The murder trial that wasn't
Kyle Rittenhouse is being hailed as a right-wing Republican hero. The only question now is what office will he run for?
The only things you have to remember when Kyle Rittenhouse is acquitted, as he very probably will be, are these: It was during a Black Lives Matter demonstration that he shot his victims. The weapon he used was an AR-15 assault rifle, the gun-nuts’ favorite gun. He told the jury he wanted the AR-15 because he thought it was “cool.” On the stand, he claimed “self-defense.”
Rittenhouse thus checked off every box to turn himself into a hero for white supremacists and their new Lost Cause. He has been championed by Donald Trump, who is pushing every available right-wing button he can find to get himself back in the news cycle and raise more money for what is sure to be his campaign for 2024. Rittenhouse’s $2 million bail was paid largely with donations from two Trump supporters, “My Pillow Guy” Mike Lindell and former teen-idol Ricky Schroeder. Lunatic Trump lawyer Lin Wood has also been involved in raising defense funds for the accused murderer through his Texas-based non-profit the #Fightback Foundation, formed just weeks before Rittenhouse fatally shot two protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin and wounded one. Wood has told interviewers his foundation came into being “to bring lawsuits to check the lies of the left.” That two of the so-called “lies” Wood appears to be fighting are dead bodies on a public street appears to have escaped the lawyer’s sense of irony.
Rittenhouse has been a cause celeb of the far-right ever since the night of August 25, 2020 when as a 17 year old, he carried an illegally obtained assault rifle across state lines and used it in the crimes he is on trial for. No matter what the verdict is at the end of the trial, look for Rittenhouse to be invited by Trump to join him onstage at his upcoming rallies. He’s too good a symbol for the Huckster in Chief to pass up. He’s white, he’s young, he’s unrepentant, and if he’s acquitted, he will be a perfect Trumpian redeemer of all the lies Trump has ever pushed about Black Lives Matter and policing in this country. Marjorie Taylor Greene has tweeted links to fundraisers for Rittenhouse’s defense. “Democrats seeded chaos and stoked violence in cities all over the country for a year," she tweeted in a clear reference to BLM protests following the murder of George Floyd and police shooting of Jacob Blake. "Billions in damage, devastating communities, lawlessness & the media cheered it on. A boy stepped forward when most grown men stayed home."
Other defense funds are being raised to support law enforcement officers who have been fired for donating to the Rittenhouse defense fund. The circus around the young killer and his supporters is turning into a cross between the NRA and the KKK. That he’s claiming self-defense for using a high-powered semiautomatic firearm to kill two people who were unarmed is perfect for the gun-rights cause. If the Supreme Court rules against the New York law restricting the carrying of firearms in public, it will throw open the door to people in every state walking around armed all the time. They want a “right” to use deadly force to defend themselves against any perceived threat. All they’ll need is a reason to shoot, and if Rittenhouse gets off for killing two unarmed men in self-defense, he’ll give them one.
If Rittenhouse is acquitted, it will be treated by the far right as a license to carry guns, including the deadly military-style AR-15 assault rifle, to every demonstration they organize in their own causes or seek to disrupt in those of others. The trial itself has been a nightmare. Rittenhouse is getting away with putting on a theatrical performance for the jury, trying to appear macho with the braggadocio description of arming himself for “self-defense” against those nasty BLM supporters and sympathetic by “weeping” on the stand, even without a single tear in sight.
The judge spent a good deal of time attacking the tactics of the prosecution on Wednesday before his tirades from the bench were interrupted by an incoming call on his cell phone. His ringtone, the entire courtroom discovered, was Lee Greenwood’s syrupy “God Bless the U.S.A.” which conservative listeners frequently refer to by its chorus, “I’m proud to be an American.”
Along with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones, it is Donald Trump’s favorite song played at every one of his rallies. Judge Bruce Schroeder’s cell phone has told us all we need to know not only about the so-called “trial” of Kyle Rittenhouse, but also about the state of justice in America and what we can expect in our future. If an unsavory chickenshit white boy can commit murder on the streets of an American city and get away with it because a jury is convinced of what amounts to the rightness of his, and the judge’s politics, we are doomed.
By now Judge Schroeder has lost credibility and the fumbling prosecution has as well. Any casual observer can realize that this trial is a farce, maybe not intended, but it is. At some point even the most crazed partisan will understand that Kyle Rittenhouse is an empty cup and can only be an embarrassment. He's a George Zimmerman wannabe and not much else. Deciding the future of America on this trial is a bit rich. Larry King once warned, "Never judge the country by what you see on TV" He was right. Most of the country is not seriously interested or affected. There's always been crazed millionaires in Texas funding crackpot politics, it's almost an industry down there. What is critical, is Donald Trump, he's a wizard and a dangerous one at that. But remember, there are rational people in the country and they will if needed put a stop to Trump, probably through the courts. We are in a tragic time, overstressed and tired, we could all use a rest.
I agree with every word and don’t see one sentence that offers any hope things will get better.