Jail house of cards

My late mother, elegant into her 90s, loved to gather with her friends and enjoy a thoughtful, perhaps itself elegant game of bridge. I was thinking that if her afternoon bridge game was alive today, there would be uncomfortable hesitation in laying down that winning hand and declaring “trump.”

I don’t think they could do it. I surmise they would devise a new winning declaration, like “snap” or something. I even wonder if they would worry about a new form of bridge being introduced called “wall,” a game where jokers not hearts were the prized cards and a player would seek to win without referring to her partner across the table.

Donald Trump has invaded our everyday lives.

I think it goes without saying that his incivility and rudeness are disgraceful. He promotes fear, anger, prejudice and, by his antics, violence.

That so many people support him is incredulous. Nevertheless, his unreality show keeps getting renewed, primary after primary.

Even though it is not our place to suggest how another nation should vote, this nation, the United States of America, lives next door. We must start paying attention because we are affected as citizens and as members of the legal profession.

One of the most significant shifts that seems clearly to be occurring is the erosion of the rule of law.

When Donald Trump mockingly shows how he would punch out a protester, his fist jabbing away at the foul air, he is promoting violence, vigilantism, and jettisoning a humane approach to disagreements. Is he saying it is all right to assault someone who gets in your way, who disagrees with you, or thinks your ideas need to be questioned?

Add to this environment his unabashed and dangerous support for the universal possession of firearms . . . including concealed ones. He is on record as saying, “If you had more guns, you’d have more protection because the right people would have the guns.”

And this: “The right to self defence doesn’t stop at the end of your driveway; that’s why I have a concealed carry permit and tens of millions of Americans do, too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states.”

Trump is also on record suggesting that the Paris attacks would have been prevented if the gun laws in France had not been so restrictive.

These two Donald Trump cards, the apparent invoking of violence and the expanded right to bear arms, pave the way for much more violent neighbours to the south should he win.

The principles of habeas corpus, the rules against unreasonable detention, let alone basic civil rights, are potentially destined for the United States scrap heap if his purge of unregistered migrants is more than theatrical rhetoric.

Nevertheless, if it is simply rhetorical bluffing, Trump has played cards that have stoked a frenzy of fear and prejudice, even hatred. Mexican migrants are rapists and drug pushers in his view. “We have a problem with Muslims” was his response to the recent Brussels attacks.

His nation will reap what his dangerous poker game sows.The United States will become a jail house of cards.

Trump seems to suggest the Republican convention should be a rubber stamp to his nomination as if it was simply an unnecessary social event in a Trump Hotel ballroom.

It is more than that, of course. It is a demonstration of community and democracy where delegates come together to choose whom they hope will be the next president of the United States. If a candidate shows himself or herself to be unworthy, or new information or scrutiny illustrates that he or she would not be a good president, surely the delegates gathered could engage in thoughtful reconsideration about their choice.

Trump, however, warns that there will be riots. This is as far from respect for democracy and the rule of law as any potential president could ever sway.

The Trump mantra against those who protest is similar to his approach to certain immigrants: “Get ’em outta here.”

The American College of Trial Lawyers, the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers, the American Bar Association, and the American Civil Liberties Union will soon need to stand against the potential erosion of decency and justice.

There seems to be a real concern that restorative justice initiatives, well underway in the U.S., critically examining over-incarceration and unworkable mandatory minimums may be frozen in Trump’s rigid law-and-order world.

I read that Trump actively slammed sentence reduction and suggested that judges needed to be held more accountable. He perhaps summed up his own view with this purported Trumpism: “The next time you hear someone saying there are too many people in prison, ask how many thugs they’re willing to relocate in their neighbourhood. The answer — none.”

In relation to the death penalty, Trump’s position is quite simple: If you take an innocent life, be prepared to forfeit your own. He is quoted as saying: “My only complaint is that lethal injection is too comfortable a way to go.”

The current president of the United States, Barack Obama, with almost a full year left to govern, has nominated a replacement to the Supreme Court of the United States after the death of justice Antonin Scalia. In the continuation of the pattern of obstructionism that has plagued the United States, certain leaders have vowed to block this process. Instead of criticizing this approach, Trump has suggested he has a list of candidates he would put forward.

On the world stage, Trump threatens to become the world’s bully, the reincarnation of The Ugly American  at a time when reasoned and collaborative approaches are needed to combat terror, climate change, health issues, and unsteady economies.

Trump is a 21st-century misfit, a revolutionary without a plan, and a dangerous one at that.

The legal profession throughout the world must take a stand and lead when issues of justice, decency, and the erosion of democratic rights are at play.

We must, all of us, refrain from cozying up to power for our own self-interest.

I don’t think Canadian lawyers are excused from this responsibility. Many among us practise in the United States, have relations and dear friends there, have children in schools, own property, vacation in the U.S., and shop in its malls. Our courts examine and often reflect and distinguish judicial trends in the United States.

Importantly, we have a starkly more tolerant approach to immigration than Trump. Our citizens, new or established, include many of the Muslim faith.

Will they feel the impact of the walls of prejudice being advanced during his campaign? Should we not have concerns about whether cultural diversity will be respected at the borders? This is a strikingly important time for democracy in North America. People must put anger and differences aside and meaningfully work together.

I have grown to dislike the Netflix series House of Cards. Hooked on it early, it has now for me become upsetting to watch as each character becomes more selfish, abandoning civility, decency, and honesty, playing their cards in the pursuit of power and influence.

I eventually just turned it off. I could do that. And anyway, it isn’t real . . . or is it?