Adept at Avoiding Accountability, in Real Life and Fiction

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Has-no-integrity Donald Trump and has-integrity Thomas Massie.

U.S. President Donald Trump gets away with SO much:

— The repugnant Republican is mentioned more than 38,000 times in The Epstein Files (named after perhaps the worst pedophile/sex trafficker in American history), yet Trump has never suffered any consequences for that. He even sufficiently maligned Congressman Thomas Massie, one of the VERY few fellow Republicans seeking justice for the Epstein survivors, to get him defeated in a reelection bid this past week.

— Also, the draft-dodger-as-a-youth Trump claimed he would be a “peace president” but bombs innocent Venezuelans in fishing boats and, with Israel, started the unnecessary war of choice against Iran that included the U.S. bombing of a girls’ school that killed more than 150 students. Meanwhile, millions of Trump’s supposedly anti-war supporters continued their cultish behavior by suddenly becoming gung-ho for American aggression.

— Also, there is Trump’s breathtakingly rampant presidential corruption and self-enrichment that has amassed him billions of dollars, but he’ll probably never see the inside of a jail cell.

— Also, Trump of course falsely claimed he won the 2020 presidential election and then encouraged his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, yet got back in the White House four years later.

— Etc., etc.

How does the fascist/racist/misogynistic/homophobic/anti-poor/lying Trump avoid accountability? For one thing, he “floods the zone” with distractions, as when attacking Iran moved the news cycle away from the Epstein scandal. In addition, Trump is rich, white, and male; he has a perverse charisma; he and his supporters threaten violence against all who cross him; most Republicans in Congress cravenly go along with almost everything he does; six of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices are in his pocket; and so on.

I tried to think of fictional characters, whether villainous or not, who are like Trump in terms of fully or partly getting away with things. Doesn’t seem to happen super-often in literature — many novels offer the moral lesson and fantasy wish-fulfillment of problematic people getting their just desserts — but it happens. Being wealthy (like Trump) helps. Being smart (unlike Trump) also helps. Being good-looking helps, too. And being lucky can’t be ignored.

Here are some examples, with details hopefully kept fuzzy enough to avoid too much in spoilers:

Sue Grafton’s alphabet mystery V Is for Vengeance, which I read last week, includes a Mafioso-like character who’s not totally evil yet definitely no Mr. Rogers. But he’s smart enough and a good enough planner to evade legal consequences.

Amoral con man Tom Ripley of Patricia Highsmith’s novels has some close calls, but virtually always gets away with things. He is…talented, to quote the title of The Talented Mr. Ripley — the first book in the series.

The psychopathic killer in Cormac McCarthy’s bleak No Country for Old Men is injured when hit by a car but that’s the most “justice” he faces.

Daphne du Maurier’s mesmerizing novel Rebecca includes a major character who kills someone but never gets charged. Wealth, status, secretiveness, luck, and extenuating circumstances don’t hurt.

The evil/dictatorial Big Brother (whether one person or many) in Nineteen Eighty-Four retains complete power at the end of George Orwell’s iconic dystopian novel.

No one is criminally punished in Donna Tartt’s debut novel The Secret History, but, as is sometimes the case in situations like that, there’s some guilt and suffering for the perpetrators.

Raskolnikov, the somewhat-sympathetic murderer in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic Crime and Punishment, does the crime and gets the punishment, but that punishment — while not nothing — is relatively lenient.

The caddish George Wickham faces consequences of a sort in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, but he certainly deserved more of a comeuppance.

Your thoughts about, and examples of, this topic?

Misty the cat asks: “Is that STOP sign written by Shakespeare or Cervantes?”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, including many encounters with celebrities.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — which has an environmental theme — is here.

69 thoughts on “Adept at Avoiding Accountability, in Real Life and Fiction”

  2. well, Max de Winter does lose his beloved Manderley in Rebecca which for him was a terrible fate. I must read The talented Mr Ripley. I think you are looking in the wrong place for suitable books. Read ones based on reality as reality is far worse than what can be imagined. How about Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young girl, I am David, when Hitler stole Pink Rabbit, To Wake the Giant, All Quiet on the Western Front, Mila 18, The Regeneration series by Pat Barker, Slaughterhouse Five, Pachinko, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, peasants by Anton Chekhov and many of his other stories, captain Corelli’s Mandolin. A Town like Alice, On the Beach … okay, I think this is enough but there are books about Mau, Hitler, Stalin, Vlad the Impaler, General Douglas Haig, Thomas Cromwell – all mass murderers.

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    • Thank you, Robbie! Yes, there are countless nonfiction books about evil people, some of whom got away with enormous crimes. And historical fiction, like “Mila 18” and several other novels you mentioned, certainly has many examples of that, too.

