Media coverage of Republicans stampeding to NYC to attack Trump's trial as illegit is marred by euphemism. This isn't just "currying favor" w Trump or "expressing loyalty" or auditioning to be his VP. It's placing Trump over rule of law
Rs are attacking judge, witnesses, prosecutors & trial as illegitimate. This isn't just helping Trump evade the gag order. The point is also to display in spectacle form that their fealty is to him over the rules that make the system function
2/ It's a larger pattern: Rs are declaring this higher fealty to Trump over our institutions on many fronts. Now that Trump has in effect declared the 2024 election will not be legitimate unless he wins, many Rs are using similar language
JD Vance and Elise Stefanik are auditioning to be Trump's VP by declaring their eagerness to sabotage the VP's institutional role in presiding over the peaceful transfer of power on Trump's behalf. Many Rs won't condemn his vow to pardon 1/6 criminals.
@GottaLaff Saw this coming, they're going to raise hell if he wins or loses at the polls. The election doesn't matter, probably never did to them given you can invalidate any loss by saying "nuh uh" and prepare to stage a coup.
3/ It's true that some Rs showed great courage in resisting Trump. But they have been hounded out of the party, sent packing into retirement, or subjected to bullying and harassment.
Why? At bottom it's bc they put democracy/rule of law above Trump.
If Trump wins & prosecutes political foes, roots out "vermin," stocks bureaucracy w corrupt loyalists, converts intel agencies into MAGA enforcers, etc, does anyone doubt Rs declaring fealty to him above our institutions will eagerly go along?
Not just fealty to Trump. "Display in spectacle form" their contempt for the system of justice as part of a textbook strategy for taking down a democratic republic and replacing it with a corrupt autocracy. "Only a strongman can fix it." All their actions push in this direction.
@GottaLaff I'm glad you're getting out. My family and I are trapped. I'm just going to make sure my will is current: when religious fundamentalists overthrow governments, people like me are rounded up and killed.
@stylinstainless Same. We're Jewish with gay twins. Back in 2015 I got worried, and by 2016 I was terrified. By 2018 we'd contacted an immigration lawyer in Canada and we move in a week.
I wrote 3 blog posts about it if you want to read about the Why, How, and more. Let me know.
@GottaLaff@Fenix
Though I am always very concerned about the Conservative Party getting full control under a nutso PM. Still, that is a hypothetical. But it is not a slow process. It is something that can happen in one election.
I was in Canada when Parliament was dissolved and, later, not only did the Progressive Conservatives lose control, but they retained only two seats. Kim Campbell lost hers. Things can change that rapidly.
But there is one big reason to have less fear of instability in Canada, and that is the "White" people of Canada do not face being soon outnumbered. This is the nutshell reason why Canadians are not turning to violence the way American "Whites" are.
@GottaLaff the NYT had an article on how Israel had lost or had their democratic system broken (I read the synopsis on insta) and I commented “when is the NYT going to take the threat to democracy here seriously?” I’m so sick and tired of how they frame the Rs actions and the threat they pose.
@GottaLaff Comparison of DJT to Hitler, is becoming more accurate on a daily basis, except his final solution will not be limited to Jews, the Romani, LGBTQ, and communists. He’s told us his plans We need to plant a “bomb” to end them. @Danetteb@lednaBM
@GottaLaff. Thank you for posting this must-read article by #GregSargent. I always thought his pieces for the #WashingtonPost were standouts. His incisive coverage has, by and large, been replaced by journalistic gruel.
@GottaLaff i hear you, but I have a slightly different (more cynical?) take on this: the folks who are now publicly defying Trump (by and large… exceptions obviously exist), were out the door anyway because they were old, or facing an election they didn’t think they could win.
They’re doing it because it’s safe and they’re juat trying to save their own reputation, rather than try to save the country by actively defying him from a position of power.
@GottaLaff The spectacle, the disruption, is the entertainment, it's the point. Entertainment meant to amuse, anger, rally, foment, distract...so lies are the feature. Trump was a moderately successful actor, even as he was a terrible failure as a businessman. He was successful as an illusionist for tv, which is where he honed is abilities to create a fictional character, and sell it to fans.
My question about his narrative for his criminal case is this: if his made-for-tv storyline is that he is the innocent victim, how does Mr "I only hire the best" (tagline) explain why he, for decades, continually hired, employed, praised, promoted, retained, and $2 Million severanced -- and repeatedly surrounded himself with -- convicted felons and perjurers like Allen Weiselberg and Michael Cohen?
The entertainment storyline we're now supposed to follow is that the ONLY CLUELESS man is spectacular business genius Trump?
These rotten apples (including convicted perjurer and felon Weisselberg whom Trump recently awarded a $2,000,000 severance for valuable services rendered) do not fall far from the rotted tree.
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