We’ve run the experiment the “pardon the criminal” route (Nixon) and see what we got? Normalization that you can commit a crime as President and get off scot-free, which emboldened Trump to do far worse.
Maybe we should run the experiment the other way, hold him accountable, and watch the next 40 years and see if that improves the ethics of our elected officials - who now know if they fuck around they’ll find out.
Ford’s pardon came after Richard Nixxon accepted the fact that he did something wrong and resigned as a consequence. While he believed he did nothing wrong (“I am not a crook”), the fact that he did resign (even if avoiding impeachment potentially was a big reason to do so) shows at least some level of remorse or realization of overstepping boundaries. Nixxon gave up his office as a result of his actions.
Trump does not show any signs of moderating himself. To this day, he claims the election was stolen. To this day, he repeatedly portraits himself as a victim of a witch hunt - particularly to the core base of his followers - inciting fear and hate in a large group of unhinged people. There is no remorse, there is no accepting the consequences of his actions, there is only an urge to rile up people, avoid consequences and enrich himself.
Giving Trump any more leniency would just encourage him to keep doing what he does.
And yet Trump will almost certainly be given far more leniency than Nixon. These proceedings already make it clear that they don’t intend to actually punish him
It keeps talking about the cost of prosecution- what cost? It wasn’t clear to me. The cost of doing whatever the fuck you want above the law is worse than anything else right?
And I know if I had done any of the things that orange motherfucker did I’d already be in federal prison. The most valuable thing we could do is show that just because you’re some ketchup-on-steak eating criminal mouth breather, you’re not above the law just because you have money and a fucking cult.
The piece mentions a couple, one of which Lindsey Graham touched on as well.
Yet, some conservative lawyers see a parade of horribles that will, as Goldsmith puts it, “probably inspire ever more aggressive tit-for-tat investigations in office by future Congresses and administrations of the opposing party to the detriment of sound government.”
This assumes, of course, that Republicans haven’t already weaponized the courts against anyone they don’t like.
But it also mentions links Goldsmith’s article in the Times:
This deeply unfortunate timing looks political and has potent political implications even if it is not driven by partisan motivations. And it is the Biden administration’s responsibility, as its Justice Department reportedly delayed the investigation of Mr. Trump for a year and then rushed to indict him well into the G.O.P. primary season. The unseemliness of the prosecution will most likely grow if the Biden campaign or its proxies use it as a weapon against Mr. Trump if he is nominated.
It may also exacerbate the criminalization of politics. The indictment alleges that Mr. Trump lied and manipulated people and institutions in trying to shape law and politics in his favor. Exaggeration and truth shading in the facilitation of self-serving legal arguments or attacks on political opponents have always been commonplace in Washington. These practices will probably be disputed in the language of, and amid demands for, special counsels, indictments and grand juries.
In other words, it’ll have the effect of normalizing the things that Republicans have been normalizing for decades. Heads they win, tails we lose.
If we cannot afford the cost of prosecuting our own citizens, even particularly powerful ones, then we cannot afford the cost of existence. The nation needs to be dismantled and rebuilt into one that can afford to uphold its own laws.
Good. Tbh, my concerns with school are a lot more boring, and if some foaming reactionary was running on a circus platform, there’s no way I’d vote for them.
At my public school we were told that dual immersion classes do not post the order of getting in because parents harassed teachers into putting their kids up the list.
The leader is never wrong. He's an innocent victim of the "eevill democwats" and their perceptual "wich hawnt" against him. So vote for him regardless and set him free. /s
God I felt disgusted typing that haha
It's really sad how rotted their brains have become to the propaganda constantly fed to them through the television.
it would be hilarious is if, during the primaries, the other GOP candidates constantly blew off Trump, repeating, “you’ll be in jail soon, so why should we listen to you?"
They won’t they need his base to win. They will look like buffons in front of him all while they hope he goes to jail so they can try and attempt to take up his mantle and his voter base.
Edit: also I have no hope that he will go to jail. He literally isn’t set for trail until half way through next year. He will have plenty of time to destroy America and turn his base against us all.
Court cases can take lots of time. The special prosecutor, Jack Smith, is moving at lightning speed in both current proecutions (Florida docs case, and DC coup case), but even if the judges involved do keep the pace up the only hope Trump has is to delay. He’s obviously guilty and there’s mountains of evidence so if the jury actually meets to deliberate he’s screwed. So the whole goal is to keep taking more time every step that he can.
The Florida judge is completely in the right wing pocket and has already started to tank the case. So far the DC judge is signalling a strong stance of ‘lets get it done’, but there’s tons of ways to slow down a court if you have the money for the lawyers to waste time.
Even if he’s convicted, the sentencing takes time, then appeals, then more appeals. It could be years before anything is truly resolved in this because as long as he has money to pay lawyers (even mediocre ones), then he can keep out of jail and trying to get immunity of office or to pardon himself as president.
While true, he got that base by being ruthlessly cruel to his opponents, even those in his own party. They eat that shit up, and going for Trump’s throat and making him look weak would be the best way to win over his base.
You think but I doubt it work with any of his base. Just look at DeSantis he only one that done that and he is failing badly in his campaign. Also none of them can do what he does.
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