New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wants Democrats to “begin the reconstruction of American democracy with the rule of law in mind” if they win next Tuesday. His proposed starting point? Draining Stephen Miller’s bank account.
In his Wednesday op-ed entitled “Trump Cannot Be the End of the Story,” Bouie lays out ways to use lawfare against people around the president even when criminal prosecution seems hard to get.
Bouie implores Democrats to “deal with the crisis of a lawless president and administration” by bankrupting administration officials. Bouie suggests Democrats can “create a civil cause of action against executive branch officers, allowing victims of abuse to sue federal officials in court for damages” and that Stephen Miller, for example, can have his bank account “drain[ed]” if he can’t be held “criminally accountable.”
Bouie also suggests a “more ambitious” plan of adding a constitutional amendment to limit a future president’s pardon power but “Even in the absence of an amendment, Democrats should begin to think creatively about Trump’s pardons and potential pardons, from those issued to the Jan. 6 rioters to the corrupt pardons given to those with the president’s ear and a little cash to spend.”
And, in cases where pardons were already issued, Bouie suggests Democrats simply ignore the pardons and pursue criminal charges anyway.
But notice how in order to restore the “rule of law,” Bouie keeps coming up with proposed law and rule changes to target his political enemies. If criminal accountability isn’t an option, drain their bank account! If pardons stand in the way, get creative!
Bouie’s lawfare wishes come on the heels of Jennifer Welch fantasizing about investigating Barron and Tiffany Trump and Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., threatening to destroy the careers of young conservatives for working in the Trump administration in order to send a message of “deterrence.” Meanwhile Democrat Senate candidate Angie Nixon said her Republican opponent, former attorney general of Florida Ashley Moody, should be “locked up and punished in jail.”
Nixon doubled down on that position when asked whether those comments sounded “like a desire to weaponize the justice system,” telling CBS’s Face the Nation audience that “it’s not a desire to weaponize the justice system. It’s designed to actually hold corrupt politicians accountable for what they’re doing.”
Less than a week out from Election Day and voters keep getting a preview of what influential Democrats and their allies want to do with a victory: investigate the Trump family and pursue members of his administration all so that the next young conservative thinks twice before taking a government job.
But this is what reconstructing democracy means to Bouie, and voters should think twice before giving Democrats the power to do so.
