Save Us from Political Retribution
Biden Should Pardon Everyone on Trump’s “Enemies” List
The US needs to break the cycle of political violence into which it is descending. A step in that direction would be for President Biden to pre-emptively pardon those on Trump’s “enemies” list.
The drive to be avenged for perceived wrongs is an engine of violence in the world and always has been. In personal relations, societies and between nations, seeking retribution instead of justice simply drives a spiral of violence where one “wrong” provokes revenge and then that revenge must be revenged and so on.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter sought to begin healing from the divisive national wounds of the Vietnam War. Just days after his inauguration, he granted a blanket pardon to Vietnam war draft resisters by executive order .
It was a significant move affecting nearly 500,000 Americans. Among them was Muhammad Ali, whom President Trump later oddly tried to pardon all over again.
For Carter, his biographer Peter Bourne states, that was an act of moral conscience. Long before he became president, Bourne remembers Carter as a fierce opponent of the war. “He did feel strongly against it,” Bourne says. “So it was primarily a decision of moral character that he was making.” As for the optics, Bourne believes Carter barely considered what effect the executive order might have on his public standing, and instead wanted to do what he felt was an ethical imperative. “I think he had no idea whether it would help him or cost him,” he says. “I think he assumed it would cost him.”
Knowing President Carter, and I do, I believe the pardon was motivated by his deep Christian faith at the core of which is the Jesus imperative to forgive as well as Carter’s profound understanding of what makes for a peaceful society and world.
White House sources indicate Biden is considering pardons for persons such as Dr Anthony Fauci, who had been critical of Trump's Covid response, and California's Senator-elect Adam Schiff, who led the first impeachment effort against Trump. The whole January 6th committee is also a target including Liz Cheney.
Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has said he would go after politicians and members of the media who he alleges without evidence helped overturn the 2020 US presidential election results.
Politically motivated retribution is a significant indicator that a country is descending into a spiral of violence and democracy will be destroyed.
Consider Vladimir Putin’s Russia these days. Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, was arrested and jailed for charges including “extremism,” which I believe meant criticism of Putin and his oligarchy. He died in prison and a representative of his Anti-Corruption Foundation in Washington, D.C., expressed the belief that Navalny had been slowly being poisoned during his time there.
That’s what revenge governance looks like.
President Biden needs to use his remaining time in office to preemptively pardon as many of Trump’s perceived “enemies” as he can. That is a way to protect our democracy in this country from complete destruction in the next four years.
The spiral of retribution and revenge must be interrupted.
No doubt, Bob. I still think it's a "try everything you can" kind of time. I think it's better than allowing prosecutions to proceed willy nilly. God only knows though.
I wonder how effective pardons will be when dealing with an administration as corrupt and disrespectful of law as the Trump administration is. I do not see evidence that the congress or the courts are prepared to challenge him and his lawlessness.