You can access the text of David Remnick's statement by clicking this link.
My first notice that the jury in the New York trial of Donald J. Trump had returned a guilty verdict (on all thirty-four counts against our former president) was the statement by Remnick that I have linked above. An email, which linked his statement, just happened to be right at the top of my email inbox when I returned home from lunch. Remnick is the editor of The New Yorker, and he is, of course, correct that the "final judge" will be the voters.
Let me, however, add a personal thought about my reaction to this news. What the jury did in this case is a demonstration that ordinary men and women, assigned a serious task within our system of self-government - one of the most serious tasks to which any citizen can be assigned - were able to disregard all of the pressures upon them, from all sides, and to render a verdict that the conduct they heard about in the trial was a violation of the law.
We are being invited, almost daily, to conclude that "democracy" is dead, and is headed for the scrap heap of history, and that the travails of our society, economy, and political life portend that our history as a self-governing people is exhausted, and will perish. This verdict, handed down by a New York jury, should strengthen our faith in our system of self-government.
Thank you to the jurors who were both willing and able to do what they were asked to do: (1) To listen to the evidence; (2) To listen to the arguments from both sides; (3) To hear from the judge on what the legal issues were; and then (4) To deliberate and reach a verdict in a case in which neither fear nor favor prevailed over the solemn task entrusted to those who served on the jury.
If I were called upon to make a statement to the nation, I think I'd pretend to be president, and end my comments by saying: "God bless each and every one of you - you who have served so faithfully, as each one of use might well be called upon to serve - and God bless the United States of America.
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