Immunity Quadruple Play

The uproar produced by the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity has turned both the political and media worlds (but I repeat myself) upside down. The Supremes quite sensibly ruled that a former president has immunity from prosecution and any other legal action on his “official” acts made while he was president. Personages far loftier than this writer have correctly observed that without this protection the presidency would become an untenable office. Every ex-president could expect endless prosecution by his political foes for the policies, declarations and actions he implemented while in office.

Democrats have been among the shrillest critics of the ruling, for they blame the Court for letting their hated opponent, ex-president Donald Trump, evade punishment for the “crimes” they had intended to punish him for. Democrat pols and their media allies have turned themselves inside-out, writing and declaring how “wrong” this decision is.

But Democrat-partisans’ harsh denunciations of the Supremes is ironic, since the ruling produces several distinct advantages for them, which I’ll describe in the paragraphs following.

Advantage 1 – Court-bashing.

Because it now looks like The Donald might evade most of (or all) the legal traps that leftist prosecutors and judges across the country have set for him, Dems are shouting from the housetops about the need to reform the “slanted” Court – possibly by “packing” the body with several liberal justices. This has been Democrats’ cause célèbre ever since Mr. Trump shifted the Court’s ideological alignment by appointing three conservative justices during his term in office. More than one Democrat has expressed fear that Donald Trump might appoint two more justices if he wins a new presidential term. This would render radical liberal rulings like same-sex marriage legalization impossible for decades to come. That’s why Democrats are hammering the justices with might and main, hoping to use them as an anvil of fear to prevent Mr. Trump’s re-election. I hope the Court has good security protection. It’s a dangerous time.

Advantage 2 – Biden immunity.

The real irony in Democrats’ caterwauling about Donald Trump getting immunity from prosecution for his “crimes” is the fact that Good Old Joe Biden will enjoy the same immunity whenever he leaves office. Without that ruling, Joe’s post-presidency would become an uncontrollable circus, as Republican-leaning prosecutors and judges across the country crank up the legal machinery to prosecute the beloved lunch-bucket ex-president. One crime would certainly be his erasure of the nation’s borders to let 10 million “undocumented aliens” – plus or minus a few mil – cross into the country to become new voters who will give Dems a permanent majority for years to come. But the SCOTUS ruling will now let Normalcy Joe slide past his failure to uphold the laws of the country by claiming that his border-laxity policy was simply one of his “official acts.” If Joe is aware enough to understand how lucky he is that the Supremes ruled as they did, he should be popping Champagne corks and dancing the Hoochie-kooch. (Well, just figuratively speaking on the latter.) If anybody has dodged a bullet, it’s Joe.

Advantage 3 – “Official acts.”

During all the media-inspired hoopla about Mr. Trump’s immunity, little serious attention is being given to the proverbial elephant in the room. That would be the obvious fact that the Supremes delicately left undefined exactly which are (or are not) a president’s “official” acts. This lack of specificity leaves the door open for ambitious state and local officials to prosecute both Mr. Trump and other future ex-presidents for actions which those prosecutors claim were “not official.” In each case, the “official” question, would get kicked up to the courts – including SCOTUS – for resolution. Even if courts should decide in a president’s favor on various actions, such judicial proceedings tend to take time. Normally, of course, long deliberation assures all parties of a sound, well-considered decision. But in Mr. Trump’s particular case, the clock is running out, with just four months left before the November election. That time-factor might tempt some prosecutors to smear him with new charges that would remain unresolved as voters go to the polls. Indeed, the game promises to go on and on – mapping out whole new career paths for prosecutors who see visions of fame and fortune as their reward for convicting and jailing previous officeholders. (Is this a great country, or what?)

Advantage 4 – Diversion.

As the immunity bandwagon rolls on and on, it becomes increasingly obvious how valuable this issue is to Democrats trying to give Joe Biden a second term. The name of that value is Diversion. Is anybody talking about the disastrous features of Mr. Biden’s administration? That would be uncontrolled illegal immigration, ruinous inflation, $10 trillion added to the national debt, increased crime, foreign threats, legalized gender-transition surgery on young people, wide-open abortion, politicized education, antisemitism, etc. There is little or no public mention of these issues, which polls show to be voters’ top concerns. Having Immunity inserted as a major news-diversion is a miraculous development for Mr. Biden – an early “October surprise” – as we head into the final few months before the election. Knowing that the average voter’s memory-span is about four months, Democrats and their media-allies are hoping to block out voters’ memory of how bad Good Old Joe’s regime really has been. Nothing like a good diversion to distract voters’ attention. Watch for the immunity issue to continue in the headlines, right up to election day.

The bottom line on all this is that Donald Trump needs to keep voters’ attention fixed on what Joe Biden has done with issues that the voters care about – i.e., crime, border control, inflation, societal order and decency, and non-political governance. Moving the country ahead on those issues is what the election is all about; immunity, official (or unofficial) acts, impolite talk, hair, age – not so much. Ballplayers call it “keeping your eye on the ball.” I urge Republicans, Independents and, yes, even Democrats to work together to keep the country from striking out in November.