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There are several backward-looking commitments I want Democrats seeking the presidency to make and keep, without necessarily placing them at the center of their campaigns. Not because we need them to slake our thirst for vengeance, but because accountability points both backward and forward. The future can’t be safe without establishing a deterrent against repeating the crimes of the past.
The next Democratic president will have a rotted, hollowed out state to fix, a social compact to restore, and a world order to steady. That stuff will be the “why” of the next campaign.
But as a litmus test, we’ll want all Democrats to be willing to say, e.g., “I will demolish Donald Trump’s palace ballroom,” “I will confiscate his Qatari jumbo jet,” and “I will remove the words ‘Donald Trump’ from the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace, and anywhere else he’s plastered his name.” We’ll want them to understand why doing those things is important. And we’ll want them to pass the test without mistaking those promises for a real platform.
Today, I’m toying now with a new entry: The next Democratic president should be willing, in his or her heart, to honor extradition requests for Trump from countries where he’s unilaterally violated the domestic law. Such as, for instance, Venezuela. ...
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