      Good point about Manderley — a huge loss, though there may have been a small measure of relief for Max de Winter given the negative associations he had with the place “thanks” to Rebecca.

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  3. Yes, your prez has definitely taken getting away with crime to a newer and higher level, and all out in the open.

    The peace president.. the piece president is more like it…I’ll just take a piece of this deal, a piece of that country, a piece of any and every pie baked, a piece of a at e’s and on.

    1984 is fresh in my mind having just reread it a few months ago… it’s disconcerting … and the truth hurts.

    A novel…

    Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Quite a brilliant plan actually!

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  4. A very thought-provoking post this week Dave!

    Oh, how I wish people who offend or do wrongs get their just-deserts or comeuppance! But sadly, real-life is rarely like that.

    In literature, it’s a similar story! ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’! Now there’s a case!! Great book! It makes your point perfectly. Talking about getting away with it…

    Thanks Dave! A poignant post!

    With kindest regards

    Sharon

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  6. Hi Dave, just two novels this time for me, and they definitely fill the bill – The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and the sequel – The Testaments. These two dystopian novels seem to be getting more real. Not good, not good at all.

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    • Thank you, Chris! Two excellent Margaret Atwood mentions! The bad guys fare better in “The Handmaid’s Tale” than in “The Testaments,” but evil certainly wins out to a great extent in both novels. Yes, dystopian fiction doesn’t feel that far-fetched these days. 😦

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    • Thank you, Ada! Patricia Highsmith was a very interesting, edgy writer. As you probably know, among her other works besides the Ripley novels is “Strangers on a Train” — better known for the Hitchcock film.

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  9. Dear Dave Astor, How true is your reasoning and how insightful is your analysis! I have subscribed to your u tube channel. I like it. Please, tell me more about your favourite character, Mitty the cat. I would like to buy your books, starting with the Famous Fiction Authors. I hope to hear from you soon. Best wishe, Ahmadou

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    • Thank you, Ahmadou! I greatly appreciate the kind words, and your subscribing to my Misty the Cat YouTube channel that chronicles his daily leashed walks and includes “his” quip of the day. 🙂 We starting walking Misty in 2018 because he was feeling kind of cooped up in our fairly small apartment. As for my books, they’re all available on Amazon. Thank you for your interest! 🙂

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  10. I’m currently reading Freida MC Fadden’s (Sara Cohen’s) The Housemaid franchise. I’ve progressed well into the second book of the series. The narrator, confronted with the violence of men, gets off relatively lightly with vigilante-like violence in response. As a woman, I find it hard not to sympathise with her. Cf. Jody Foster in the movie The Brave One. There’s quite a lot out there in this genre.

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    • Thank you, Dingenom, for those great examples! I agree that one sympathizes with people who avenge violence. Like you, I’m glad when they get off lightly or completely — especially in cases where a woman takes revenge on an abusive man (as Lisbeth Salander does in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy), when a person of color takes revenge on a racist white guy (as the title character does in Percival Everett’s “James”), etc.

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      • I’ve heard of Stieg Larsson of course but never read him. Frankly, just as Virginia Woolf once referred to her delicious novel “Orlando” as a writer’s holiday, so I would refer to my reading of The Housemaid franchise (while doggedly continuing in Edward Said’s “Orientalism”) as a reader’s holiday. I’m reading a French translation (I will excuse myself from explaining how that happened). French – think: Appelez mon agent! (Call my agent!) – is the perfect language for the ingenuousness of the narrator and the deadpan urban humor that The Housemaid excels in. Back to your post. I recommend reading Eyes on the Prize, Political Pornography and Clinton Agonistes in Joan Didion’s Political Fictions. For a cynical opportunist, pathological liar and a lifelong sexual predator Bill Clinton seems to be enjoying an amazingly unencumbered retirement.

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        • I appreciate the follow-up comment, Dingenom!

          Nice to have a “reader’s holiday” (I like that phrase) as one differentiates book choices. I’m impressed that you’re reading a French translation!

          The Millennium Trilogy (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” etc.) is a riveting three novels.

          Yes, Bill Clinton and some other Democratic sickos are also guilty re the Epstein scandal, even as more Republicans are culpable. I’d be happy to see Clinton in jail, along with Trump, etc., etc.

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  11. I’m so upset over the orange abomination’s getting away with crime and crime after crime with no accountability, no consequences, I can’t bear to even think about fictional characters doing the same thing. Even Humbert Humbert was tried and convicted and sent to prison.

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  12. If he’s good at anything, it’s avoiding accountability. I don’t know what hold he has on his supporters, but it must be good.

    I don’t do this often (although you never yelled at me for doing it) but I’ll plug my own evil character. He was the person referred to in the short story I published today. A corrupt law enforcement official who escapes responsibility for his actions. He’s found in books two and three of the Dreamer’s Alliance series.

