Condign Punishment

Trump should have been impeached and speedily convicted after  January 6^th,2021 and before the inauguration, solely for his illegal and unconstitutional order to Vice President Pence to block certification of the election of Biden. That was the real attempted coup d’état that day. (There is a good case that some of his other actions after December 14^th also amounted to an impeachable attempted coup.) He is also guilty of stirring up his deluded followers to break into the Capitol -  though his probably insincere stipulation about staying peaceful probably would get him off the hook on charges of criminal incitement to riot. Regardless of that technical point, he is to blame for what happened. He should never have held the rally in Washington on that day, and he surely should not have sent large numbers of overwrought people over the Capitol to stop the “steal”.

Of course the rioters themselves, as distinct from the people who attended the rally but did not break into the Capitol, are also to blame. They should be punished for their crimes, but it should be condign punishment, not politically motivated excessive punishment. Their crimes were forced trespass, vandalism, petty larceny, and perhaps brawling with some cops.  There was no arson, systematic looting, murder, or massive destruction of property. Yet many of them are being denied bail, held in solitary, and generally treated more harshly than rioters in politically approved riots that did have arson, systematic looting, murder, and massive destruction of property and far more harshly than is usual for the crimes they committed.

This is wrong as a matter of equal justice. It is also stupid as a matter of politics.  It gives clear evidence supporting the claims by conservatives that the country now has a two tiered system of justice, with one set of rules for Democrats and their followers and one for everyone else. It also could lead to the rioters being seen as martyrs rather than ridiculous, unadmirable chumps who had been fooled by the man who is most guilty for what happened. The riot was outrageous, and he is the appropriate target for most of the outrage.