Time for an American truth and reconciliation commission

As much as I admire Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s fighting spirit, two recent experiences have convinced me that his call for legal retribution is impractical, perhaps impossible.

My first experience was the March trial of Rebecca Lavrenz in Washington, D.C.’s federal district court. Lavrenz, one of the 10 women I profile in “Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6,” is a great-grandmother. On January 4 and 5, 2021, she drove 25 hours by herself to D.C. to pray for the nation. On January 6, when a Capitol door opened from the inside, Lavrenz walked in, prayed for 10 minutes, and walked out. Two months later, FBI agents found their way to her home in rural Colorado and arrested her.

The goal pre-election should be to make converts, not enemies. It is in Trump’s best interest to talk the know-nothings off the ledge.

As a finalist in the Miss Iowa contest a half century ago, Lavrenz won the congeniality prize. If anything, she has grown more congenial over time, but the bored D.C. jurors could not have cared less. Unimpressed by her sincerity, they convicted her on all four counts. She awaits sentencing in August. To date, D.C. juries have acquitted not a single J6er.

In 2020, President Donald Trump received 5% of the D.C. vote. As I learned on the Memorial Day Ashli Babbitt Freedom March, many, perhaps most, of the remaining 95% do not merely dislike Trump; they despise him, loathe him, and fear him. As we marched southeast from the Capitol on the way to the D.C. jail, Trump flags and American flags aflutter, the neighbors, mostly white, freely showered us with abuse. The hatred in their taunts was undisguised. The young women, in particular, impressed me with the range and ardor of their profanity.

The citizens of Washington, D.C., the scene of so many political crimes, will never convict a John Brennan or a James Comey, let alone a Nancy Pelosi or a Joe Biden. In fact, a D.C. jury acquitted lawyer Michael Sussmann for lying to the FBI despite his small potatoes status and the overwhelming evidence of his guilt. In his three-year investigation of the plot to frame Trump as a Russian stooge, special counsel John Durham convicted no one.

The acquittals allowed many Americans — and just about all Democrats — to ignore the unprecedented treachery of the Obama-Biden regime. If a Trump Justice Department attempts to try the other deserving miscreants, the media will reflexively muddy the waters to the point of murkiness, and the juries will acquit.

To attain some modicum of justice, Trump and his people would be wise to channel their urge for retribution into a more practical — and sellable — alternative. One that comes quickly to mind is a South Africa-style “truth and reconciliation commission.” Many on the left, Barack Obama most notably, cut their political teeth protesting apartheid. They, of course, do not see the Obama-Biden regime as morally comparable to the apartheid regime, but they need to. An American TRC would open the nation’s eyes to the enormity of their offenses.

What made the South African TRC work was the proffered grant of amnesty to those willing to tell the truth about crimes committed under the color of law. Democratic operatives will be reluctant to come clean in an American TRC, but once some mischief maker begins talking, pressure will rise on others to do the same. A Trump Justice Department may not be able to convict the uncooperative, but it has the power to make their life hell.

As in South Africa, the American TRC will allow those injured to come forward and petition for redress. The claimants will be many, including now prominent victims like Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, and others.

Those without resources to fight the regime will benefit even more from the opportunity to make their case in public — the jailed pro-lifers, the persecuted school board protesters, the jobless unvaxxed, the unbanked, the blacklisted, the deplatformed, the hundreds of January 6 protesters knowingly over-charged and over-sentenced.

The televised proceedings would expose America to the many injuries and usurpations of the Obama-Biden era: the Russia collusion hoax, the “51 intelligence experts” scam, the Afghanistan debacle, the COVID lies, the House January 6 committee deceptions, the abetting of the illegal alien invasion, the social media suppression, the dementia cover-up, the 2020 election shenanigans, the relentless lawfare against Trump and his attorneys, and so much more.

Even educated liberals know little of this relentless abuse. Knowing little, they see no reason why a Steve Bannon would seek retribution. The word scares them. Trump scares them. The Supreme Court horrifies them. They unblushingly share their fears with the clueless on social media.

Tempting as it to dismiss the know-nothings among us, they vote. The goal pre-election should be to make converts, not enemies. It is in Trump’s best interest to talk them off the ledge. In this regard, “reconciliation” will work much better as a campaign strategy than “retribution.” As Trump himself said in his unforgettable debate with Biden, the best retribution is success.