We are assessing Trump's behavior all wrong [View all]

[Pototan]

When I say "we", I mean the American public, the voters and especially the media. Innocent until proven guilty is only the standard for incarceration. So is the standard of "reasonable doubt" and a "unanimous verdict". Depriving someone of their freedom is a serious matter and all deference should be given to the accused.

Everything else is not subject to these rigorous standards. Let's look at some examples. If a contractor for the military is arrested on espionage charges, he is not arraigned the next day and then returned to work on sensitive material. We don't say "innocent until proven guilty; see you at work on Wednesday".

We don't look at a schoolteacher arrested for statutory rape and return him to the classroom awaiting the final adjudication of his charges.

We don't look at an indicted embezzler at a bank and say, "hey, let's not jump to conclusions. See you in the morning."

Of course not. Although each individual has all the protections under the law, they cannot be returned to their sensitive work awaiting a final verdict.

That's the standard that used to be applied to politicians. Anyone running for any office, let alone the Presidency of the United States, would need to clear his name before any voter would consider him. Trump, rather than trying to delay the cases against him, should be trying to get a speedy trial to prove his innocence so that voters could trust him. Instead, a civil rape conviction, fraud and all this criminal activity endears him to a substantial portion of American voters, maybe even enough to become the most powerful person in the world.

This is fucked up. Really, really fucked up