Mark SumnerFrom the time he made the most ridiculous entrance in political history, riding down a golden escalator to spew an almost unbroken stream of anti-immigrant rhetoric, one part Donald Trump’s appeal has been obvious: He’s a racist. A misogynist. An unfettered narcissist whose wealth and connections have allowed him to cheat contractors, defraud investors, insult whoever he chooses, endanger workers, and sexually assault women. …
Trump is so crude he’ll talk about the size of his daughter’s breasts in a radio interview. So heartless he’ll make his disdain for prisoners of war and Gold Star parents into a campaign plank. So brazen he’ll tell obvious lies, tell a different lie five minutes later, then deny what he said on camera in front of an audience. His ego is infinite. His self-awareness nonexistent. …
Trump is an unrepentant bully. That alone is enough to make him appealing to many, for the same reason high school bullies have henchmen.
But it’s not Trump’s biggest appeal. The big pull, the thing that turned Trump from a clown on a gaudy yellow staircase into a nightmare in the White House, is that he holds out the same offer to his followers that he enjoys: the promise of cruelty without consequence. …
Over the course of Trump’s time in the big chair, he pardoned Steve Bannon for defrauding fans out of $25 million to pay for a fictional border wall. He gave racist Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio a pass on contempt of court. George Papadopoulos was given a gold star after lying to federal investigators. Conservative talk show host Conrad Black was forgiven for obstruction. Roger Stone was convicted of seven felonies with direct connections to Trump’s campaign. Just like that, Trump set him free. …
Trump may as well have put up a sign declaring any friend of his could do as they pleased, without concern about morality or legality. In fact, anyone on the team was also up for this Get Out of Jail Free card.
Trump didn’t just brush away laws like cobwebs when it came to his friends. He made it abundantly clear that he was there for those who would swear allegiance, like a trio of Republican ex-congressmen who were given passes on everything from securities fraud to money laundering. …
The franchise was also extended to those who did things that Trump and his fan base admired. That included giving full pardons to Dwight and Steven Hammond, a pair of Oregon ranchers and serial arsonists who were part of Ammon Bundy’s anti-government uprising. …
Then Trump topped himself by pardoning Clint Lorance for casually ordering the murder of two civilians in Afghanistan. And pardoning Mathew Golsteyn for murdering a civilian. And he pardoned Edward Gallagher, who not only murdered a prisoner by slowly sticking a knife into his neck, but went on to desecrate the man’s body before posing for a few pictures. Gallagher’s own squad testified against him. …
All of the above were found guilty in military courts before officers and men who had served in the same areas. All of them had their convictions reversed, and their crimes blessed, by Trump. …
If there’s any doubt that this trend would continue, Trump has already declared he would pardon a “large portion” of those convicted in the Jan. 6 insurgency. He’s also announced his support for Daniel Penny, who choked homeless man Jordan Neely to death in front of multiple witnesses and cameras on the New York subway. (Trump’s far from alone in this one. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have both promised to pardon Penny, too.) …
It’s been said many times that in the modern Republican Party, cruelty is the point, But Donald Trump’s real promise is that those who follow his path get to be cruel—and never pay for it. …
Trump is the exemplar of this system. He’s weathered over 3,000 lawsuits, most from his refusal to pay debts. He’s walked away from charges of racial discrimination with nothing more than a promise to be good next time. He’s faced down 106 charges of money laundering, charitable theft, and fraud. The worst thing that ever happened to him was that he wrote a check. Even a jury trial finding that Trump sexually assaulted writer E. Jean Carroll cost him less than he can grift in a week. …
All of this is why it’s vitally important that Trump not just be indicted, not just be found guilty, but that he PAY by serving a serious, lengthy prison sentence. Otherwise, his supporters will receive exactly the message Trump has been sending them all along: Special people, people like Trump, can always walk away. …
Even the courtesies that the FBI and Department of Justice have been providing Trump so far—the courtesy warnings before indictments are produced, the waving of mugshots, the failure to impose any bail or travel restrictions—only serve to reinforce the message that, even when caught, nothing bad really happens. His followers see that. They internalize it. They live it. …
Trump himself keeps complaining that if the government can come after him, they can come after anyone, and in a way that's true: If Trump has to pay, then his promise to his supporters falls apart. Only by seeing that Trump receives punishment on the scale of anyone else charged with the same crimes can his supporters be convinced that their bully can’t protect them. That the next pardon won’t have their name on it. That eventually, everyone has to pay for their actions. …
That lesson had better be taught. It had better be clear. And it had better be soon.
Htaggert@Devilstower I thought long and hard this morning while the coffee brewed about where I’d be living if I had stolen documents like that. I don’t think I’d still be waltzing about…
Michael Gemar@Devilstower “If they can come after me, they can come after you” is literally the notion of the Rule of Law. No one should be above the law.
Angry Centrist@Devilstower #Frump needs a Reality Winner sized penalty for EACH of the documents. Served consecutively.
Kevin Karhan 
@Devilstower amd that is the problem.
If #Obama gad commited a #Jan6-like #Coup and #Insurrection, he would've been executed by firing squad for #HighTreason before dawn.
But #Trump isn't even in a 6'x6'x6' box awaiting trial like #ChelseaManning did, and unlike her he actually did endanger #NatSec in a gross & neglectful way if not acted as a #ForeignAgent and commited #Espionage.
@Devilstower
The #LackOfAccountability and #LackOfConsequences is seen as #weakness of the #State by the #facists, thus they see this as #SilentConsent by the Authorities do more (than) #StochasticTerrorism!
Remember: #WhatYouAllowIsWhatWillContinue - and that is espechally true for the executive and judicial branches of the government!