Anti-democratic Supreme Court rules Trump is above the law

In the spring of 2024, former President Donald Trump broke records by becoming the first convicted felon in U.S. presidential history. He is also the only convicted felon to run for office, after being found guilty of all 34 charges of fabricating business records as a cover for providing hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and in turn, illegally influencing the 2016 election. 

After eight years of sexual assault lawsuits, treason lawsuits and involvement in a plot to overthrow the government to usher in a Trump dynasty, many people in the U.S. were somewhat hopeful that Donald Trump, a white male billionaire, might actually face consequences for his actions. That is until the Supreme Court of the United States swooped in.

On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court declared that presidents have “absolute immunity” from prosecution. These nine appointed justices declared that any sitting and former president’s actions are officially above the law, just two weeks before Trump’s scheduled July 11 sentencing. In an effort to gaslight the people of the U.S. into thinking that this doesn’t effectively declare the country a dictatorship, the court explained that immunity will only be granted for “official acts” and “unofficial acts” can still be prosecuted. 

What’s the court’s distinction between the two? No one seems to know. But what we do know is that the SCOTUS majority would declare Trump’s actions leading to a four-count indictment were “official acts.” This was where he threatened the Department of Justice into opening unsubstantiated investigations for “election crimes” and attempted to use claims of massive fraud to have voting results changed. 

The timing of this decision is telling. Outside of shielding Trump from the inside of a jail cell, this can be taken as a taunt against the Democratic Party. The candidate the Democratic National Committee continues to force on the population is a genocide enabler, who continues to break his campaign promises and the trust of his voters and struggled to get through an election debate. That candidate — Joe Biden — has the lowest 13th-quarter job approval rating for a U.S. president in recent history. (Gallup.com, May 21)

Why bother to vote?

A sizable portion of left-leaning voters are seriously considering not voting in an effort to show the Democratic Party that their campaign can’t lazily rely on “it’s either this or Trump so take what you can get” and nihilistically resign themselves to a Trump presidency out of fatigue. Now both sides are gearing up for another Trump term with little faith in Biden and also agree that Democratic politicians are notoriously spineless.

On July 1, Biden addressed the decision of the Supreme Court’s removing the limits of power by warning that this will embolden Trump to “do whatever he wants” if elected and that Biden “will respect the limits of presidential power” that is already hanging on by a thread. 

Biden’s unwillingness to disrupt the status quo was well expected, effectively deeming him a non-factor in this fascist power grab.

Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025

Speaking of fascist power grab, there is Project 2025, a 900-page manifesto created by the ultra right Heritage Foundation to strip the rights of people of color, women, the LGBTQIA2S+ community, government employees, you, me, etc. to create a proper Christian ethnostate in the United States. These plans will be handed to the next Republican president upon election — Trump if he wins in November — and they are to be imposed on the U.S. people within the first 180 days of presidency. 

Trump, known for his constant disregard of the U.S. legal system and basic facts backed by science, is who the Foundation has in mind to wield this draconian code of conduct. And it’s completely reasonable to conclude that this decision was made solely in anticipation of Trump taking the throne in November, especially when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has direct ties to the Heritage Foundation, supplying it financially. (tinyurl.com/ykhjjzx2)

While the GOP is ecstatic to vote in their next God-King, no one on the left is excited about this election or Biden. The working class is tired and borderline impoverished, and our tax dollars are going to Israel’s Kill Children Fund either way. The options presented in the 2024 ballot are either the slow descent into fascism we have become used to or a rapid one with much more bloodshed.

And if we, leftists, wish to operate within the system, we’re left with the safest approach being to vote for the Democratic incumbent and hope his term ends early, peacefully or otherwise. However, change rarely comes from operating within the system. The white alt-right was able to invade the Capitol, because, even if they had succeeded, they’re championing elitist values such as more guns, fewer oppressed people and zero government regulation. 

But when a broad and diverse working class calls for the abolition, or at the very least defunding, of a police force enacting violence against Black people — with very little consequence, if not support, since the capitalist system’s existence — workers are beaten, tear gassed and put under tank-enforced curfews even when peaceful. When a broad and diverse student body calls for universities to cease their involvement in the genocide of an entire Palestinian population, they’re beaten, tear gassed and have snipers pointing at them, mounted from the same building that serves to educate them.

The U.S. government is creating a people with nothing to lose. And because the U.S. has no interest in helping its people outside of what also lines the pockets of the richest 1%, they’re preparing for our uprisings and how to squash them as quickly and efficiently as possible. Legalizing the repression of protesters at the president’s word is now on the table.