Many moderate Republicans, disgusted by the antics of Trump and the more radical Republicans in Congress, stay home.
Many other Republicans, convinced by Republicans that voting is so rigged and insecure, lose confidence in voting and stay home.
Democratic voters, fully engaged and enraged, flock to polls in massive numbers like you’ve never seen.
Democrats gain a solid majority in the house and 17 more seats in the senate, or whatever it takes to impeach and convict.
Democrats in the House proceed to expel all the radical Republican clowns.
Democrats in the Senate do likewise.
Democrats in the House impeach Thomas, Kavanaugh, maybe a few others, and a lengthy list of other Trumpian officials throughout the Federal government.
Democrats in the Senate convict and remove the same.
No one. Only Thomas can recuse himself of his own volition. There have been calls for him to recuse himself in the past over clear conflicts of interest. He never has. I see no reason to think he ever will.
The Roberts SCOTUS is hopelessly partisan; they’re willing to have a ruling or two that inconveniences/annoys Trump, but they won’t make any ruling that would result in his criminal conviction.
Garland seems convinced that no President–at least one of a party other than the party of the one who appointed him–should face any consequences for either improper or even criminal conduct. You know, for the Good of the Country.
Whether designating some people, however unofficially, as “above the law,” is good for the country is a question I wish Garland would address specifically. As things stand we keep getting statements from DOJ along the ‘will pursue to the top’–but notice they never say ‘to the top of the government, current or former.’ By ‘to the top’ they may just as easily mean ‘to the top of right-wing militias.’ They may just hope we don’t notice.
Per Deputy AG Lisa Monaco, as part of announcement of new hires (good!) at DOJ:
Always ‘no matter what level’ but never any mention of ‘no matter what level of government.’ Never any mention of office holders or former office holders or their staff. Always just the general ‘perpetrators.’
We have no assurance that Garland’s DOJ will pursue non-violent seditious activity–the Trump-associated planners of the crime.
(Yes, investigations take time. Yes, Garland doesn’t leak. But if investigations of Trump associates have begun—in the fourteen months since 1/6/21—I find it impossible to believe that all those associates would have protected Garland by staying silent about what was happening to them.)
Cute YouTube video I stumbled across just earlier today: “The Man Who Never Discerned” – parody song lampooning Garland for not getting anywhere with all this.
ETA – Looks like this is brand new, too. Put up just today (March 28), and makes mention of Judge Carter’s opinion that Trump probably did criminal things.
We all know this isn’t happening. “Moderate” Republicans aren’t moderate in their voting habits.
Oh, publicly, they’ll certainly clutch their pearls and say “gee, Trump is very concerning. He doesn’t represent me.” Then, privately, they’ll tell themselves “Trump is bad but I’m more scared of income tax, CRT, and The Antifas. Also BLM and the gender stuff.”
“Moderate” Republicans may have voted against him in the primaries. But they voted for him in the general in 2016, 2020, and will do it again in 2024.
I’ll concede that it’s not likely that Trump ever sees the inside of a jail.
But while it may provide less schadenfreude, it would probably actually be better for the country if he doesn’t. The best outcome would be a civil war within the Republican ranks that lasts the next 3 years and destroys the party. And the more shit that turns up about Trump, the more likely that is to happen (since there’s no way he would graciously withdraw his name from 2024 consideration.)
At this point, it’s not having a (one hopes non-violent) war within the Republican ranks that’ll destroy the party. Because the alternative is handing it over; at which point, there may be something left with that name hung on it, but it won’t be the Republican Party.
ETA: That’s pretty much what’s been happening, so far.
Trump, he point out, has often used borrowed cell phones to make calls, so the notional phone records won’t have records of all the calls he was likely making at the time.
But most importantly for Trump, the clock is still ticking.
