Do past mistakes justify new ones? Some supporters of President Donald Trump’s Administration are pointing to historical illegalities to justify the current ones.
Do past mistakes justify new ones? Some supporters of President Donald Trump’s Administration are pointing to historical illegalities to justify the current ones.
They should consider the „two wrongs fallacy“ that reminds us that two wrongs don’t make a right. Indeed, Americans have historically rejected lawless behavior and, indeed, so have the law breakers some are pointing to.
First on the list is usually President Andrew Jackson. Trump is obsessed with Jackson—his defiance of norms, his 100 duels, his populism, and ostensibly his willingness to ignore the law to get what he wanted. Legend has it that Jackson refused to subordinate himself to the Supreme Court about what was legal and what was illegal.
But Jackson didn’t challenge the supremacy of the Supreme Court on legal questions. Yes, he failed to enforce the Court’s ruling about Indian claims in Georgia, but he later declared in a proclamation that the Supreme Court had the ultimate power to decide constitutional questions and declared the chief justice he clashed with, John Marshall, a national hero when Marshall passed away.
If Jackson had strayed from his duty to the rule of law, he later realized it was wrong and repented. This wrong is thus poor precedent for Trump justifying his own wrongs by invoking Jackson and echoing words attributed to the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte that, „a man who saves his country breaks no law.
