Member-only story
The ‘Lock Her Up’ Crowd Is Fine With Compromised National Security*
George Will seems to be ok with that too.
In his Washington Post column of August 11, 2022, George Will attacks the Attorney General’s decision to seek and execute a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago for Trump’s potential violation “of laws pertaining to presidential documents.”
George Will believes Merrick Garland is politically neutral to a fault. He contends the job of attorney general “inescapably involves making judgments that are inherently political. They involve exercising discretion about when to wield government power, and for what ends. Furthermore, the best quality of politics at its best is prudence: adjusting tidy principles to untidy realities. This requires making judgments that balance competing objectives.”
While conceding the rule of law is important in an ordered society, Mr. Will says, “[s]o, however, are other things, including social comity and — check the Constitution’s preamble — domestic tranquility.”
Suggesting that Attorney General Garland made a “zombie”-like decision based solely on the equal application of the rule of law without weighing in the balance a host of other compelling interests, Will says:
“Trump might have broken laws pertaining to presidential documents. So, cue those who believe that ‘no…