Co-blogger Pierre Lemieux writes:
Whatever one thinks of the criminal prosecutions and state “civil” suits against Donald Trump (and there are good reasons to question many aspects of them), they represent the powerful state that he has not disavowed, except perhaps in occasional and incoherent baby talk, as long as he was running it. And there is something special about the way he sells this sort of state, provided he runs it, to his followers. America was in terminal decline before him, in four years he made it great again, it’s not great anymore since the election was stolen from him, but he will quickly make it great again if the election is not rigged.
There are two ways to disavow a powerful state: with words and with actions. I favor the latter. The former is, literally, just talk.
It’s true that Donald Trump didn’t disavow the powerful state with words. And, in many, many ways, he didn’t do it with actions.
But he did do it one important way with non-action.
Recall that in the 2016 campaign, when he would even mention his opponent Hilary Clinton, some of his most zealous supporters would yell, “Lock her up.” I don’t know if Trump said it back, although I wouldn’t be surprised. But those are words.
What did he do to Hilary Clinton after he became President? Nothing. He didn’t appoint a special prosecutor, although he certainly had grounds to do so.
What did his 2020 opponent, Joe Biden, do after he became President? Appointed an Attorney General with an ax to grind, who did appoint a special prosecutor to go after Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is, in so many ways, a person to whom it’s hard to be sympathetic. But Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Joe Biden, Merrick Garland, and Juan Merchan, to name five, have made me sympathetic to him. They are going so far beyond what is fair and appropriate, in a way that Donald Trump never did.
The pic above is of Judge Juan Merchan.