Trump Is Not the Only Target of Politicized Lawfare
“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”
There are multiple variations of the above quote attributed to Martin Niemöller, who was a prominent Lutheran minister in Germany during the rise of Hitler. One reason for the variations is that Niemöller repeated the same basic statement impromptu many times, and even varied the list of victim groups from one speech to another. But regardless of his exact words, the thrust of his message was consistent: Germans failed to speak out against Hitler’s abuses against various victim groups, and in failing to do so lost their own liberties and often their lives.
Niemöller’s warning is apropos to other places and times, including the weaponization of the law in America today to go after political opponents of the regime in power and (in general) anyone else whose beliefs are intolerable to the powers that be. One example is the subject of this article: the lawfare that has just been so nakedly displayed against Donald Trump in the Manhattan hush-money trial. But there are many other examples of how the law is now being weaponized, and they are not limited to the multi-pronged “legal” attacks against Trump.
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