If you want to see some weapons grade (pun not intended but I will leave it) sane washing this interview on the "moderate" bulwark network had my jaw on the floor.
There is something creepy about the calm, smart and sane (sounding) people talking about US foreign policy as if it isn't outrageous.
This kind of inability to recognize a crisis, a violation of the social order, a crime is what has us in this mess.
It's every person who thought "well he won't run again no need to put him in prison that's so extreme and makes me feel bad"
Some of it really felt like "but you know, maybe the trains will run on time soon" to me.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
Not sure I follow. Every person with any power to put him in prison was hammering home win after win to put him quite firmly into prison. It was like clockwork.
@todymotmot @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
I think the biggest killer were the delays. They waited to the last moment to bring the cases, the last credible moment where it might still work and then ... oh no ... it failed. Was that intentional? Just fear? I can't read minds. I do not agree that there was focus.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
Think about what you're saying. Set aside Jack Smith and how fast his team was flying. Trump was already convicted of *34* felonies. A prison sentence was already locked in, the judge specifically delayed sentencing *for the election.*
Trump's prison sentence was literally placed in our hands. We all knew it.
But somehow the real problem is that someone was supposed to give us a good feeling about voting? But they couldn't because delays?
@todymotmot @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
The election was another point of failure. Though I've heard many people say things like "if he committed so many crimes why isn't he in prison?" which doesn't excuse not being informed, but it also makes a kind of sense.
Republicans in congress deserve the most blame. They could have stopped this, should have stopped this but did not. But, there are other enablers beyond them.
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
"If he committed so many crimes, why isn't he in prison?" That's the part I'm talking about.
Yes, Republicans deserve some blame. But I'm trying to highlight the emotional insanity of voters.
We were handed the keys to a progressive utopia, on a pretty plate with a bow. The power to end genocides, put Trump in prison, build rural economies, continue global peace processes that worked, dramatic steps to make the military fully woke...
1/2
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
But we couldn't, because feelings.
It felt last minute, it felt rushed, it felt like we didn't have control, it even felt like Biden didn't really get nearly 200 billion forgiven in student loans.
We have got to figure out why the @# we were feeling all that.
2/2
@futurebird @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
You said it "kind of made sense" to ask why Trump wasn't already in prison.
But Trump wasn't in prison *specifically* because the system protects voter power. It should be a shocking question, if not horrifying, coming from an adult. The system gives people, not courts, the greatest power over the POTUS.
Every media outlet should have printed headlines like, "Judge delays sentencing, voters to help decide Trump's fate."
3/4
@todymotmot @thomasjwebb @aaron.rupar
This is a bad theory because it means that the most powerful people, the exact people least likely to be held accountable in a court of law can avoid the consequences of their crimes by running for office.
You are worried about what? The *appearance* of undermining the democratic process? What about undermining the law?
And he could have still been on the ballot after being impeached or from prison. Unless the punishment precluded that.
Ok I've been talking about whether a democracy can depend on voters to protect it.
And it sounded like you're saying we can't, that would be corrupt.
But I think we've talked past each other?
Maybe you're talking about the DoJ policy memo, that said not to prosecute a sitting president?
Am I on track?
I'm talking about the supreme court ruling and the failure to impeach him by the Senate.
Ah, ok. thank you. I strongly agree those were horrifying failures.
But you also mentioned many voters reacted to the perfectly normal, legal, required "delays" in the justice system as a reason not to vote. How is that sane?
It's like saying, "My neighbor is murdering his whole family in the front yard, but I can't call the police because that one officer from a different county gave me an unfair ticket last year!! It's all corrupt!!"
I should clarify, I know millions of people face voter suppression and they have every right to be fed up and complaining loudly about the corrupt system.
But those of us who can easily reach the polling booth seem to be under a very strange, unrealistic delusion that lines up perfectly with billionaire messaging via headlines in the MSM.
I saw the warning signs as MAGA formed over my lifetime, and no one listened. It is happening again.
Aaron Rupar
myrmepropagandist
Thommy
Tody Motmot