OPINION:
The progressive lawfare campaign against conservatives is perhaps the most effective of the many leftist political attacks. There remains little doubt that America’s justice system has been so corrupted that it is being unleashed as the main component of what Victor David Hanson has appropriately called the American “Jacobin Revolution.”
The latest example is Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia, who determined that District Attorney Fani Willis could remain on the Trump prosecution case if Nathan Wade withdraws from the case.
The New York Times calls this a “middle path,” but it is a complete vindication of Ms. Willis. Judge McAfee added the unexpected bonus of providing Ms. Willis the legal cover to dump her former lover and move on as if the entire episode hadn’t happened; problem solved. One almost feels pity for the soon-to-be-divorced and unceremoniously jettisoned Mr. Wade. It may be time to reconsider his life choices.
If perjury, adultery, misuse of governmental funds, and discriminatory hiring of unqualified prosecutors aren’t enough to remove a district attorney from a case, it’s difficult to know what transgression would qualify.
Anyone paying attention to the case saw this coming when Judge McAfee dismissed a few comparatively insignificant charges against former President Donald Trump a few weeks ago. Of course, he had to provide a smoke screen of impartiality to exonerate and embolden the pompous and prideful Ms. Willis. He is running to retain his seat on the court, and disqualifying Ms. Willis would not have aided his campaign.
There is little doubt that Ms. Willis will secure some conviction against Mr. Trump, aided by Judge McAfee’s hard work in removing Mr. Wade as a major obstacle. This is the latest in a long list of well-documented legal setbacks for Mr. Trump, including the dubious E. Jean Carroll decision and the outlandish $454 million New York real estate fine.
Ronald A. Heifetz’s excellent book “Leadership Without Easy Answers” has an important chapter titled “Assassination.” In this chapter, he wrote, “Leaders and authority figures get attacked, dismissed, silenced, and sometimes assassinated because they come to represent loss, real or perceived, to those members of the community who feel that they have gotten, or might get, the bad end of the bargain.”
Mr. Trump is undergoing the most extensive attempt at “assassination by lawfare” ever seen in American politics. In their rabid hate of Mr. Trump and desire to disqualify him at any cost, progressives have so damaged faith in the U.S. legal system that it’s hard to see a path of recovery for our beleaguered Lady Justice.
Mr. Trump is the most prominent target of progressive lawfare, but he is not the only one. He is fond of saying that the real target is conservatives; he is just standing in the way. From the Jan. 6 protesters who are jailed in Washington to peaceful right-to-life protesters who face lengthy prison sentences in Nashville, Tennessee, by the executive branch’s one-sided and unprecedented enforcement of the FACE Act, it is open season on political conservatives.
These are only two examples of the Justice Department’s torrent of cases and intimidation tactics brought against conservative Americans and noticed by many conservative commentators, including the outstanding thinker Ben Carson.
All this lawfare can discourage conservatives. But this is not the time to despair; instead, we should remember historical realities and God’s just sovereignty. Historically, “Jacobin revolutions” seem to be excellent ideas when revolutionaries first throw out the rule of law, but they often boomerang on those same usurpers. In the same way that the French Revolution didn’t work out as expected for Robespierre, progressives should understand that once released, jungle rule often boomerangs.
More important than historical gravity is that God remains sovereign over all humans and all kingdoms. His justice will be accomplished in His timing and manner. In Psalm 73, Asaph beautifully expressed the lament many conservatives now feel watching the progressive Jacobin takeover of Lady Justice. Asaph’s discouragement, evidenced in the first half of the chapter, is perhaps best summed up in verse 6, “Therefore pride is their necklace, violence covers them as a garment.”
Asaph’s solution to this dilemma sets a useful model for our time. In Psalm 73:17, he “went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” That resolution is found later: “But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works” (Psalm 73:27-28).
Let us all draw near to God and look to him as our hope and refuge; he is sovereign and perfectly just.
In the meantime, the 2024 election will be the most consequential in American history. Never before has the nation seen such an audacious and one-sided use of legal coercion to silence, bankrupt and jail the other side of the political aisle. The purpose is to discourage and cower conservatives.
As Peter Navarro spends his first month in jail, conservatives must wake up and be wholly engaged at all political levels to free those who are unjustly imprisoned and hold back the lawfare tsunami that threatens to sweep away the entire nation.
• David Murphy is the dean and a professor at the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences of Colorado Christian University’s College of Adult and Graduate Studies. He specializes in politics and international relations.
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