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**JUNE 14, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
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**** Courage and Convictions
If Democrats want the January 6th hearings to lead to criminal
conviction of Donald Trump, it would help if they had clearer
convictions of their own.
Robert Frost famously defined a liberal as the fellow who is so
open-minded that he won't take his own side in an argument. I was
reminded of this yesterday, when Bennie Thompson, chair of the January
6th Committee, told reporters that the committee had no plans
to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department.
Say what? The whole point of the committee's carefully constructed
prosecutorial brief is to foam the runway for indictments. The pushback
was instant, beginning with vice chair Liz Cheney, who put out a
statement flatly contradicting Thompson: "The January 6th Select
Committee has not issued a conclusion regarding potential criminal
referrals. We will announce a decision on that at an appropriate time."
So, the committee's lead Republican is tougher on Trump than its
Democratic chair. And this came after a witness parade of former senior
Trump aides, loyal Republicans all, testifying that they had warned
their boss that his claims of election fraud were, as Bill Barr
delicately put it, "bullshit."
Barr, let's recall, is one of history's great opportunists. In
volunteering to serve Trump as AG, he more than anyone else deliberately
destroyed Special Counsel Robert Mueller's impeachment report. Barr
and the others either concluded in late 2020 that Trump was hopelessly
delusional and they had a belated outbreak of honor. Or they decided not
to go down with a sinking ship; or some combination of both.
So where does this leave us, as the committee takes an unplanned
halftime break to get its ducks in a row?
First, as any constitutional lawyer can explain, it doesn't take a
criminal referral from Congress for the attorney general to proceed with
an indictment. Thompson's feeble statement stepped on the
committee's carefully constructed narrative, but it won't influence
the Justice Department.
Second, the bill of particulars on Trump seems to be having a salutary
impact on public opinion. It reinforces findings by the pollster Celinda
Lake
that only about one-third of voters are hardcore Trump defenders, and
that 60 percent are less likely to vote for a candidate who defends the
January 6th insurrection.
Third, however, even if more Republicans desert Trump, $5-a-gallon
gasoline and Trump's attempted theft of the Constitution operate in
different political universes. And even if most voters agree that Trump
is a criminally delusional liar, that will not cause them to view
Democrats as their champions on pocketbook issues-unless Democrats do
a far better job of earning that support. And here is the connection
between Thompson's blunder and the larger weakness of the Democratic
Party.
Extensive research by our friend Stan Greenberg
shows that Biden's effort to take a victory lap for successes like
record job creation only backfires. People don't want to hear how good
the economy is when they know their own economy is lousy. It only
undermines the president's credibility.
What enhances the Democrats' credibility on pocketbook issues,
according to the findings of pollsters such as Greenberg and Lake
,
is to go after the corporate interests that have been undermining
working families for decades. On these issues, Biden and the Democrats
need to be both more resolute and more radical.
There are two great issues of our time that should divide the parties,
to the advantage of Democrats. One is the attempted theft by Republicans
of our constitutional democracy. The other is the theft by
hyper-capitalists of the livelihoods of ordinary people, also enabled by
Republicans.
Democrats need to connect these dots. They need the courage of their
convictions. It would help if they began with convictions.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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