Mona Charen

But more deeply, I am a believer in tradition and procedure and law and respect for tradition.

So that's one of the things that I find most interesting.

horrifying about this populist era that we're in is that going back to our earlier conversation about why I became a conservative, you know, it's the institutions, the procedures, the protections in law that it took hundreds and hundreds of years to enshrine in our system are critical and so

The idea that President Trump is now running roughshod over law and has allies aplenty in the MAGA movement who are ready.

In his first term, he was trying to do it pretty much by himself.

Now he has eager allies.

They're destroying our system of justice and civil liberties in this country, and they're destroying our international security.

posture.

And maybe I should mention, as that's another thing I still believe in, I still believe the United States should be the leader of the free world, should have alliances, should stand up for countries that are invaded by aggressive neighbors rather than finding common cause with their oppressors.

So I guess what you're describing is lustration.

And I think in order to get to that point, you have to be more advanced than we are.

We are still too divided and polarized.

And to even begin to grapple with how do we fix and put back together what's been destroyed.

So part of the problem with the Merrick Garland thing was, and the whole approach, I mean,

The people who said Trump is a criminal and we have to prosecute him, they believed very firmly in the justice of that, and I understand it.

But at the same time, it was done badly because that New York case really was politically motivated.

And it's the one case that they got.

But it allowed the MAGA forces to say, you see, both sides abuse the judicial system for political ends.

And therefore, when we do it, it's just what was done to us.

This is just payback.