Considering the contemporary perception of the existence and use of the Presidential pardon, it would logically appear to be in galling inconsistency, with the eternal American mantras, “No one is above the Law” and, “All men are created equal.”
The right of Presidential Pardon, expressly granted in the Unites States Constitution, (Art.2, Sec.2, Clause 1) has, in its exercise over he decades, become highly controversial, and contemporaneously, has become a matter of studied, political and philosophical scrutiny. Initially, one may wonder, at the obvious, glaring inconsistency between, the historic founding of a new, radical Nation, a Democratic Republic, dedicated to erase the historic injustices of Europe, such as class preference (“all men are created equal”), and to provide, equal justice for all, and, by contrast, such new Republic’s provision and maintenance, of this Monarchial type, arbitrary power.
Historical records reveal, that founders, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, intended, that it be used, as needed, for the purposes of quelling a rebellion, or, in event of an egregious injustice, committed by the Justice Department; the latter, authorized by our constitutional dynamic of “checks and balances.” As known, these instances have not, empirically, been the grounds on which, such kingly grace, has been exercised. Indeed, the questionable exercise of such “divine right,” most especially under the current Administration, (actual, or promised) has called into question, consequential questions of morality and justice, which have challenged the Nation’s underlying, fundamental philosophy. The late, Senator, John McCain memorably, stated, “The power to pardon involves a basic disrespect for our System of Laws.”
The marked incongruities, between the foundational philosophy, underlying American Law and Jurisprudence, and the existence of the Presidential (arbitrary) right of pardon, have become, exacerbated and markedly consonant, under the present Presidential Administration. Donald Trump, has publically boasted, on National media, “I can shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue, and get away with it.” It is ironic and disturbing that this President, who is known to be guilty of a plethora of criminal and immoral wrongdoing, profiting, from his Office unconstitutionally and illegally, devising sub rosa schemes, to secretly, pay off prostitutes with whom he has had assignations (“catch and kill”), conspiring with the many miscreants and criminals, revealed in the Official Mueller Report, and Reports of Congressional Committees, interference with justice, treasonably aiding schemes with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to skew the American vote, and thus, damaging our American democracy, regularly maligning and slandering immigrants, by falsely accusing them of crimes, of which he, himself, has been serially guilty, practicing daily, serial mendacity, wrongfully, implying the grant of pardon, to those who have been convicted of lying to Congress, in his behalf, immorally in being in the pocket of the big industrial polluters and the NRA, illegal conspiratorial acts with his, defensively selected, Attorney General, his distortion of reality, his attacks on the free and legitimate, press. He, shamefully to relate, is an ignorant egotistic, glitzy game show moderator, and consummate, real estate gonif, and perpetrator of more immorality, in his outrageous and anti-societal misbehavior, than can, as a practical matter, be, responsibly, delineated; allowing such a consummate rogue and charlatan, the god-like authority to pardon criminals, screams of injustice and irrationality.
Ignoring the advisory criteria, of Hamilton and Madison, he has chosen to pardon such undeserved criminals, as his psychopathic friend, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who, for years, arbitrarily, arrested Mexicans, on the unsupported, and bigoted assumption, that they were all illegals, and then subjected them to the sadistic torture, of inhuman and unrelenting, exposure to the unbearably hot Arizona Desert sun; of Bernard Kerik, a crooked embezzler of campaign funds and, perhaps, most relevantly, a sidekick of Trump’s co-conspirator, Rudy Giuliani, and that hateful “piece of work,” Rod Blagojevich, who, pleaded guilty, to the attempt, as Illinois Governor, to sell its vacant, Senatorial seat for $15,000.00.
Many citizens are suspicious lest many unknown, additional, misdeeds and criminal acts were performed by, or on behalf of Trump, but kept under wraps, by co-conspirators, in the subtly, encouraged, hope of a pardon, in return, tactically implied, by this “Saintly” President.
We have been, uncomfortably, harboring three very disturbing questions, (1) Does Trump have the authority to pardon criminals for the commission of federal crimes, in which, he, the President, was complicit? (2) Can he, under such circumstances, pardon himself? (3) Is it, in fact, realistic, as all American citizens are conditioned to believe, that no man, including the President, is above the Law?
To continue our advance toward the conceptual dream of a better America, there are two vestigial institutions which, like tonsils and the appendix, need to be surgically excised, before they fester into a National sepsis, viz., the pardon and the electoral college.
-p.
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