As Donald Trump careens towards an electoral blowout in November, it is important to have in the back of our mind what should be done about what Trump did to this country. There will be demands to prosecute him for his various misdeeds. Democrats need to think about how they will handle the matter of Trump, even after the toxic mess is removed from the White House. Trump is not going away and will continue to try to act as a dictator in exile after he is removed from office.

Let the Prosecutors Worry About Trump Without Any Political Pressure

The first consideration revolves around whether Donald Trump should be prosecuted for his various alleged crimes. It is hardly going out on a limb to say that evidence may emerge about his time in office and his actions as president that could place him in criminal jeopardy. It is here where the Democrats need to be careful about what they say.

One of the worst abuses of the Trump Presidency has been the fact that he has turned the Department of Justice into his own lawyers. Political prosecutions have become a weapon used against Trump's foes similar to what you would see in a Banana Republic. Here, politicians need to be very cautious about calling for any sort of prosecutions. This is not something that elected official could and should be doing. This is the work of career prosecutors who must be allowed to do their job and use their professional judgement. If politicians interfere in this process, it makes the Democrats little better than Trump. In other words, you should not even be asking whether Trump should be prosecuted. Everyone should keep hands off and let justice run its course.

A National Commission to Investigate the Abuses of the Trump Years

The second consideration revolves around discovering exactly what happened during the Trump years. The Trump Administration has been thumbing their noses at Inspectors General and government watchdogs, protected by the cowardice of Senate Republicans. We likely do not even know the extent of the malfeasance within the federal government during the past four years. This is something that the American public absolutely needs to know.

A President Biden should work with Congress to establish a national commissions to investigate the abuses of the Trump Adminsitration. While many would say to let the last be the past so the country can heal itself, this is a viewpoint that is charitable to the American public. The country will not heal itself until the Republican Party is thoroughly discredited and destroyed. The only way to ensure that the American public never trusts this QAnon loving bunch of deluded conspiracy theorists is to have a detailed accounting of the damage done by their Chosen One. If the Democrats control the White House and Congress, there will be little standing in the way of a full investigation.

American democracy has been teetering on the edge. While many predicted that the built-in safeguards in our system could survive Trump, he has succeeded in undermining the basic foundations of the system of checks-and-balances. In order to keep this from happening again, we need to understand the full extent of what Trump did. In other words, the only way to shore up Democracy in the future is to have a full accounting of where Trump blew past the guardrails.

If the Democrats control the House and Senate and get rid of the filibuster, they have a unique opportunity to make real change in the country. While they cannot change the Constitution, they can make changes to things like the Inspector General Act that would prevent a further attack on democracy like the one that we are seeing.

Democrats cannot pretend to turn the page and forget what happened. In the immediate short terms, there is an important election in 2022. The Senate map in this election drastically favors the Democrats. By discrediting the Republican Party, Democrats can ensure that they will control the Senate for years to come. Since Republicans are sure to return to their small government anti-deficit ways, Democrats need to find a way to keep the focus on the past while they legislate for the future. The GOP needs to be made to answer for what they did and should not be allowed to conveniently forget Trump as they try to worm their way back to power.