Dean Minnich: What is justice? What is truth? Do we even care anymore? | COMMENTARY

Donald Trump has more loyalists than Richard Nixon, in government and out. From where I sit, they pose dangers much greater than those in the Nixon scenario — most of them did jail time and repented, and now show up on TV panels as political analysts.

To steal a familiar line, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Sorting the improbable from the incredible is why the Great Non-Partisan Power in the sky made coffee shops.

And they are populated with tables of elderly folks armed with opinions and disarmed by facts to observe the rites of the uncivilized. Which is to say, politics.

Politics and social mores, the behaviors of modern cultures as they bump up against each other on something paradoxically called “social media” because sociability is rarely there, and media is not what it used to be.

But then, what is?

I defy anyone to define truth. Everyone has their own facts, much like every knight of the crusades had their own swords with which they did their best to spread the word of God by lopping off the head of the non-believers.

What is justice?

We just overdosed on some version of it, and it isn’t going to disappear soon. It will be a while before we shake out the inconsequential from the substantial in the felony trials of a cult figure who was president and wants to be again.

If you can call it a trial: It might have been more theater than judicial process. Whatever the verdict, after weeks of delays, the jury’s verdict will likely be appealed, revisited by pundits and rehashed by scholars. All of it feeds the zeal of loyal fans and the fury of those demanding not just victory, but righteousness.

Those who enjoy this also think of cage fighting as an art equal to the precision of classic ballet.

It’s mostly performance. Scripts are written; trials are delayed, then held; the case finally goes to juries; and what about appeals? What else is on TV tonight?

The would-be leaders of political leadership and good government spend more time and money on marketing than they do on product and service — but then, that seems to have been the main theme of the American culture.

Playwrights’ riveting dialogue delivered on the stages of fine theaters around the world are of little value to fans of politics. They want to hear the players hurl threats and insults to their foes. The common justification of bad judgment is “everyone does it.”

Instead of positive assertions of strength of character, intelligence, ethics or honesty, those in denial of their side’s weaknesses will resort to “whatabout-ism.” Or the old playground defense, “He hit me first.”

Never did I think we’d see the day when a former president would be on trial on felony charges, although …

President Richard “I am not a crook” Nixon came close. He was saved by a pardon by his vice president, which is more than Donald Trump can say at this point.

Nixon wasn’t trying to steal an election as much as he got caught up in dirty gamesmanship and his loyalists crossed the line. Even that wasn’t a game-ender.

It was the lies that took them down.

Trump has more loyalists than Nixon, in government and out. From where I sit, they pose dangers much greater than those in the Nixon scenario — most of them did jail time and repented, and now show up on TV panels as political analysts.

But it is still to be seen if the ending of this current entertainment will be taken down with crossing lines and lies.

Who will know the difference? Who will care?

Dean Minnich writes from Westminster.