When we aren’t blaming Trump for the damage he causes, or his supporters for indulging in fantasy, many liberals turn their fire on Merrick Garland. In some ways, he is a tragic figure. He should be serving a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. Instead, thanks to Mitch McConnell’s procedural hardball, he received the consolation prize of Attorney General under Joe Biden.
Garland arrived at the Department of Justice carrying the full weight of the Trump years. He is, by temperament and record, a moderate—careful, institutional, deeply aware that the Attorney General is meant to serve all Americans, not a party or a moment. He did not want his tenure defined by prosecuting a former president, especially in a climate already saturated with accusations of partisanship. So he waited.
Time, however, does not wait politely. As months passed, the window to hold Trump accountable for January 6 narrowed. Eventually, the argument emerged that the voters should decide. A pleasing sentiment—if one assumes a level playing field and good faith. But reasonableness only works when all sides are playing by the same rules.
They were not.
When Eileen Cannon and congressional Republicans chose hardball, Garland’s restraint became a liability. Reasonableness, in that context, was not neutrality; it was surrender by delay.
Garland is hardly alone in this story. Many institutions and individuals contributed to our present bind. Joe and Mika treated Trump as entertainment before anyone took him seriously. Third-party campaigns flirted with spoiler status as casually as a public-health risk. Even figures we hoped would know better proved surprisingly susceptible to pressure or performance. Mitch McConnell, for his part, could have ended this entire chapter after January 6 and spared himself years of torment—having already achieved most of what he wanted. He chose otherwise.
The difficulty with Garland is that criticism feels ungenerous. He is plainly a decent man, and so many others behaved with less courage and more calculation. But decency alone does not absolve one from the responsibilities of power. At some point, one learns a hard truth of public life: there are people who will despise you no matter how carefully you act. Barack Obama was branded a socialist whether he governed as a moderate or imagined himself as a radical. Seeking approval from those committed to bad faith is a fool’s errand.
History rarely rewards those who tried hardest not to offend. It remembers those who acted when the moment demanded clarity, even at personal cost. Institutions survive not because their leaders are liked, but because they are willing to choose duty over comfort.
Sometimes doing the right thing guarantees criticism. Sometimes it guarantees loneliness. But over time, it is often the only thing that earns respect.