Nor do I. All the ambitious Republican presidential prospects have assuredly been taking notes since 2016, and many of them are younger, smarter and/or more disciplined than Trump. Not to say that all of them are authoritarian wannabes, but some almost certainly are.
Nitpick: and/or is and. Only and.
Nevermind. I missed the real point.
Why photoshop when Pinterest has you covered?
IMHO, I think the answer is, they won’t.
Which means all we can do is prevent them from gaining access to power until the party is completely destroyed.
I say this with no joy. I think it’s important to have a functioning opposition, and it will be a long time until we do again. But for now, they’re just too dangerous for the country to give them the levers of government. If we do, our days as a democracy – nominal as it already is – will be over.
In my more negative moods I’ve certainly posted the same idea*.
They will either burn themselves out while in power in an orgy of destruction, or out of power in an orgy of impotent rage. But burn they must; it’s the only way they’ll ever calm down. You and I agree the latter is the preferable path.
A different opposition could arise to replace the formal organization called the “Republican Party”. And standing for a different and more mainstream grab-bag of policies. But even that must be after the immolation is well under way. The legal arrangements in all 50 states mean they can’t be displaced by the voting public as can happen in other systems.
*. See here for example. Although the thread was about a different topic, my post was about Authoritarianism:
While I can’t place the reference for the “tooting party favor” reference, I do remember reading somewhere that if the country ever needed an enema, Texas would be where they’d stick the tube.
Seconded. This is a fight you fight, not a fight you win. A general “you.”
I wouldn’t worry about that functioning opposition issue. The Democratic Party practically has one built-in. I’d say about twelve nanoseconds after the GOP is declared extinct, a schism will occur.
That could be true. We can hope.
We do have a functioning opposition. The Republicans are not the only game in town. Once they self-destruct, another party will grow stronger to fill in the gap.
I’m not this is technically accurate, DeSantis and Abbot could indeed be worse, both seem to relish the cruelty to racialo minorities and LGBTQ even more than Trump, but I think if Pence or Nikki Halley got it (maybe Scott too I don’t know enough about him), it would be not good, but survivable. Unfortunately unless Trump is in prison and a meteor hits DeSantis they don’t have the slimmest of slim chances of winning the primary so for all practical purposes you are correct.
Just chock full of invigorating schadenfreude
“In the future, counsel is encouraged to follow the professional standard of inquiring with chamber’s staff about timing and deadlines before burdening other courts with unnecessary and unfounded legal filings,” Judge McBurney wrote
To the Trump team’s assertions that Mr. Trump would be injured by an indictment, Judge McBurney appeared to allude to the fund-raising that Mr. Trump’s campaign had done, highlighting the criminal cases against him.
“For some, being the subject of criminal investigation can, à la Rumpelstiltskin, be turned into golden political capital, making it seem more providential than problematic,” he wrote in a footnote.
Plus more where they came from!
I think I like this guy.
One more money quote from that article:
“The drumbeat from the district attorney has been neither partisan (in the political sense) nor political, in marked and refreshing contrast to the stream of personal invective flowing from one of the movants,” the judge wrote.
Gee, I wonder who he was talking about?
If a judge gets too creative with their opprobrium, they can end up creating grounds for claims they are biased. Or at least that they cannot be involved in future cases involving that defendant or counsel as the well has been throroughly poisoned.
Although I too lurves me some good bashing from the bench. I am anxiously awaiting my favorite legal blogger’s take on this order. Which I’ll share here as soon as he deigns to post.
I think as long as he doesn’t sign off the judgement with, “You’ve just been McBurned!”, we’re fine.
An example of life imitates art. The good judge beat The Onion to the punch.
At press time, the campaign had reportedly decided on a fundraising strategy of having Trump threaten the lives of federal judges at a rally.
Are we doing an over/under on how long before this becomes true? I’ll set the point at four months.
Former Michigan AG candidate charged with illegally attempting to access voting machines.
Matthew DePerno is charged in Michigan voting machine scheme : NPR.
As Dirty Harry almost said:
Nuthin’ wrong with stealin’ votes. As long as the right votes get stolen.