Anyone a big enough drunk to take a shot every time Trump, himself, tries to object?
He’ll be confused more than half the time.
Man, woman, judge, camera, unpaid attorney
This is going to backfire in a big way. Whole lot of people seem to think this will be justice porn or somehow convince his base of his criminality but it is going to do no such thing. According to one poll, the majority (77%) of likely GOP primary voters are already convinced the trial is “politically motivated”, with only 8% more concerned about him attempting to overturn an election. You can take a look at some polling here, there are other even more troublesome results as well: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-poll-indictments-2023-08-20/
No matter how awful, contradictory, and ridiculous he will be in that court room, this is likely going to be a massive boon for Trump, and his followers are going to see it as the realization of their own fears of persecution. This man is an ascendant fascist leader, not the sad sack finally facing consequences that liberals so desperately want him to be, and the effect this will have on mobilizing his base to continue to escalate will be immense. These people do not give a single fuck about “”“law and order”“” no matter how much they pretend they do, stop assuming they will just accept things when he is found guilty. They won’t.
I’m just trying to help people realize how dangerous and precarious this whole situation is. People were laughing and making jokes when he first announced his candidacy, and kept on doing it right up to the point that he won the election. Don’t make the same mistake again, because while yall are cracking jokes, him and his ghouls are hurting people. They are passing discriminatory laws, they are in the supreme court setting dangerous precedents and overturning inconvenient ones, and they are patrolling the streets looking for people to brutalize and throw in jail. They are committing hate crimes and becoming increasingly radicalized and mobilized.
Stop pretending this is entertainment or business as usual, it’s not. I’m begging you to understand that the fascists are already here, and the longer they’re underestimated the better their chances of seizing control.
You are completely wrong. Why focus on idiots who won’t change their mind no matter what? The important voter base are moderates and independents. If you are staunchly Democrat your vote does not matter. If you’re Republican no matter what your vote does not matter. Sad but true. The people you’re so worried about simply don’t matter. If televising the trial convinces people who are on the fence then it’s the right choice. They’re just a small number of people.
If you read what I wrote and thought I was worried about how this would affect votes then you’ve missed the point completely. They do not care about votes or elections, their figurehead is literally on trial for trying to overturn the last one.
It’s not his die-hard magats that need to see this. They are only a majority of Republican voters. Independents are the largest block with Dems and GOP both smaller. It’s people like my dad that have never been forced to look at the details without fox, newsmax etc reframing. This is hard to look at, for anyone. I understand your pessimism.
It’s not pessimism. Fascists are already banning books, criminalizing trans people, reversing environmental protections, outlawing abortion and criminalizing those that seek them, rewriting school curricula with historical revisionism and fascist propaganda to suit their needs, perpetrating hate crimes, discriminating against minorities and political opponents, and their media is cranking out fuel for stochastic terrorism day after day. Hell, on the primary debate stage the other day, the candidates were talking about how they would each approach executing people at the border. Of course there was a layer of euphemism, it was about “lethal force in border security”, but a whole hell of a lot of the people on the receiving end of that are migrants and refugees fleeing the conditions american foreign and economic policy has subjected them to.
I have clearly touched a nerve here because there are a lot of upset people downvoting what I’m saying, but I am not being a cynic or a defeatist, I am begging people to reckon with the reality of what is already happening. As I’ve said repeatedly, this trial is literally about how he incited his supporters to attempt overthrowing an election, and people are in here acting as if all that matters is how this might sway voters.
Fascists do not care about democracy, why do you think the GOP spends as much time as it does gerrymandering and messing with voter eligibility, closing polling stations, and purging rolls? They are not going to be voted away, and they are not going to give a fuck about whatever ethics people are just hoping they will abide by. Rules are seen as an obstacle to be overcome, not a boundary which cannot be crossed.
I said this in another reply but I’m going to repeat it here: ask yourself how much of his base are cops and soldiers, and then think about who it is that you’re expecting to step in when his base takes another swing.
I have clearly touched a nerve here because there are a lot of upset people downvoting what I’m saying, but I am not being a cynic or a defeatist, I am begging people to reckon with the reality of what is already happening.
Speaking solely for myself, I completely agree with everything you’ve said; I too believe we’re already there. But for me, regardless of how people talk about it, or are taking it, or how it affects their vote (if at all), the bottom line is that this trial MUST happen as long as we still have the democracy left to do it, because the administration of justice is exactly what democracy itself calls for in the face of an attempted coup.
Which makes the trial itself a test of just how much functional democracy we have left: how many successful efforts will be made to subvert it, rig it, or stop it outright? Will the unsteady barriers against corruption and diversion of power still hold?
So while I appreciate your points, I don’t think we have a choice. This trial has to take place, if there is anything left of us as a country; there’s no regulating personal reaction anymore; and there is always the possibility that we will be surprised. Who knows, maybe the Trump diehards will tune in because they want to see their god, and unscripted he ends up losing his deity before their very eyes.
We live in strange days. Don’t call it done until it’s done.
Again, you’re not wrong, IMO. But the course is set, and a democratic society – even if all we have left is a pretense thereto – has to see it out. Even if it’s for the very last time.