Is the Immunity Ruling a Game Changer??

(Dialogue Excerpt from 1972 film, The Godfather)

“Kay: I thought you weren’t going to become a man like your father. That’s what you told me.

Michael: My father’s no different from any other powerful man. Any man who’s responsible for other people. Like a senator or president.                                                    

Kay: You know how naïve you sound? Senators and presidents don’t have men killed.

Michael: Oh. Who’s being naïve, Kay?

~~ recommended by dmorista ~~

(Analysis of this dialogue from Spark Notes)

“When Michael returns to America after his year of exile in Sicily in The Godfather, he decides to track down his old girlfriend, Kay, and propose to her. Years have passed since the beginning of the movie, when the couple dated, and this excerpt of dialogue comes from a discussion in which Michael tries to fill Kay in on all that has happened to him in the interim. Michael has changed significantly since Kay last saw him. Whereas at the beginning the film Michael dressed in an army uniform, now he wears the bowler hat and pin-striped suit of a mafioso. Whereas earlier he been unable to say 'I love you,' now he is able to tell Kay those words she longs to hear. The most important change, however, is that Michael has begun 'working with [his] father,' meaning he has become a member of the Corleone Mafia family.

“This excerpt of dialogue is important for a number of reasons. …. it introduces a criticism of broader American culture. By comparing a Mafia don to the president of the United States, Michael may be manipulating language and meaning, but there is no question that Coppola also wants the viewer to seriously contemplate the comparison. 'The Godfather' was released in the midst of the Vietnam War, and Michael’s cynicism about politicians was common during that time. In The Godfather, we learn that Vito hopes Michael would someday become a senator or president, reinforcing the irony of this statement. (Emphasis added)

(See, “The Godfather Trilogy”, Francis Ford Coppola, “Important Quotes Explained”, Quote 2, Page 2, Spark Notes, at < https://www.sparknotes.com/film/godfather/quotes/page/2/ >)

In the words of a political analyst the Trump Immunity decision was: “Shocking but not surprising”. And while it was clearly a dangerous ruling, in that it gives direct and specific Supreme Court permission for Presidents to commit crimes, it is not as if there was a lack of murderous action, direct and indirect, ordered by a wide variety of occupants of the Oval Office.

We might note here that not only does the U.S. Federal Government maintain no less than 16 “Intelligence and Covert Action Agencies”, but it also keeps secret the amount of money that is lavished on these entities; all while homelessness and various types of human degradation continue to soar inside the U.S. itself. The exact nature of the operatives and agencies that the U.S. ruling class uses has changed somewhat over the years. We have arrived at a point where over 70% of Federal outlays for Intelligence and Covert Action now goes to private companies. We see similar trends when it comes to maintaining military forces in the field; during the Afghan and Iraq segments of the Global War on Terror the U.S. consistently had more mercenaries on the ground, than actual U.S. Government troops.

Then there is the question of killing or otherwise persecuting Americans inside the country. Trump, during he previous reign, wanted to impose a law that would permit police to execute shoplifters on the spot; and he also wanted to use the U.S. military against George Floyd / Black Lives Matter protesters. The Chief of Staff of the U.S. military, Mark Milley, still smarting from being used to generate Trump's upside down Bible Photo Op across the street from the White House, refused to deploy troops to smash the George Floyd / Black Lives Matter protests. Milley is a graduate of Princeton with an undergraduate degree in History, and he was not a yes-man or a toady.

Certainly this ruling would make it easier for Trump to order a massacre, at some point, of the large number of protesters that would dog him if he ascends the throne again in 2025. I am sure he would like to order a machine gunning of the massive protests that would inevitably fill the streets of Washington D.C. for the Inauguration. Project 2025 is working to set up the machinery of government to give Trump a free hand within seconds of his swearing in ceremony. Clearly Trump and his minions would like to start the regime with a shocking event that would cow the remainder of the population into sullen acceptance of his rule.

But such potentially spectacular events notwithstanding, the U.S. domestic Regime of Capital is already very deadly for working people. From 45,000 – 50,000 Americans die from guns each year, 50,000 – 100,000 die from Opiod drug overdoses each year, the U.S. police kill around 1,000 people per year, now the deaths of women caused by Dark Ages abortion practices is beginning to mount. Ralph Nader has pointed out that between 250,000 and 500,000 people are killed by Medical Malpractice, Hospital mistakes, and other Corporate Malfeasance per year.

It is true that rule by Trump and his allies, in the now openly Fascist Republican Party, would be a far worse and a more immediate danger to the working people of the U.S. than is a continuation of the status quo; and the Immunity Ruling would smooth the way for them somewhat. But our current reality is certainly grim enough.