There’s a certain sense in which I understand what former president Donald Trump is saying when it insists it was “common sense” for January 6 insurrectionists to chant “Hang Mike Pence!” After all, it was Pence who was presiding over the count of the Electoral College votes. It was clear that Trump expected his vice-president to help him carry out at coup d’etat and that Pence wasn’t going along with the plot. That was why it seen as necessary to storm the Capitol building to interrupt the proceedings before Joe Biden officially became the winner of the 2020 election. Naturally, the MAGA crowd was angry enough to kill Pence. It’s perfectly logical once you accept a half dozen false and magical premises.
But there’s another sense in which it’s still shocking to hear Trump defend a mob that was hellbent on assassinating his vice-president. It’s not shocking that Trump feels this way. Not at all. But it’s a bit surprising that he comes right out and admits how he feels. It’s another example of how he never expects there will be any negative consequences for the outrageous things he does. It’s another example of how no one has any meaning to him other than himself.
Does Trump stop for one moment to think what Pence will think about his remarks? No, he doesn’t. Pence is dead to him. In truth, Pence was never really alive. Trump is so self-absorbed that no one else has any more meaning than a stone. He has no friends. No one has any value to him unless they’re doing his bidding, which is the same thing as saying that they have to independent value at all.
Pence showed tremendous loyalty to Trump but none of that counts for a thing. If he’d been lynched on January 6, Trump’s only concern would have been the possible legal consequences he’d face.
He belongs in jail. I’ll never tire of making this point. He should not be a free man.
Yet here we are. He’s free, and judging from the circumstances of the moment, it’s pretty likely he will remain free. And he is still the undeniable leader of one our two political parties, and an almost literal god to about 30% of the country. And for maybe an additional 10% of the country, maybe more, he would be considered an acceptable 47th President of the United States.
Democracy in America got a stay of execution in 2020. But it seems like there is just no universal sense of urgency to make sure that stay remains at least semi-permanent. I would be lying if didn’t say that watching the sand run out of the hourglass a little more every day just adds to this sense of impending doom. And as sidelights we have to simultaneously watch as Kyle Rittenhouse is turned into a victim, and three white guys who chased down Ahmaud Arbery and literally executed him in the street are painted as simply law abiding defenders of their lily white neighborhood from the invading waves of dark skinned people who just won’t stay in their proper places. After these trials are complete, there will really be no reason why these well armed white guys can’t just start running safaris against anyone who isn’t like them. It’s already okay to run “liberals” down with cars. It’s already okay to shoot them, as long as you say you were scared. Might as well just turn it into a money making business and start paying bounties to the scared white guys for bringing in the hides of anyone who isn’t in the right wing tribe. That’s really what these guys want. They want to be able to kill with impunity anyone who they deem to be their enemy. And that means you, and me, and everyone who doesn’t demonstrate absolute loyalty to the commands and whims of Donald Trump. If you live in certain parts of this country, you best be making preparations to deal with an overwhelmingly emboldened radical right.
I agree with all of this. I was really personally beside my self when that killer with an AR15 was weeping and wailing on the stand. And the judge is doing all he can to set him free. When he succeeds it will be hard to avoid the miscarriage justice. Another criminal white guy goes free.
Yeah Trump is still free and I don’t yet see anything that freaking committee is doing that can bring him to justice, just another white guy protected by our lawyers and justices.
Bannon indicted on two counts. Wow!!! Garland did his job.
Garland is the wrong man, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. His slow as sloth movements will spiral us into a dictatorship, if not Trump then some other insane batshit Republican.
I remember Project Redmap, when Karl Rove and other Republican operators planned to take over multiple state legislatures ahead of the 2010 census. The DNC head was Tim Kaine, and he just whistled past the grave! (One of the reasons I hated it when HRC chose him as the running mate – I dare any constituent to name ONE legislative achievement of this not so distinguished senator). And then Obama’s strict adherence to courtesy – I am thinking when he went to McTurtle with Russian interference in 2016 election evidence – to the Republican party in the name of bipartisanship, is leading us down this garden path to dictatorship. YMMV.
All of this.
The fascists are just a few years and elections away from being given the green light to murder liberals in their sleep. It’s why I keep saying that it’s an own goal to argue about “gun control”, as it’s A. Never. Going. To. Happen. and B. As a liberal you don’t just have a right to safely own and operate a firearm, but a responsibility to protect yourself, your family, and your community.
The trajectory wasn’t changed in November of 2020. It was slightly delayed in the short-term, and depending on how other things play out, maybe not even delayed at all in the grand scheme of things.
Why Democrats and liberals continue to not hear how Republicans describe them, and make the connection that they are LITERALLY the enemies, I’ll never understand. Republicans are screaming that Democrats and liberals are taking away their freedoms, enslaving their children for pedophilia, practicing Satanism, and destroying the country. You really don’t think that these people, who Republicans have trained to buy and stockpile firearms, won’t eventually decide that enough is enough and use those stockpiles?
It’s just whistling past the graveyard, and that graveyard is going to be homes and communities of Democrats and liberals. No amount of fact checkers, Twitter posts or pamphlets can prevent it.
Most efficient and effective way to prevent it: Control the Federal Government and as many State governments as possible. Most important and most powerful thing small-d democrats can do.
The only way to mitigate it: The Second Amendment.
This isn’t about LARPing at COSTCO. It’s being able to defend yourself when the fascists are breaking down your door at 3am.
Assuming that the overthrowers intended to keep up a sham government structure, I have wondered what their plan was for the line of succession.
If Pence is gone, next in line would have been the House Speaker, Pelosi. Unthinkable, so there must have been a plan to off her too.
Next in line Pres. Pro Tem of the Senate, Grassley. Was he a conspirator? No matter, he can always talk his way out of it by claiming he does not remember.
After Grassley, Secy of State. Pompeo? Now there is a likely player. We haven’t heard the last of him.
If it is a true dictatorship they will figure it out amongst themselves. no help needed
OK but it’s a big leap from our form of govt to dictatorship, and the conspirators would have liked to keep up a pretense of following the constitutional rules.
And Trump would have liked having a sycophant VP who could also put himself out as legit by the rules.
Of course no one exists for Trump beyond himself. That’s the essence of narcissism. There are lots of folks with a touch of it — perhaps most everyone. Very few have the full blown version but it’s long been obvious to anyone with eyes and half a brain that Trump is that guy. What I find shocking is the extent to which those with money and power are now so obviously above the law. Hell, even Jeffrey Epstein almost escaped prosecution — a serial child rapist. What have we come to? Why is the Democratic party not shouting about this from rooftops? Everyone knows that justice comes down to how much money you’ve got. I’m a lawyer and it’s beyond obvious at all levels of society. Not just on the national stage but at your county courthouse.
Law? A dictator can make it up as they go along, or not as they choose. Who does Putin have to account to? He only has to be popular to avoid the gallows. Wanna bet he keeps good track of that?