Next week an event will begin of significant historical importance. My mind’s been spinning, searching for context and connections, trying to make sense of these unprecedented times.
It’s fitting that it’s the start of the baseball season because it was another swing and a miss for Donald Trump in his attempts to delay the first criminal trial for a former United States president in American history. For the third time, an appellate judge in New York ruled against Trump’s desperate filings. Three strikes indeed.
It will be “play ball” on Monday in a courtroom in Manhattan for a defendant who has become quite accustomed to the criminal justice system. (I’ll take “Legal Jeopardy” for $600, Alex.)
All snark aside, there has long been something about this case that seemed less serious than the others in which Trump finds himself. The press has largely mischaracterized it as all about Trump’s hush money payoffs to the adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair. For starters, I think there has been a lot of misogyny in the coverage. Many reporters have prominently highlighted that Daniels was a “porn star,” as if her career choice should increase the tawdriness of the accusations. To the degree that it does so deflects from, and thus benefits, Trump.
Make no mistake, the onus of outrage and judgment here should fall entirely on him.
This is really a case of election interference and voter deception. Considering how close the 2016 election was, do you think that if news of the affair had come out during the campaign it could have shifted the results? I, for one, think it would have. In other words, this case is really over Trump’s illegal attempts to, in essence, steal a presidential election. One he ended up barely winning. And we all know how he acted once in office.
It is also likely that the trial will make public all sorts of horrible behavior by Trump. Will he look even more craven, immoral, petty, desperate, and destructive than he already does? As hard as it is to believe, his image among even some of his supporters could take a hit. And it will be fun watching Republican politicians run away from reporters asking them to go on the record and what’s coming out of the courtroom.
I imagine I will have a lot to write about this trial as it unfolds, but in searching for an angle to preview it I thought I hit the jackpot when the judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan, announced the trial date. It seemed like an ideal onramp for historical perspective and context.
April 15.
Hmmm, I wondered. Could that be the “ides of April,” like March 15 is the ides of March?
For those who might remember the famous line from a soothsayer in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the ides of March was March 15, 44 B.C.E, the date that members of the Roman Senate murdered Julius Caesar after he announced he would be a “dictator for life.”
I grant you it is a far bloodier, more violent, and ultimately deadlier reckoning than proceedings in a New York state courthouse. But the question for our time is whether another authoritarian, a man who promised to be a dictator on the first day of his new term in office and already tried to destroy American democracy, will be held accountable for his grave transgressions.
As the date danced in my head, I started spinning out a column through the eyes of the ides. Alas, there is that pesky little notion of fact-checking.
April 15th, it turns out, is not the ides of April. That is April 13th. Because when I finally looked up what “ides” actually means I found out that, despite the menacing impression from Shakespeare, it has a perfectly commonplace definition.
The Roman calendar was a lunar one, and the ides was the date of each month when the moon was full. The calendar was structured such that that happened in roughly the middle of each month. In March, that was the 15th. In April it happened to be the 13th. (I also learned there were names for other days of the month corresponding to phases of the moon. For example “nones” was the day of the first quarter moon).
At this point, I was left trying to rescue this column. And some of you may think I should have given it up. But this trial is historic and I was desperate for an excuse for historical context.
So I decided to take the easy way out. I searched for “this day in history” and it turns out quite a lot happened on April 15th. Many of these events are well known. So I figured, this column is already odd enough so why not list a few along with some of my thoughts on what lessons they hold for our present age.
April 15, 1912 — the British luxury liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg and sinks in the North Atlantic. We must learn the cost of human hubris and the need to prepare for the worst case scenario. We also should remember that it is often those in the most marginalized classes of society who suffer inordinately.
April 15, 1865 — President Abraham Lincoln dies from an assassin’s bullet. There was a time when the Republican Party was called the “Party of Lincoln.” It is now clearly the Party of Trump. These two men are about as different in their character, temperament, and belief in American democracy as two people can be. What would Honest Abe think of Don the Con?
April 15, 1945 — President Franklin D. Roosevelt is buried in Hyde Park, New York. Another one of America’s greatest leaders who stood up against tyranny and for freedom. He did not live to see the final victory but he helped envision a world order we desperately need to protect.
Also April 15, 1945 — British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. We must never forget. The mass murder of human beings and the demonizing of “others” cannot be allowed to take root.
April 15, 1947 — Jackie Robinson breaks the color line in Major League Baseball. When Trump and his enablers wax on about how America used to be great, we must remember the real history and what life in this country was like for far too many who have lived here. Many of these struggles and injustices remain.
April 15, 1923 — Insulin becomes available to the general public. Science can save lives. Type 1 Diabetes was once a guaranteed death sentence for children. Now there is a treatment that can turn it into a manageable disease. Remarkable. This country must support and honor science.
April 15, 2019 — Fire nearly destroys the Notre Dame Cathedral in France. We must protect our cultural institutions. And we can marvel at the power of art to uplift us.
April 15, 1955 — The first franchised McDonald’s opens up in Des Plaines, Illinois. The harm fast food has done to our health, the environment, and our food system is immeasurable. As for e connection to a certain former president? I think that one is obvious, isn’t it?
These were just a few of the many important events that took place on an April 15th. In the years to come, Trump’s trial will join this list. We are living through a fraught era in our history. How future generations will understand and contextualize it will be determined by what happens next.
Including next week in a New York courtroom.
Loved it Elliott. Great read. I believe he is deathly afraid of this case as I am quite sure that a whole bunch of other unfavorable stuff about him will come out. And I’m sure the prosecutors will do a fine job of painting him as the true low life using the worst possible language in our language.
Great references to April 15. Let’s not forget it is also income tax day. How appropriate for the man who refuses to release his tax returns. I hope the late night talk show hosts have some fun with that. And lastly, I am writing, as a Manhattanite, who for the first time in her life, is disappointed that I wasn’t called for jury duty.
I love how your mind works! This is really brilliant. And thank you for "I think there has been a lot of misogyny in the coverage" of the upcoming trial. Yes. There has. Really, misogyny in most coverage of his predatory violence.