Don’t shrink

I would like more information (and I suspect it will come), but I have to applaud the decision of the Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland to conduct – not a “raid” – but a lawful search of Trump’s Mar-a-Largo home for government documents that should have never been in Trump’s possession.

As expected the Maga crowd, which include most of Republican Party leaders and office holders, went bananas, making all kinds of fraudulent claims as to what Garland was up to and issuing all manner of threats if they get back in power.

But that should surprise no one. What this lawless gang likes to do, if allowed, is to intimidate any challenger and silence any critic to their fascist like ways. And that we can’t let them do.

To Garland’s great credit, he didn’t shrink from doing the right thing; he refused to be intimidated, to retreat. He took his case into Trump’s home, albeit complying with legal requirements, but knowing full well that blowback would be immediate, shrill, and threatening. In doing so, Garland has given all of us a political lesson, which can be summed up this way: at this moment of grave danger to democracy and social progress, don’t shrink, do the right thing, speak truth to illegitimate and lawless power.