I know, I know, the U. S. Constitution requires a high standard of proof for a treason conviction. Really, coming from the talking heads who bristle at the idea of Trump being accused of treason, the constitutional argument of the two witnesses or the confession in court is the only argument that holds water.
The stuff about us not being at war with Russia: are you sure? Remember a little thing called the Cold War? Lots of people ask Google whether the Cold War is still going on today, and the first Google result is an Atlantic article that says yes, it’s still going on:
A quarter century later [after the fall of the Berlin Wall], Russia under Vladimir Putin is more repressive and more aggressive than the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev was. It has invaded Ukraine and menaces the Baltic republics. In 2013, Russia spent a higher portion of GDP on defense than the United States for the first time in a decade. As Europe contends with economic depression and internal terrorist violence, Russian money flows to extremist parties in the hope of breaking apart the European Union. …
Post–World War II Germany faced its past, discarded its Nazi institutions, and committed itself to reconciliation with its neighbors. Justice was not always done. ... But the truth was told—and on the basis of truth, society could be renewed and peace secured.
Post-Soviet elites in Russia never acknowledged the truth of what their predecessors had done to their own society—and to the subject peoples they ruled. It Was a Long Time Ago, and It Never Happened Anyway is the expressive title of the best book on the subject. Russian rulers’ refusal to face the past allowed and invited the past to return.
Russia is an enemy of the European Union and an enemy of America. And Trump is clearly under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s thumb. As Seth Meyers so eloquently put it, the Kremlin doesn’t need to install a listening device in the Oval Office because they already installed a talking device.
But maybe Trump is just trying to turn an enemy into an ally. Is what at least one of Trump’s excuse-makers is saying. An argument I would take more seriously if Trump wasn’t so needy for Putin to say nice things about him.
Some whine about hyper-partisanship. Seriously though: can’t a moderate see Trump’s disloyalty to America, and to America’s allies?
National Review whines that the word “treason” is tossed around so casually it has lost its original meaning, and a new word is needed to mean what treason used to mean.
There’s no need for that. Just add an adverb and an adjective: Trump is not guilty of constitutionally provable treason, not unless some lawyer is clever enough to get Trump to blurt out a confession in court.
It should be very obvious by now that Trump has betrayed America. What high crimes of his can be proven in court, that’s for the lawyers to figure out.