There is no magic wand

| 8:40 am EDT May 22, 2018
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Now that Donald Trump has made the particularly egregious (if totally fruitless) move of ordering the DOJ to investigate its own investigation into the Trump campaign, some members of the Resistance are once again yelling for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to do something! Hurry up and do whatever you’re going to do, Mueller. Wave your magic wand and end this! Except, of course, nothing works that way – on either side.

Since illegitimately taking office, Donald Trump hasn’t accomplished one-tenth of what he was hoping to. He’s made zero progress on most of his campaign promises. He’s spent most of his time trying to fend off his criminal scandals, leaving him less time for carrying out his grifter schemes. Trump desperately wishes he could fire Mueller, pardon everyone, and get on with the rest of his crime spree. But he can’t do any of that – because he doesn’t have a magic wand.

It’s crucial to keep in mind from the start, our system of government was designed to move as slowly as possible. In order to prevent bad seeds from taking things too quickly in the wrong direction, you have to make it so the good seeds have to move slowly as well. Mueller is proceeding on the only path that’s afforded to him, which is to keep picking off Trump’s allies until he’s so exposed and vulnerable, he can be finished off. Mueller is moving at light speed in comparison to how our legal system usually progresses.

The reality is that Donald Trump is feverishly moving through a pile of mud when it comes to trying to gut our democracy, and Robert Mueller is feverishly moving through that same pile of mud when it comes to trying to take Trump down. Mueller is far smarter, which is why he’s doing a better job of navigating that mud. Trump’s allies keep cutting plea deals against him, and Trump has shown that he has no ability whatsoever to stop that from continuing to happen. In the meantime, keep in mind that if our system allowed Mueller to wave a magic wand and quickly end Trump, that same magic wand would have allowed Trump to settle in as a dictator by now.