I will get to the murder of Alexei Navalny in a minute. 

First, let me discuss a related issue.

Donald Trump doesn’t believe in anything. 

The criminal former president tells his followers that he will make America great again. But, as you know, Trump doesn’t care what condition the country is in. Problems don’t matter. Solutions matter less. There’s no there there, except his fetish for dominance and control. He says this openly. That’s why I have made a habit of saying that he isn’t running a campaign as much as a vengeance movement.

When candidates say, as Trump often does, that the most important thing is revenge, they are saying they don’t believe in anything. There is no higher-order thing, like God or morality or shame, that can prevent them from avenging themselves next time they have the opportunity and power to do it. You should not give power to people like that. If nothing matters to them – just power – don’t give it to them. 

I think a lot of Americans can’t quite see it, in part because they don’t know much, not even what counts as evidence in a court of law, but also in part because Trump appears so righteous to them. He has convinced them that he’s the victim of various and sundry “witch hunts,” and that however ugly his vengeance movement might seem, it is nonetheless justified by his chief political opponent, Joe Biden, trying to jail him, remove him from the ballot and see that he dies in prison. 

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Cynicism this massive is impenetrable. You can’t argue with it. All you can do is recognize what they are saying. When people tell you that Biden is doing to Trump what Putin did to Navalny, they are saying they don’t believe in anything. Only power matters. Don’t give it to them.

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Of course, Biden is doing no such thing. He is not overseeing, directly or indirectly, the four criminal trials against Trump, two of which are state and local. A president couldn’t stop those if he tried. Biden wouldn’t try because, for him, there really are higher-order things that restrain him, like separation of powers. In any case, Biden is not prosecuting Trump. The justice system is. He is alleged to have committed nearly a hundred crimes. These trials are not a matter of power. They are a matter of accountability and the rule of law.

Let’s not be naive. Matters of power can and do take on the appearance of something noble. That’s what happened last week after the release of a special counsel’s report. It found that the president did nothing illegal with government secrets, but also that he’s a well-meaning, old man with a poor memory. Republican prosecutor Robert Hur gave the imprimatur of justice to a smear job. Perhaps there are higher-order things animating Hur’s life, but they were too weak to prevent him from trying to assassinate Biden’s character when he had a chance to.

When matters of power take on the appearance of something noble, it can make people cynical, as if higher-order things are not what they seem to be, as if matters of power are just pretending to be something noble. Trump banks on the belief that nothing really matters, not even to people who say that some things are more important than power. Higher-order things, like God or morality or shame, are not really higher-order things. They are a con. Those who believe them are suckers. Trump didn’t do anything another powerful man wouldn’t do. That he’s being singled out for justice is itself an injustice that his vengeance movement will correct if he’s given the power to do it.

What makes Trump different from virtually every other powerful white man who has sought presidential power is that he doesn’t try to hide his fetish for dominance and control. He doesn’t, as Ron DeSantis once put it, “present a positive vision for the future.” Trump is constantly saying the quiet part out loud. Problems are not to be solved. They are to be exploited, because for him no one really believes anything, not even that problems are problems. While someone like DeSantis might agree, he also knows that Americans tend to be allergic to such cynicism, if only because problems are real and need solving. He knows that you have to at least pretend to believe in higher-order things. Trump doesn’t bother. This lack of bothering lacks attention.

If we paid attention to it, perhaps we’d see he doesn’t care about anything. He says he does. He says he will make America great again. He doesn’t care what condition the country is in. Higher-order things are not really higher-order things. Justice isn’t justice. It’s just a means of doing something to someone. Vladimir Putin didn’t do anything to opposition leader Alexei Navalny that Biden isn’t doing to him. If Putin murdered Navalny, then Biden is practically trying to murder him, too. 

Cynicism this massive is impenetrable. You can’t argue with it. All you can do is recognize what they are saying. When people tell you that Biden is doing to Trump what Putin did to Navalny, they are saying they don’t believe in anything. Only power matters. Don’t give it to them.