Bad King Trump

Jim Wright tweets on Reality Winner, arguing that she broke the law and deserves punishment. I commented, and I think he objected, though he did not reply directly. I took my remarks down. But I keep wondering, regardless of deserving punishment or not: will what she did make a difference? Enough difference? Martyrdom gains its power through a willingness to accept consequences which most of us would not even risk – I would not willingly put myself at the mercy of Sessions and Trump – and through rightness. (Added: and, indeed, Winner is being held without bail.)

And another thought: in the bad old days, a bad king would have charged Winner with treason (added) and executed her summarily. I'm sure someone in the Trump administration, if not Trump himself, would like to do so. The constitutional safeguard against this, the very specific definition of treason, is a great bulwark against bad rulers.