Former judge Michael Luttig was a ponderous bore. He sucked the energy out of the Thursday hearing.
He had value. He sent a message by being there. He condemned Trump and his allies.
The danger for America should not have been Trump himself. The American Constitution anticipated a Trump-like charismatic demagogue. The danger for America is that leading GOP officeholders and thought leaders are complicit with Trump. The founders expected them to speak up in objection. The Constitution presumed they would jealously protect their own prerogatives of office. Except for Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, they aren't doing so.
Former Judge Luttig was brought in to put a stake in the ground. Trump is wrong and dangerous, he said. Ted Cruz and John Eastman have something in common. They both clerked for Judge Luttig. Michael Luttig has credibility as a thoroughly conservative judge. He is a luminary in the Federalist Society. His opinion matters, both as a policy mentor and career reference and sponsor. He is a grand old man.His presentation was unequivocal:
A stake was driven through the heart of American democracy on January 6, and our democracy today is on a knife's edge.
The war on democracy instigated by the former president and his political party allies on January 6 was the natural and foreseeable culmination of the war for America. It was the final fateful day for the execution of a well-developed plan by the former president to overturn the 2020 presidential election at any cost, so that he could cling to power that the American People had decided to confer upon his successor , the next president of the United States instead. Knowing full well that he had lost the 2020 presidential election, the former president and his allies and supporters falsely claimed and proclaimed to the nation that he had won the election, and then he and they set about to overturn the election that he and they knew the former president had lost.
Judge Luttig spoke at half speed. People alert enough to be watching the hearing on TV left the room in frustration. But Judge Luttig himself has authority, and his presence was the message. He sent a signal to the conservative legal establishment that the "Trump issue" could not be finessed. Trump is not half-right or maybe-right, or wrong-but-excusable. He is wrong, period. He is lying. He is a mortal danger to America. And so are his allies. That means you, my former clerks.
Luttig's message gives moral authority to a position that has a toehold within conservative opinion-writers. They are beginning to break with Trump. Open, clear opposition to Trump is not yet a mainstream idea among senior officeholders. Editorials in Murdoch's Wall Street Journal and New York Post declare Trump to be dishonest about the Big Lie--but they don't stand for public office. With the exception of voters in the Georgia primary, Republican officeholders who openly disagree with Trump, or who voted to impeach him after January 6, lose head-to-head primaries. Officeholders notice.Trump, for his part, is not finessing his position:
January 6 was not merely a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again. It was about an Election that was Rigged and Stolen, and a Country that was about to go to HELL.
Trump hasn't "moved on." He is defining true Republicans and RINOs. Mike Pence was a coward who betrayed him, Trump said. So was Bill Barr. So is Mitch McConnell. So is everyone who questioned him. Trump says he won the election. He says it like he means it. Trump remains on center stage among adoring crowds. He is adamant and indefatigable.
Luttig is telling his kindred spirits they need to choose: Trump or democracy.
Trump should never had been a surprise to anyone. The failure wasn't on the right. It was their destiny. The blame for Trump and Jan 6th lies in the lap of the left. They fell for their own bullshit. There is not and never has been a higher ground. They have mistaken listening for governing. "yes, we hear you. We feel your pain. We will find a way to reach across the aisle" . The left has no grit, they elect people for all of the wrong reasons. Their messages are lame and terribly thought out. Their slogans are lame and childish. If they are to survive they need to remove everyone over 50. I can still see Pelosi yelling at the teenage students that came to meet her. There are millions of hits on TikTok showing a new generation of voters destain for the Dems because they are so out of touch. Trump and the rest of the Banana Republicans are going to run this country into the ground and the left will continue to stand there with puzzled looks on their faces. It's a shame that our generation will never see Dr KIngs dream. The Dems have reached their level of incompetence. The Peter Principle in action.