19 Comments

File this with the other 50M examples of begging the question that we see out of conventional institutional thought these days.

The Trump surge was not because he is viewed as a bad boy criminal, but because he is viewed as a victim of a corrupt system. I have been a long time and consistent critic of Trump's Joan of Arc shtick and his various leadership failings. Those shortcomings make for a long list, though ironically the one thing it doesn't include is corruption and criminal activity.

No fair, honest and informed person believes for a moment that the barrage of legal activity against Trump is anything other than raw partisan politics and lawfare. It is sad to see the American legal system abused in this manner, but it is not unexpected if you follow the general decline in standards from an American academia now beholden to federal largesse and it's inevitable politicization.

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If I said something like "No fair, honest and informed person believes for a moment that Biden stole the election", I'd be accused of typical liberal condescension. Why does conservative condescension get such a pass?

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I don't think a fair, honest and informed person would believe "Biden stole the election" and I think Trump's lazy and stupid language in this regard is lazy and stupid. Ditto for his mindless followers. If the election was "stolen" it was done so "fair and square" in our corrupt system. Of course, that doesn't mean that America's election system isn't a walking disaster in need of dramatic reform in a number of jurisdictions. Whether it is the Zuckerbucks or the opaque and inaccurate voter rolls or the absence of ID requirements or fumbling chain of custody issues or the harvesting, America's election system ranks very low in integrity and security. Democrats have been more outspoken than Republicans often on these points and nothing is more telling than to see the procedures put in place in Democrat primaries and caucuses, including a triple verification system in my local Democrat caucus that is far, far stricter than the rules put in place for the general election.

My main point though is that Trump is viewed (rightly I believe) of being aggressively pursued by rogue partisan prosecutors for almost exactly the same actions and statements that Democrats have pursued after losing elections (and for which they were lionized).

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Am I missing some issue where a Democrat tried to seriously overturn an election in recent history? I remember a few protest votes in the last 20+ years, but I don't remember anything even remotely approaching the efforts of Donald Trump in 2020-2021.

I don't know how I feel about all the charges against him (the Bragg ones, at least, seem like total horseshit, and I'm not sure I'm happy about using RICO in Georgia). However, it seems prima facia true that one can argue Trump and his agents broke various laws, and that's why we have trials: to determine the facts of the case when probable cause exists.

In any case, I'm mostly on the side of law and order; I generally think HRC should have gone to trial, and think we should be actively investigating Joe Biden's family, and if evidence points to him, he should be impeached, tried, and removed from office. Then he should be indicted.

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This whole election denial and lawyering thing began with Bush v. Gore. Despite 6 media sponsored recounts after that case, Bush still won. You can finds hundreds of Democrats to this day denying that Bush won. And let's not even get into the Steele dossier dirty trick from the Hillary campaign. There the jury acquitted Sussman of lying to the FBI not because he didn't lie about the Steele work coming from the Hillary campaign (that was clear on the record), but because his lie was so obvious that the jury didn't believe the FBI believed him. THAT is how corrupt and partisan the swamp has become

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What thing that was not legal (or even questionably legal) did the Democrats do in Bush v. Gore? I'm well aware of Democrat holdouts who insist they won. What substantive actions did those Democrats take to overturn the election?

So your argument is that "the swamp" is so corrupt and partisan that we should abandon the law?

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New York Times. January 7 2001:

"Today, for nearly 20 minutes, a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus, joined by a few sympathizers tried in vain to block the counting of Florida's electoral votes, protesting that black voters had been disenfranchised."

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We don't have a word for the reason in English, but they do in German: "Narrenfreiheit", the freedom to speak without consequences that was given to medieval court fools, because presumably they were mentally defective. It was mostly a pose to escape responsibility back then, too.

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Sep 15, 2023·edited Sep 15, 2023

A well written piece. Thank you. Scary, I was hoping that moderate independents and moderate Republicans were going to save us, in the general election, but it appears that it is not going to be that easy.

The guy is a traitor, falsely calling into question the voting mechanism of the United States. He threatens our democracy. He should be hung

A moderate independent

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That seems a little excessive. And illegal. Personally, I'd prefer he be investigated and tried for his crimes according to the law and common practice. Just like Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden should be.

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Hung perhaps, but not hanged

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He would undoubted claim to be hung, but I'm skeptical.

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Sep 15, 2023·edited Sep 18, 2023

When people are self destructive, they know what they are doing is self destructive. I never met an alcoholic or addict who thought cheap vodka or crack was good for them. I never met a child who cuts herself secretly who thought it was a good idea. The cause is pain. The pain of the self destructive harm mollifies the more serious pain of reality. Many many American hate the self-righteous liberal elite. It causes them visceral pain. They detest the wave of progressive Millennial Inquisitors. Trump is a monster but he is our monster. He may be a dangerous drug, but many choose this drug. He can stand up to the liberal elite North of Richmond and blacken their eyes.

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