Has the putz’s uppance finally come?

10 May 2023

The end has come for that putz from Long Island, George Santos. The New York congressman lied-lied his way to the US House of Representatives, denied-denied doing so, then enjoyed the protection of a future speaker of the House once he got there. Ultimately, though, his sins found him out.

Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment today outlining 13 counts of fraud and other financial crimes committed before and after he took office.

From the Post: “Santos stands accused of defrauding prospective donors to his campaign and the state of New York, as well as making false statements to the House Committee on Ethics. He faces seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of lying to the House of Representatives on financial forms.”

Will he resign? That’s the question for the time being. Odds are he won’t. He was a putz. He is a putz. Why would a putz like Santos concede now?

The other question is why Santos is getting nailed for these crimes when Donald Trump hasn’t been nailed for crimes of far greater magnitude? The answer to that is self-evident. That we keep asking is part of the problem.

Most of us most of the time don’t know that the law has never been truly equal because most of us never see the law being applied unequally. We don’t see it being applied unequally, because those who suffer from unequal treatment are typically on the distant outskirts of respectable society.

No one is above the law has never been true. What’s always been true?

The weaker you are, the more unequal the treatment.

Santos and Trump illustrate my point.

Santos, though elected, is probably the weakest figure on Capitol Hill. No one respects him, not even his fellow Republicans. No one fears him, especially not his fellow Republicans. No one cares for him. He’s an empty vessel. There’s no there there. His lies are more valuable than he is. He’s been in the public eye less than a year. Nailing him was an easy decision.

Meanwhile, Trump is, as of now, the most powerful Republican in the country. George Santos represents no one, not even himself. Trump represents scores of millions. They include the very obscenely rich who are worried about workers getting uppity. They include the backwardists who see unequal treatment under law is part of the natural order of things.

He’s been in the public eye his entire life, but nailing him is – well, not as easy as nailing a putz from Long Island who’s less powerful than his lies.

Ditto for other weaklings. Enrique Tarrio wasn’t even at the Capitol during the J6 insurrection. Yet the former leader of the Proud Boys, a paramilitary group close to Trump, was convicted last week of seditious conspiracy.

“It was Donald Trump’s words,” his attorney said. “It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your beautiful and amazing city. It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J. Trump and those in power.”

The weaker you are, the more unequal the treatment.

We love telling ourselves that no one is above the law. We hate admitting that it’s never been true. We hate it so much that we refuse to see it – unless there’s involved a criminal former president whom we love to hate.

Seeing Trump getting away with committing crimes is painful. More painful is that his getting away with them shatters an idealized picture of America. It’s so painful, many of us will cling to the picture rather than face reality. We should drop that picture. We should also drop “no one is above the law.”

The law, after all, can be unjust. The state of Florida is censoring teachers. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to defend the rule of law when the rule of law is being used to silence the enemies of right-wing politics.

The country isn’t what it isn’t. It is what it is.

We’d all be better off demanding justice.

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