They Jail Coup Plotters and Predators. We Shield Trump.
South Korea imprisoned a president. Britain arrested a prince. America is the O.J. Simpson Trial in applying rule of law
by Cliff Schecter
South Korea And The UK Act Democratically; The U.S. Like A Failing State
Yesterday, South Korea sentenced its former president to life in prison for his attempt to declare martial law. Not exile. Not house arrest. Prison. (They even debated the death penalty, a sentence not imposed since December, 1997).
Ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol will spend from here to eternity in the pokey for masterminding an insurrection. Per the Seoul court, on December 3rd, 2024, Yoon attempted to subvert South Korea’s constitution, deploying troops to seal off the National Assembly and ordering the arrest of rival politicians, the press and activists.
That is what those living in democracies call a “no-no.”
Judge Ji Gwi-yeon determined Yoon’s actions fundamentally damaged South Korea’s democracy. You can be sure there was no offer to do his time in a Ghislaine Maxwell country club prison. Or a Donald Trump…well, nothing, because former Attorney General Merrick Garland was apparently catching up on Days of our Lives episodes instead of doing his fucking job the first 18 months of his term as AG.
So, South Korea, a democratic republic that emerged from dictatorship in the late 20th century just proved—in 14 months, less time than it took Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate the most sweeping act of armed sedition in America since the Civil War—that at least to them, the rule of law is not just a slogan.
Or a talking point tossed around on cable by the likes of Scott Jennings—who I hear wets himself on set—like so much feces flung by a monkey. Or myth told around campfires about a unique brand of American exceptionalism that never really existed, and at this point is utterly laughable to apply to our city rolling down a hill.
In the United Kingdom, there was also justice for predation, and this time it was a member of the Epstein class. Prince Andrew was arrested. A literal royal. In a country that still technically has a monarchy.
So let’s pause here for a mere moment to take a moral inventory.
The monarchy country arrested a prince. The post-authoritarian democracy imprisoned a president. In Brazil, where democracy stretches all the way back to the movie theater release of Back to the Future, fulminating foreskin Jair Bolsonaro also tried to coup. He was disqualified from running for office again.
Then subsequently sentenced to 27 years in prison.
In Romania, a presidential candidate came out of nowhere to dominate social media platforms and fundraising, which Romanian intelligence tied to Putin. Kinda like how we tied Trump’s rise in 2016 to Putin. But Romania, as an actual democracy, acted with the urgency to protect their constitutional system you’d think all countries would exhibit in response to an existential threat.
From PBS:
Romania’s constitutional court threw out the results of the election’s first round and delayed the second round. The sitting government says there was a vast influence effort by a foreign actor to boost the candidacy of a candidate dubbed as pro-Russian, anti-NATO and anti-semitic.
Does that second part sound familiar to anyone? Yet, Romania went further, barring the pro-Putin candidate from participating in the run-off ballot.
Wanna hear a story?
About 20 years ago I was working on democracy promotion for the U.S. State Department, who dispatched me to Romania. This was 15 years post-execution of the tyrannical, Communist dictator Nikolas Ceacescu in Bucharest’s public square (bullet holes still painted a pattern of death on the walls).
That sadistic lug was found guilty by military tribunal of genocide, subverting state power, destruction of public assets, and undermining the national economy.
Here I was, a decade and a half later, lecturing at Romanian universities, speaking on televised news programs, and meeting with diplomats, professors, press, politicians, and students at top universities. All under the auspices of our State Department telling Romania how to transform into a more liberal democracy…ya know like us!
Oh the arrogance. It would’ve done more good if Romania had sent political or scholarly figures to my home state of Ohio to explain to us how democracy works.
The United States—the nation that invented modern constitutional checks and balances—had four years to try, likely jail, and eliminate the threat to our democracy posed by Donald Trump, once President Joe Biden won in 2020 (full disclosure: I wrote ads for then Vice-President Biden in the race).
Four. Fucking. Years.
But Garland—his attorney general choice, which by all accounts he enormously regretted—was not the worst attorney general in U.S. history, but galactic history. He worried about all the craptastic garbage our corporate media obsesses over today instead of doing their GD jobs—”the appearance of partisanship,” “adherence to a code” that didn’t envision a madman like Trump, and an unwillingness to tell the American people anything about what he was doing about January 6th, and why.
Garland gave the Supreme Court all the time in the world to deliver its wholly ahistorical—and full of more shit than a dog park on top of a horse barn on top of Donald Trump’s diaper at the end of a Taco Trump day—decision that the President is…well, a king. One imagines if Ben Franklin were around, he would’ve found a way to conduct lightning into the Supreme Court building that day.
Essentially, all you need to know is Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Barrett would’ve supported King George in 1776. He had absolute immunity after all! Tax away! Bring more guns to the Boston Massacre next time!
If irony were electricity, the Founders would be spinning in their graves fast enough to power the Eastern Seaboard.
The Constitution Is Not a Branding Exercise
Our founding document inspired democracies across the globe. The separation of powers. Checks and balances. No kings. No untouchables. Other countries adopted those ideas, values, laws, and—here’s the wild part—they actually still enforce them!
