It's Treason!

            The Constitution of the United States of America, Article III, Section 3, states: “Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” The operative word here is “only.” There’s a reason the Founders wrote it that way. While under the thumb of George III, any infraction by the colonists was viewed as treason against the Crown. The Founders knew that unless treason were narrowly and specifically defined in the Constitution, it would lead to chaos.

            How many Americans, I wonder, have read the Constitution. Probably not many. Among those who have not is Senator Tim Kaine. Otherwise, he would not have suggested that Donald Trump, Jr. had committed treason by meeting with Russians during his father’s campaign. Call it naïve, clueless, ill-advised—even monumentally stupid. But the meeting wasn’t treason. It wasn’t even a crime.

            By suggesting it was treason, the former Democratic candidate for the vice-presidency may have been demonstrating his ignorance of the Constitution. But what if he knew better? What if he was consciously using treason to raise Trump-hating hysteria to the ultimate level? What if he was betting on others on the Left picking up the baton and running with it? Enter Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and a media wild at the scent of fresh blood.

            Like a mad scientist who thinks he has found the “theory to everything,” John Harwood of CNBC proclaims he has found the key to the Trump-Russia connection. As Holman Jenkins of the Wall Street Journal reads Harwood’s insight, “President Trump’s every word and deed…must now be understood as payback to Russia for helping him get elected.” How cynical and over-the-top is that? And how far is that from redefining treason?

            Jenkins adds that it’s high time for the press and on-air media to rein in their supercritical hysteria. He’s right. As we used to say as kids, “Enough already.”