Thirty-eight years ago, in President Gerald R. Ford's inaugural remarks leading up to a pardon for Richard Nixon, he stated "our long national nightmare is over." Nixon's pardon was for any crimes he may have committed or participated in while in office.
In the interest of ending national divisions, Ford privately justified his actions from a portion of the text of Burdick v. United States — a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision stating a pardon carries an imputation of guilt and that its acceptance carried a confession of guilt.
Over 70 million voters supported President Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election and hoped for his success. They are not in need of deprogramming, but need to appreciate that their candidate was treated fairly under the law.
The rest of the voters need to understand that the loyal opposition has a right to their beliefs and should not be belittled in them if they are constitutional, even if folks believe they are wrong. The media, as well as the internet, needs to guarantee fair access to opposing views lest we become the totalitarian government we claim to despise.
Proceeding with a second writ for impeachment of Donald John Trump seems folly as he is no longer the president or an office holder. Rehashing Trump's enlarged peccadilloes magnified under a microscope of Hubble proportion, clearly sets the stage for never ending political investigations costing a lot of money and delaying the need to get on with the business of America.
A stroke of political genius on the part of the Biden administration would be to offer the same type of pardon to Trump as was done for Nixon. Whether it is accepted or not is irrelevant, for this would signal a need to move on, lest Congress and others sink in the quicksand quagmire of their inability to do the people's work obfuscated by the blinding light of what was and might be again if the hearts of insurrection are not countered by something more positive being done.
This type of pardon is like a community property divorce affecting only one's time in office and not liabilities before or after such.
Appreciating as did Ford that such would possibly make Biden a one-term president, this would fit into the groundwork for a narrative already laid, based on President Biden's age or proclamation that if his faculties were diminished he would use this as a reason to hand the presidency over to Harris or further the desire to give the democrats more "creds" seeing his vice president, Kamala Harris, set another historic record ascending to the presidency as the first female president as well as woman of color in that position.
This type of magnanimous gesture would also take the focus off of perceived slights in one's, attacks and other wounds real and imagined which prevent the nation from focusing on its problems with the pandemic, soon-to-be flooded borders with immigrant caravans threatening the southern borders again testing the new president's mettle, anti-American suppression of free speech on the internet, ballooning debt which exceeds the nation's gold repositories or other negotiable assets and need for a sane environmental position embracing more on the here-and-now with a need for a national focus on clean water and preservation of our animal diversity, e.g., bees, not just humans.
Ada M. Fisher, MD, MPH is a former Medical Director in a Fortune 500 company, licensed teacher, retired physician, former county school board member, speaker, author of "Common Sense Conservative Prescriptions Good for What Ails Us Book 1" and was the NC Republican National Committeewoman (2008-2020). Read Dr. Ada M. Fisher's Reports — More Here.
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