In America, the Constitution has now been rendered a campaign prop, like an *assassin in Butler, PA. The Constitution’s something to wave around at rallies before the Jabba-esque jabroni stuffs it back in his pocket alongside to grievance politics, donor checks, and some week-old KFC chicken wings.
The real difference between us, South Korea and the UK right now isn’t legal structure. It’s political will. The latter two were willing to prosecute power.
We’re terrified of it.
Democrats: Learn the Lesson or Lose the Country
This is where the rubber meets the road.
Other democracies understand something we used to get, yet since Gerald Ford’s ill-considered pardon of Richard Nixon, Iran-Contra, and Iraq-gate. If you do not enforce accountability, you incentivize escalation.
There are a host of pro-reality, pro-liberal policy, take-no-crap Democrats currently growing in stature—Reps. Dan Goldman, Eric Swalwell, Melanie Stansbury, Lucy McBath, AOC, and Ted Lieu, to name a few. Not to mention Sens. Chris Murphy, Tammy Duckworth, Elizabeth Warren, Adam Schiff, and Ruben Gallego.
There are more.
They must take the reigns of power if we’re to survive this moment, as soon as humanly possible. South Korea didn’t say, “Well, let’s not prosecute the fascist, Yoon. I mean, we don’t want to divide the country!” Britain didn’t say, “Let’s move on for the sake of unity.”
They said: if you break the law at the highest levels, you face consequences at the highest levels. Don’t pass go. Hit the brakes. Slow your roll. Because it’s time to go habitate in the Big House, treacherous scum.
Democrats need to internalize this—deeply. Voters are not energized by procedural scolding. Or charts with a fetchingly colorful X and Y axis about how things get better when they’re in power.
Voters are energized by strength. By clarity. By authentic anger. By visible consequences. Accountability is not “political.”And it most certainly isn’t “partisan.” It’s oxygen for democracy.
Right now, the United States looks bloated, feeble, flaccid, and corrupted, much like it’s President. A nation captured by billionaire predators who’ve preyed on young girls, your pension, programs like SNAP, USAID, or Medicaid, weaponized social media against you, rejected your healthcare claims on a technicality…
I could go on. And on.
They are beyond-gilded age parasites with a dangerous amount of money and power in a democracy. Every Democrat must target them, purposely become their enemy. They already see you that way.
There’s no playing paddy cake with these people. There’s only (rhetorically, politically and with massive regulations) punching them in the mouth. Procedural cowardice, and an addiction to treating authoritarian behavior as “just politics” won’t get us out of this. This doubly goes for you, Don Bacon, Brian Fitzpatrick, Lisa Murkowski, Thom Tillis…you reasonable (see: cowering) Republicans who give quisling a bad name.
Folks, we lecture the world about democracy while struggling to enforce it at home. What an absolute joke. We used to export rule of law. Now we export dysfunction. And yes—the world sees it.
Democracies modeled after ours are functioning more effectively than we are and shaking their heads at the circus going on over here. Wondering what the hell happened to us.
That’s not just humiliating. It’s dangerous.
The message isn’t vengeance. It’s stability.
The message isn’t partisanship. It’s constitutional order.
The American public understands fairness. They understand consequences. What they don’t understand is why it only applies to them.
The principles are as simple as they were when we wrote them (even if we too often didn’t live up to them): No one is above the law—no one. Not kings. Not princes. Not presidents.
History does not reward timidity. It does not remember the cautious caretakers of decline. It remembers those who defended the system when it mattered. You either continue tiptoeing around authoritarianism, or confront it directly, frame it clearly, and demand consequences loudly.
One path preserves democracy. The other manages its decay.
Why This Matters — And Why This Space Matters
If you’re reading this, you already understand the stakes.
But independent platforms like this are the only way we get accountability. Corporate media normalizes lawbreaking and cruelty. Social media algorithms reward outrage and Nazis. Political consultants (I know, I was one) too often default to caution.
That support allows us to:
Keep pushing uncomfortable truths
Expand investigative deep dives
Hold power accountable consistently
Build a community that refuses to normalize corruption
Keep adding content. We’re one of few media orgs invited to live stream the Counter-SOTU even in Washington, D.C. Tuesday. With speakers such as Robert de Niro, Mark Ruffalo, Joyce Vance, George Conway, and Stacey Abrams.
We’ll bring this event right into your living room, making it like you’re there. Your generous support allows us to pay for the travel, lodging, and equipment.
Democracy requires citizens who refuse to look away. If we’re going to demand our leaders function, we need independent voices that do so too.
Let’s build that, my friends.
The G.O.P. which actually stands for "Greedy Oligarch Psychopaths," are turning us into a shit-hole country where the workers become poorer and the rich own EVERYTHING.
By hook or crook we elected a talented con man into the Presidency a second time after he had conducted an attack on Congress. I would love to see proof he didn't win legally so I could exonerate the voters that elected him. But he learned his lesson in his first term and his current Administration is all flunkies that won't cross him. And apparently Republicans in Congress either go along willingly or are scared to death of MAGA. At any rate we have a nasty group of people in charge of our government that are trying to turn the country into christian facism. Our only hope is the midterm election and he is doing his best to kill all hope.