Stop demanding Prison for Trump
because it won't happen
Every time legal nooses appear to be tightening around Donald Trump, the political Left seems eager to push him up the steps to gallows.
Actually, the Left takes a dim view of capital punishment and has instead pushed prison as its punitive preference for Trump.
If you can explain how that will work, I am all ears. The Secret Service is barely tolerant of state and local police. How are they going to handle the Bureau of Prisons? Will the agents assigned to Trump be able to carry guns? And what’s going to happen when there’s a beef between Trump and another inmate?
Yeah, that’s not going to happen. And no, you cannot remove a former President from Secret Service protection.
And yet, from tax fraud in New York in the election meddling in Georgia to the January 6th Insurrection, Democrats and the Left sounds like the Queen of Hearts in “Alice in Wonderland” with its “Sentence first — Verdict Afterward” mindset.
Tax fraud cases are invariably resolved with payments, interest, and fines. And just like Trump’s charitable foundation case, a tax conviction’s power will lie with its collateral effects.
Those clamoring for a true bill of indictment in Fulton County Georgia over Trump’s January 2, 2021 phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,800 votes” are missing the point — the last thing the Left wants is an acquittal or mistrial where the evidence is both indisputable (the phone call was recorded on both ends) and inculpatory. And, a state conviction in Georgia might lead to a pardon should Gov. Brian Kemp get reelected in November.
Trump’s attempts to meddle in Georgia’s election, while obviously illegal, are in fact part of a far wider seditious series of events which culminated to the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Trump’s critics, detractors, and the Left need to stop envisioning a “lock him up and throw away the key” mentality and choose a more realist path.
From the Unite the Right rally in August 2017 to the January 6th attack on the Capitol, white supremascists, right wing militants, and authoritarians have shown a willingness to enage in acts of violence with Trump’s political blessing. Since January 6, 2021, these groups have been inordinately quiet.
Why? Seven Hundred and Fifty arrests and prosecutions mostly. From Charlottesville to Portland and from Kenosha to San Marcos, right-wing violence and intimidation went largely unprosecuted. Plus, Trump and his political apologists in Congress and in the media have messaged a narrative of normalcy and legitimacy. Effectively, right-wing protestors had carte blanche for “fun trouble”.
January 6, 2021 changed much of that. The fun trouble before that involved innocuous charges at best, but with the affinity police have for the conservative viewpoints and its effect on how they deal with right-wing protests1, the risk of arrest was always minimal. Again, January 6th upended that.
The FBI, federal prosecutors, Congress, and an uneven army of journalists have pushed back against the Right’s narrative and messaging. The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol has received a treasure trove of documents from the National Archives (thanks to President Biden and the Supreme Court) and is grinding away with new revelations every day. The revelations seem to be tieing in people in the White House, people in Congress, and people at FoxNews to what looks increasingly like a seditious conspiracy — a fantasy plan poorly executed to be sure, but it is still sedition and it involves a lot of people.
The result of the foregoing — the Left is enthralled with the prospect of Trump being convicted and jailed. Start thinking probation at best. Maybe, with a little luck, Trump might get house arrest, but given his properties that won’t be that big a deal.
The Left needs to focus on what we really want for Trump and his circle of sychophantic enablers — removing Trump et al. from public life. That’s why realists bring up Section 3 of the 14th Amendment:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
Section 3 casts a wide swath in precluding persons who have previously taken an oath to support the Constitution from public office of any kind. I have personally taken such an oath twice (once as a congressional staffer and once as an attorney).
It would be a rather interesting turn if supporting the January 6th insurrection could cost one their political ambitions, their careers, or their professions (e.g. lawyers). The only question is whether it can be enforced in the age of Trumpism.
If the Trump brand becomes political cancer, the nihilists in the GOP won’t want to be near it.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/videos/why-police-aggression-is-far-more-pronounced-against-left-leaning-protesters/
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution also applies to all of the current Congress persons who were a part of the planning and/or execution of No. 45’s seditious acts.
I await the conclusion of the January 6th Committee so they too can be prosecuted and stripped of all opportunities to destroy this nation.
I disagree. Trump MUST go to prison. Alternatively, he must pay for treason in the other way, the way we've punished traitors for centuries: The DEATH PENALTY. (And yes, that's still the penalty for treason.)
If we do not, then we are giving people the OK to commit open treason and not be punished for it. We must make an example, and show that even the President is not immune to the law of the land.