A Liberal
Dose
January 19,
2023
Troy D.
Smith
“In America
the King Is Not Law, the Law Is King”
Boy, do we now know more than we ever wanted to know about
classified documents, or what? First, the FBI executes a search warrant on
Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort and finds a couple of hundred documents which the
National Archives had been pressing him for since he left office, and which he
had claimed not to have. Not only were they there, some of them were in a
poolside storage room -not the most secure location in the world. Some folks
were saying, due to the obstructive attempts by Trump and his people to prevent
the return of the documents, that this might be the one thing out of all his
borderline or outright criminal behaviors that brings him down and possibly
sends him to a resort where his jumpsuit would match his hair and skin. Many of
us on the left were saying, “Wow! All that talk about Hillary’s emails not
being secure, and your guy has classified documents squirreled away in his
office and tucked into corners of his pool house!”
And now we have word that, a couple of months ago, Joe
Biden’s people found classified documents from his vice-president days in his
office. And then they found some more. And then they found some in his garage.
And now Attorney-General Merrick Garland has appointed Special Counsels to
investigate both Trump AND Biden.
Trump’s supporters are turning the finger around and saying
“Aha! Your guy did just what you accused our guy of doing! Throw the book at
him!” Biden’s supporters are pointing out that the two situations, while about
the same thing, are different: Trump’s people actively hid documents and/or
refused to turn them over, or lied about having them, whereas Biden made a
simple mistake and his people turned them over voluntarily as soon as they
found them. Well, a couple of months after they found them.
I submit than neither “You guy did what you say ours did,
throw the book at him” nor “Yeah but when our guy did it, it wasn’t a big deal”
is the right attitude. While the distinctions between the two cases I mentioned
above are true, that does not mean Biden’s situation is “not a big deal” and
should be dismissed at face value. You can’t say it is a big deal when one
person does it but not another. This is why I believe Garland made the right
choice. Despite the differences in the cases, Biden’s document situation should
be investigated. If it turns out to have been an honest mistake -something your
80-year-old forgetful uncle might do -well and good (though that raises some
issues, too). If there actually is anything nefarious about it, and its
magnitude warrants, he should be charged. As simple as that. Everyone should be
treated the same.
On the other hand, there is a big logical flaw in Trump
supporters calling for Biden’s head… considering Trump’s actions involved a lot
more material (so far as we know now) and a lot more obstruction. You can’t say
“it’s no big deal” when it’s Trump and scream bloody murder when it’s somebody
else.
That’s what the rule of law is supposed to be about. To
paraphrase Paine, in Britain the King is law but in America the Law is king. It
should apply to everybody, equally. It’s not a ball game, where you yell at the
umpire when he rules against you no matter how right he is, or when you gloat
when he rules for you and you know he’s wrong. In both cases, the facts should
be ascertained and weighed with deliberation, and the conclusion should be
acted upon.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee
Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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