Larry Hogan, former Governor of Maryland, wrote the following on X Media regarding the upcoming verdict in the felony case against Donald Trump: “Regardless of the result, I urge all Americans to respect the verdict and the legal process. At this dangerously divided moment in our history, all leaders – regardless of party – must not pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship. We must reaffirm what has made this nation great: the rule of law.”
Almost immediately, individual Republicans and the Republican Party expressed their ire at his comments. Lara Trump, co-chair of the Republican Party National Committee (RNC) and daughter-in-law of Donald Trump, responded on CNN’s State of the Union program by stating: “He doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point, and quite frankly, anybody in America…”
When I look at these two opposing views, I’m reminded of a great old movie I once saw called Con Air. It is the somewhat comical story of a bunch of convicts who take over a prison plane that is transporting them to a new location. All manner of chaos occurs as a result.
At one point, the hero, played by Nicholas Cage, sees a sports car flailing in the air, thousands of feet above the ground, while it is being precariously towed by the prison plane. On viewing this, he comments: “On any other day, that might seem strange.” The point being made here is that when your world is turned upside down and everything around you seems to be in chaos, it is often impossible to distinguish “normal” from “abnormal.“
And so it is with the two quotes given at the beginning of this article. We as a nation are in a similar state of chaos. In more normal times, most Americans would consider it self-evident that we are a nation of laws, not a nation that bends to the will of any single individual. We would recognize that if we did otherwise, we would be embracing dictatorship – a concept that should be abhorrent to any and all Americans, given that our entire governmental structure, as outlined in the U.S. Constitution, is based on the balance of power, thereby ensuring that no single entity can control the fate of our nation. The institutions that our forefathers designed (i.e., a leadership role, a legislature, and a court system) are the very institutions that ensure this balance of power. Favoring one of these at the expense of the other two is, quite frankly, anti-American.
Many people in our nation have been further confused by the advent of conspiracy theories. Because these theories are pervasive, some citizens believe that they cannot trust our institutions, unless those institutions agree with their own preconceived beliefs. Otherwise, they conclude that those institutions are supporting a hoax, a politically motivated witch hunt, or a clear example of fake news. I believe that it is this very mindset that motivated the comments made by the Republicans cited above.
Unfortunately, there is no good way to defend against conspiracy theories. They are like all prejudices. They are not based on verifiable facts or documented experiences from reliable sources. They are based on emotion, gossip, innuendo, paranoia, ignorance, and fear.
And so, this seems to be the current state of our national mindset, and more particularly, the Republican mindset. Todd Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College, summarized it well when he told CNN: “A rather innocuous statement that we should have faith in the jury system – a system which is the backbone of the American legal system – is enough to get you canceled by the Republican party; but being convicted on 34 counts, gets you their undying support.”
“On any other day, that might seem strange.” – Nicolas Cage, in the movie, Con Air.