4 Law Firms Said "No" to Trump Bullying - Make Them Household Names
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Tell hero stories. Right now, they’re necessary.
Few of us want to talk about the pernicious act of journalistic ignorance that comes from being decent. You just can’t believe some of the horrible stuff that is happening.
For months in 2016, before MAGA dragged the nation down, we saw reporters and editors mocking the orange-haired Trump. He was simply too gross, to win. Then, he did.
Then we had one assault after another on our democracy. We’ve seen Trump enrich himself with so many unethical, immoral, obscene moves — it all begins to feel like a dystopian film with Trump as the all-powerful ogre no one can defeat.
Now, if we are being honest, a lot of us are wondering if we can ever get out from under this turn of events. On some level, should we just accept that these are the new terms of engagement?
Exhausting us, numbing us, getting us to lower our own moral standards and our sense of urgency — this is, of course, part of the plan.
But some people have not allowed such normalization. Pro-democracy legal advocacy orgs — we see you Democracy Forward — have worked tirelessly, putting up one fight after another.
Those are heroes.
The other legal entities that have refused to kowtow to the Trump Machine? Four law firms, who embarrassed their weaker, morally-inferior counterparts when Trump came after them for bribe money, as part of an executive order that was essentially an intimidation move and a shake-down.
While many firms got on their knees - shame Paul Weiss— these firms: Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey, Perkins Coie and WilmerHale said: “No!”
Heroes.
It’s depressing and upsetting to think that we are now praising American law firms for standing up for the law. But here we are.
Earlier this week, these firms were in the news when the DOJ dropped its cases, after federal judges had struck down the executive orders seeking to punish them for their passing an unseemly ethics test. The DOJ, in classic Trump fashion, quickly changed its mind. The appeals were still on.
Still, most people are pretty certain the firms will prevail. And everyone knows the firms that capitulated are now seeing that letting Trump bully you leads to one thing: More Trump bullying.
The honest people standing up to Trump, the bully, should be household names, included in American legend and lore — as should any and all MAGA resisters who stand up and win.
Heroism is contagious. Bystanders react when they see others react.
Journalists committed to fighting the anti-democratic forces racing through our country should know this, too.
If we believe now it is an American obligation to stand up for democracy, we need to show Americans other people who have done so, too. Even if, yes, we are exhausted.
Please tell hero stories.
HOW TO TELL HERO STORIES
Tell stories that:
Show how local leaders are standing up to Trump
LIKE: Local leaders protecting against Trump
Show how people finally said: “We can no longer support this.”
LIKE: Republicans finally standing up to Trump
Outline what got people finally protesting
LIKE: Why they came to the No Kings event
Turn ordinary people into heroes
LIKE: Americans communities resist ICE
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David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy
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Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.
Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
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