A Shame and a Woe and a President in the Dock

On 21 January 2017 a knitted pink hat became a global symbol of female solidarity and the power of collective action. Known as the Pussyhat it was worn by many of the half a million people who took part in the Women’s March in Washington DC.

Some commentators on Trump’s criminal indictment stress how sad this is for the U.S. that one of their presidents should be taken into custody, photographed for mug shots, fingerprinted and arraigned — how bad it makes the country look in the eyes of the world. But the fact of the matter is that this was an utterly sad, indeed tragic, situation from the start.