Today was a national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter, who was president of our fair country in my very young days. I remember him not being a good president, a man perhaps in a bit over his head, a man whose inability to fix the problems he inherited led to the Reagan Revolution. His later years showed a man of character, a man who chose not to pursue the almighty dollar after his presidency, a man who taught Sunday school and modeled the idea of a humble faith and service to God.
Compare our mourning with a spectacle that will soon take place: Tomorrow will also be a national day of mourning, as our soon-to-be president will be sentenced for 34 felonies in a court of law. There should be many more than these for which he is convicted, but a friendly Supreme Court as well as a system which favors convicts over righteousness has ensured that he will never face justice for some of the greater evils which he has done.
By all accounts, his felonies for falsifying business records in order to cover up payments to a porn star (wow) will not land him any jail time or any real consequences for his actions, but that it will be entered into the record that yes, he is a felon, gives me at least the slightest bit of satisfaction. Short of prison time, though, I've been wondering what the good judge might well make Convict Trump endure. Some suggestions:
-An ankle monitoring bracelet. Let him forever be tracked.
-House arrest not in some golf club but in shared duplex with three other convicts, all sharing a bathroom.
-40 hours of community service. Put him in a borrowed jumpsuit picking up trash along the side of the road with armed prison guards standing by with shotguns in their hands while the cameras roll. I'd watch every moment.
-Twice-monthly check-ins with an overworked parole officer. Said parole officer continually hounds him about his activities and questions him about the company he keeps.
-Mandatory attendance at an old-fashioned 'Scared Straight' meeting in which he is yelled at and threatened by real convicts.
How on earth we have devolved in my lifetime from the election of a decent man like Jimmy Carter to the coronation of a horrible pagan criminal like Donald Trump will haunt me for the rest of my life.
