First, this is an example of the system working. And that is very important because Donald Trump has spent the last eight years trying to make the system dysfunctional. He has sidestepped it, perverted it, ignored it, attacked it, and mutilated it to further his own selfish ends. His relentless efforts to erode U.S. democratic institutions have been dangerous, and too often the system he attacks seems incapable of defending itself has he exploits chinks in its armor of checks-and-balances. But yesterday the system held. While the official title of this case is State of New York, et al. v. Trump et al., the political reality since 2016 has been Trump v. U.S. democracy. And today democratic institutions held their own as. He was not convicted by pundits in the court of public opinion, or by politicians with axes to grind. He was convicted by a dozen honest citizens who listened to the evidence and decided, 34 times, that he’s a felon.
Second, anything that de-normalizes Trump is important. In the long term, an authoritarian can destroy democracy by normalizing their anti-democratic and authoritarian behavior. They keep pushing the envelope. And each time no terrible consequences befall them, they push a little more. They keep pushing until too many citizens come to accept their anti-democratic and authoritarian actions as normal. Then a democracy is in a position to crumble. Thus, Trump’s conviction is important because it makes it harder for people to fall into the false-equivalence trap. It makes it harder for them to say, Oh well, Trump’s a crook, but they’re all crooks. Even if all or most politicians are crooked (for argument’s sake, let’s say that’s true), it’s important to recognize that there are different levels of crookedness. We may not like that many politicians engage in “regular” corruption (eg. protecting the interests of campaign contributors), but we understand that the system can withstand this regular corruption even as we rightly criticize it and work to end it. But politicians whose corruption goes above and beyond are another thing. Richard Nixon and his stooges committed several felonies for the purpose of meddling in the 1972 presidential election. Other politicians are sometimes caught taking bribes and sent to prison. Donald Trump is now the only president to ever be twice impeached as well as the only one to be convicted of a felony after serving. And more trials loom. This is different than “regular” corruption. Trump is exceptionally corrupt and dangerous. The conviction de-normalizes his corruption. It is not “regular.”
Finally, as a historian, I believe this conviction is important because it is the type of thing that shapes long term understanding. In the short term, this conviction and even ones that may follow will not lead many people to change their minds about Trump. They will continue love or hate him. But in the long term it will contribute to how future generations understand him, and even how some current generations look back on him. Just as Watergate and resignation shape how people with no living memory of Richard Nixon understand him, they will recognize more readily that Trump crossed lines that should never be crossed. And hopefully it will help them recognize would-be despots and criminals in the future. If (and it’s a big if) they do a better job of understanding history than current generations do.