    At least my character was fictional…sigh.

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    • Thank you, Dan! Yes, avoiding accountability is one of Trump’s few “strengths.” As for the hold he has on his supporters, I think part of it involves giving them “permission” to be racist, misogynistic, etc.; to proudly be their worst selves while looking down on many groups of people.

      Your character of a corrupt law-enforcement official who escapes responsibility for his actions is unfortunately a “type” we see too often in real life. As you say, at least your character is fictional. 🙂

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  13. Dave, what came to mind for me while reading your post was a line from Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe: “For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.”

    I think Scott understood something timeless about power, morality, and human character.

    As readers, I suspect many of us long for satisfying endings where good triumphs over evil and justice, in some form, is restored. Yet literature also reminds us that even when evil is defeated, there is often fallout, scars, and loss that cannot simply be undone.

    I always think of Frodo’s bittersweet words at the end of The Lord of the Rings: “The Shire has been saved, but not for me.” Evil may be overcome, but those who pass through it are not always untouched.

    That may be why these moral tensions in fiction stay with us so powerfully. They remind us that justice is not always simple, and endings are not always neat.

    As always another thought-provoking post!!!

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    • Thank you, Rebecca! Wise words from Sir Walter Scott and you! (That Scott quote is SO good.) Yes, we wish for just endings, but it doesn’t always happen. And even when it does, as in “The Lord of the Rings” example you offered, things can be mixed.

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  14. 38k times in Frump/Epstein files? Did Israel blackmail DJT as have deep knowledge of his involvement? A distraction for war in Iran war,perhaps? I’d think most of these villains mentioned in your blog( healthy exchange to vent on DJT once in awhile) are choirboys compared to the despicable President. In last weekend ‘s SNL Epstein played by Will Ferrell as ghost in Dickins Christmas Carol. Dark ,yes, but telling ,my putt connecting dots not redacting in big black marker to a character in lit with your blog discussion:

    Michele

    E @ P way back

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    • Thank you, Michele, for the comment and video clip! I saw that funny/biting sketch. 🙂 “SNL” has SO much to satirize these days.

      I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel has some compromising dirt on Trump to help force him to do their bidding.

      And, yes, Trump is more evil than almost any character in literature.

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  15. I hear you, Dave 😦 His decades-long, crime-spree will be the subject for many novels of the crime fiction genre in years to come. In addition to the interesting fictional characters who get away with crime that you mention, Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) first came to mind. Then there’s Don Corleone in The Godfather by Mario Puzo (1969). Dorian Gray succeeded in getting away with his criminal behavior until he was forced to come face to face with the man he had to become. Justice comes in several ways, even for the untouchables. The story of the decline and fall of our real-life untouchable villain is unfolding before us.

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  16. Many books will be written about this criminal, and once again people will ask how it all could have happened. How no one could have foreseen it, and why no one prevented it. And once again, we will have learned nothing from history. Great article BTW. With deep respect, f

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    • Thank you, Friedrich! I agree that many books are coming about this time (with some published already). And, yes, one would think that the history of past authoritarian regimes would have taught people enough not to be complicit with someone like Trump, but about 30% of Americans have not learned, or don’t want to learn, that lesson. In some ways, the U.S. feels a little like 1930s Nazi Germany. 😦

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  19. It doesn’t happen often in literature, Dave, which is why I’m sitting here racking my brains. And the arch-villain of your piece hasn’t come to the end of his story – yet, so there may be some earthly retribution in store for him. We can but dream. To find a fictional character, however, I’ve had to turn to the Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s opera ‘Rigoletto’. He’s a nasty, arrogant womaniser, and even Magdalena, the hooker who’s supposed to lure him to his death at the hands of her brother Sparafucile, falls for his phony charm, persuading her brother to kill the next unsuspecting guy who knocks on the door instead. Of course this is Gilda, daughter of Rigoletto, who was seduced by the Duke earlier and who overhears the conversation. Deciding to die for him, she knocks, is killed and her body handed in a sack to her father to dump in the river. He hears the Duke singing and realises he’s been swindled, opening the sack to discover his dead daughter – and the Duke walks free. Sorry. You probably know this. But in terms of not receiving justicd, the Duke is up there. If I think of any more I’ll be right back. Thanks for an interesting post. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Laura! I’ve never seen Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” so that is an excellent and eye-opening example for me. Talk about tragic. 😦 You described the whole scenario superbly.

      And, yes, the Trump story isn’t over yet, but he’s incredibly “Teflon” and I doubt he’ll ever get what he deserves. Still, as you note, we can hope. And if punishment doesn’t come until after he’s gone, believers see a pitchfork-holding figure in the picture. 🙂

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