By Robert Reich
Their acceptance of Trump’s behavior
will be his vilest legacy.
Nearly forty years ago, political scientist James Q. Wilson and criminologist George Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no one cares if windows are broken there.
The broken window is thereby an invitation to throw
more stones and break more windows. The message: Do whatever you want here
because others have done it and got away with it.
The broken window theory has led to
picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in poor communities. But America’s most
privileged and powerful have been breaking big windows with impunity.
In 2008, Wall Street nearly
destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out while millions of Americans
lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet no major Wall Street executive ever
went to jail.
In more recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the members of the Sackler family who own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did nothing.
Executives at Wells Fargo
Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers. Executives at Boeing hid the
results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe. Police chiefs across
America looked the other way as police under their command repeatedly killed
innocent Black Americans.
Here, too, they’ve got away with it.
These windows remain broken.
Trump has brought impunity to the
highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious
windowpane of all – American democracy.
The message? A president can obstruct special counsels’ investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors general who find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being “fake media” and “enemies of the people,” and make money off his presidency.
And he can get away with it. Almost
half of the electorate will even vote for his reelection.
A president can also lie about the
results of an election without a shred of evidence – and yet, according to
polls, be believed by the vast majority of those who voted for him.
Trump’s recent pardons have broken
double-paned windows.
Not only has he shattered the norm
for presidential pardons – usually granted because of a petitioner’s good
conduct after conviction and service of sentence – but he’s pardoned people who
themselves shattered windows. By pardoning them, he has rendered them
unaccountable for their acts.
They include:
- aides convicted of lying to the FBI and threatening potential witnesses in order to protect him;
- his son-in-law’s father, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, illegal campaign contributions, and lying to the Federal Election Commission;
- Blackwater security guards convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians, including women and children;
- Border Patrol agents convicted of assaulting or shooting unarmed suspects; and
- Republican lawmakers and their aides found guilty of fraud, obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations.
It’s not simply the size of the
broken window that undermines standards, according to Wilson and Kelling. It’s
the willingness of society to look the other way. If no one is held
accountable, norms collapse.
Trump may face a barrage of lawsuits when he leaves office, possibly including criminal charges. But it’s unlikely he’ll go to jail. Presidential immunity or a self-pardon will protect him.
Prosecutorial discretion would almost certainly argue against indictment, in
any event. No former president has ever been convicted of a crime. The mere
possibility of a criminal trial for Trump would ignite a partisan brawl across
the nation.
Congress may try to limit the power
of future presidents – strengthening congressional oversight, fortifying the independence
of inspectors general, demanding more financial disclosure, increasing
penalties on presidential aides who break laws, restricting the pardon process,
and so on.
But Congress – a co-equal branch of
government under the Constitution – cannot rein in rogue presidents. And the
courts don’t want to weigh in on political questions.
The appalling reality is that Trump
may get away with it. And in getting away with it he will have changed and
degraded the norms governing American presidents. The giant windows he’s broken
are invitations to a future president to break even more.
Nothing will correct this unless or
until an overwhelming majority of Americans recognize and condemn what has
occurred.
Robert Reich's latest book is "THE SYSTEM: Who Rigged
It, How To Fix It." He is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the
University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center. He
served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time
Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the
twentieth century. He has written 17 other books, including the best sellers
"Aftershock," "The Work of Nations," "Beyond
Outrage," and "The Common Good." He is a founding editor of the
American Prospect magazine, founder of Inequality Media, a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning
documentaries "Inequality For All," streaming on YouTube, and
"Saving Capitalism," now streaming on Netflix.
