Let’s pick up where we left off last week.

Crime is rampant in New York County, N.Y. – better known as Manhattan, one of New York City’s five boroughs.

Nevertheless, according to press reports, the New York County district attorney’s office is allowing a surprisingly high number of alleged felons to plead their charges down to misdemeanors.

With respect to one defendant, however, the same district attorney’s office has gone the other way and convinced a grand jury to turn alleged misdemeanors into alleged felonies.

It doesn’t take a legal or political genius to surmise that if the defendant were any other person, the district attorney’s office might not be prosecuting the defendant at all, much less for trumped up felonies.

Nor does it take a legal or political genius to surmise that the New York County district attorney’s office just might be trying to reel in this particular fish, because he is a particular political opponent.

Targeting anyone for prosecution because that person is a political opponent is wrong.

Let’s repeat that: Targeting anyone for prosecution because that person is a political opponent is wrong.

Yet why are the New York County defendant’s political opponents targeting the defendant for prosecution?

Well, it doesn’t take a legal or political genius to start to figure out that one either.

For today, let’s consider three obvious reasons.

There are more beyond these three, yet for today, let’s stick to these three.

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First, the defendant’s opponents might believe that prosecuting – or attempting to prosecute – him turns him into a martyr and makes him more likely to be his political party’s presidential candidate in 2024.

Which they might want him to be, because they believe he would be a weak candidate.

As U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a supporter of the defendant, has put it multiple times, “He’s his own worst enemy.”

Given the appeal of the ideas for which the New York County defendant stands, just imagine how beloved he would be if he weren’t “his own worst enemy.”

In the New York County defendant, however, the ideas and the personality are a package deal. This tiger is well into the eighth decade of his earthly life. The chances of the tiger changing his stripes, as the saying goes, are between Slim and None, and Slim just left town.

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Second, his opponents are nevertheless afraid of him.

In that sense, the New York County indictment is an odd sort of compliment.

If they were certain that his personality would sink his campaign, they might be less inclined to spend their resources trying to tear him apart. After all, why bother destroying something that will spontaneously self destruct?

But there’s the rub, and his opponents know it.

He can win in 2024, and they really don’t want that, particularly – yet not only – because of his penchant for standing up to the Washington establishment.

And not just the Washington establishment in the party opposite. He stands up, for example, to the Washington establishment among both major political parties who – shall we say – look more favorably than he toward:

¯ Judicial activism.

¯ Opening America’s southern border.

¯ Trade deals in which America is a trade pushover, not a trade partner, and

¯ America’s in effect being the world’s police department by involving itself in wars in far-off corners of the globe.

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Third, even if he doesn’t win in 2024, he will continue to bring into his party’s fold many who usually vote for candidates of the party opposite, or who usually don’t vote at all.

The New York County defendant’s opponents in the party opposite really don’t want either of those, thank you very much.

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All of this and more are worth considering by members of the New York County defendant’s political party as they contemplate whom to nominate for president of the United States in 2024.

This isn’t to suggest what the answer is, yet this is to suggest that hard questions continue to need honest consideration and honest answers, not result-oriented reasoning.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, Dr. Randy Elf will address these and related topics before the Southern Tier Tea Party Patriots at 1309 Norby Road, Stillwater. The event is free and open to the public.

COPYRIGHT ç 2023 BY RANDY ELF