting away with that behavior, while at the same time accusing others of what he himself is doing. The result that information coming from the Trump administration is unreliable at best, and very likely to be simply false.
Our democratic republic is engaged in a fight for its life against fellow citizens who are trying to establish that some among us are above the law. The basis of their claims is false. Their strategy is deceit. On those occasions when they offer evidence it has consistently been rejected by our courts of law. They then deny the legitimacy of those courts in response. They are the Trump administration and its aiders and abettors. Lisa Benson’s work suggests to me that she belongs in that category.