So let it be with Donald Trump.There's a bull session commenting on that observation at Chicago Boyz.
Given the uncertainties, one can say nothing more definite than that "something will happen"; where, when is unknown. The most important question to answer is what set of people we want in charge on the day. Or stated in the negative, who don't we want in charge?
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) May 24, 2024
Unfortunately, neither of the principal collectivities of people who would like to be in charge, they call themselves Democrats and Republicans, are looking very good right now. A team of Gannett reporters interviewed voters in swing states, and how they react depends on where they stand. "That will make for a rocky, explosive, unprecedented presidential race that could fray the nation’s nerves." I won't quote from the article, go, read, understand, recognize that it's predictable stances from predictable individuals. Byron York notes, in any event, it might take a while for people to sort things out.
Nor is it any surprise that the nation's nerves are already frayed. As far as I'm concerned, the last president who was presidential timber was the elder George Bush, and we've endured over thirty years of superficial people beholden to the foolish notion that Presidential Power can Get Things Done, while the voters have in one way or another revealed a preference for gridlock rather than Have Stuff Done to them. The verdict is more of the same.
Reason's J. D. Tuccille asks, "Does Donald Trump's Conviction in New York Make Us Banana Republicans?" He's coming from a libertarian place, inclined to be skeptical of Good Government on general principles, and this conviction (go ahead, you can put "convicted felon" or "justice-involved individual" in sneer quotes) comes under the rubric of "because you can doesn't mean you must."
Obviously, a Manhattan jury disagreed on its way to finding Trump guilty on 34 counts. But pursuing a former president who is the leading opponent to the incumbent White House resident via what even The New York Times called a "rarely used strategy" fuels suspicions that the target was less Trump's crimes, whatever they were, than his candidacy. Many Americans agree.Mr Tuccille further fears that the punishment cycles of a grim strategy outcome are upon us. "Beyond short-term political gamesmanship, the larger risk is that we're normalizing by-any-means-necessary lawfare by those in power to kneecap opponents. It's a game that anybody can play, though we'll all be losers in the end." Mr Trump is precisely the kind of guy who is willing to go low. "Donald Trump is not a turn-the-other cheek kind of guy, and more than willing to weaponize the state. On this road to banana republic status, each major political faction seems eager for the journey." That the presidential election seems to be deteriorating into a faction fight over who can Do Stuff unto Others more effectively.
City Journal contributor Ilya Shapiro sees where things are going, and doesn't like it.
Trump won’t go to jail—not for these charges—but the New York process continues to taint the other, more serious prosecutions that the former president faces, for which he almost certainly won’t be tried before the election. And it continues to taint the election itself, though not necessarily in Democrats’ favor. After all, Trump’s standing in opinion polls improved after Bragg’s indictment, turning what was supposed to be a competitive Republican primary into a coronation. And these convictions are likely already factored into voters’ perceptions.Meanwhile the Reject the False Binary Coalition has to decide whether to abstain from picking a president, or whether to show up at all. I like the idea of whoever wins the presidency not garnering a majority of the eligible vote, particularly with larger vote totals for the state legislatures and Congress.
It remains to be seen whether, in the swing states, the number of independents and onetime NeverTrumpers now determined to vote for Trump outnumbers the swing voters who simply won’t vote for a convicted felon, regardless of any accompanying details.
But it should never have come to this.
The Trump voters, however, understand what kind of a guy they were dealing with, and they're not in a good mood after years of school closings, open borders, ukases cancelling student loan debt and banning family sedans. Somehow getting more tomcatting into the record doesn't look like a big deal.
When it came to the questions of whether Trump had caused the falsification of business records and his intent in doing so, it did not matter exactly what happened in that hotel suite. Even if Daniels had made the whole thing up, Trump still would have been keen to keep her quiet, whether for personal reasons, business reasons, political reasons, or some combination of the three.That article suggests Mr Trump's defense team misplayed their hand. "If Trump had been willing to concede some of the prosecution's allegations, his lawyers could have focused on the shaky legal argument for charging him with felonies. They not only failed to do that in a cogent way; they insisted on jury instructions that ruled out convicting Trump of misdemeanors rather than felonies."
None of which might matter, if a voter is fed up with the institutionalized incompetence of the Jarrett regency.
This is the government in attack mode, and everyone knows it.Yes, and the great conjuring trick of 2020 was selling Joe Biden as some sort of traditional Democrat, when he has issued ukases that you'd expect of an Obama sock puppet. This time, though, the Jarrett regency might have pushed Normals too far. And why? If Donald Trump is as incompetent a politician as Conventional Wisdom has it, why not let him self-destruct? Roger "Tenured Radicals" Kimball might be ready to throw down.
Second, we all know the charge is bogus because Trump was never embarrassed about his playboy lifestyle. It was his brand.
We didn’t vote for Trump because of his morals. We knew JFK was a horrible human being about women, and we saw Clinton’s parade of women, from the ones he assaulted to the affairs to the payoffs to the interns under the desk. Americans were inured to sleazy dalliances.
What was important was that we saw that the apparently sexually abstemious Obama hated America and that Hillary intended to follow in his footsteps. Trump, the playboy, loved America and Americans, and that was good enough for us. The payoff was to hide the allegations from Melania; that was his business, not ours.
The commentator Megan [c.q.] Kelly, who seems to have definitively boarded the Trump train, is right that Thursday’s verdict represents “a before and after moment for America. It is a line we can’t uncross.” She is also right that what the country needs now are real fighters, people like Steve Bannon, host of the War Room. Horace Walpole once observed that “No country was ever saved by good men because good men will not go to the length that may be necessary.” I think it is worth bearing that clarifying, if unsentimental, bit of practical wisdom in mind.No doubt, Our President's minders and his cheering section are writing more warnings about that threat to Our Democracy(TM). Although James "Long Emergency" Kunstler suggests those warnings are ... disinformation.
With each subsequent prank, to distract from and cover-up their crimes, the same group of officials has committed more crimes, to the point that the federal government now behaves like a gigantic mafia, dedicated to nothing but crime of one kind or another. The Democratic Party has become this mob’s protective order; the old mainstream media its mouthpiece; and the people of this country increasingly its victims. Naturally, these criminals are now desperate to avoid having to account for their crimes, which is exactly and explicitly what Mr. Trump promises to make them do.Buckle in. Five more months of this, and then come the recriminations over who cheated and how.
So, there it is: a criminal regime versus the people defended by their outlaw hero. Does the SCOTUS want to aid and abet this gang of criminals — led by the way, and just so you know, by Barack Obama and his Kalorama coterie, John Brennan, Mary McCord and her Lawfare coterie, Hillary and Bill Clinton and their henchmen, and scores of additional DC lawyers, fixers, and judges — or, will the SCOTUS avert an epic crisis of legitimacy by stepping in to quash the ridiculously fake New York case just concluded?
If they demur in some cowardly blur of excuses, then it’s onto the next truly nation-ending stage of this game. The “Joe Biden” regime would like nothing more than an outbreak of civil violence they can blame on “right-wing extremists.” In fact, they could and probably will gin that up themselves, just as they transformed the Jan-6-21 mass protest against widespread ballot fraud into a “MAGA insurrection.” You are also certainly aware of the sinister millions, mainly young men from faraway lands, who “Joe Biden” imported across the border the past three years. And you might imagine how they could be put to use against American citizens, along with the Democratic Party shock troops known as BLM and Antifa. Summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the streets.
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