Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Monday, July 19, 2021

Bring Charges

 Martin Longman is absolutely right. Trump is hiding behind a stupid norm in American politics: you don't prosecute outgoing presidents. Admittedly, the only one who this really applies to is Nixon. A good norm is not prosecuting presidents because of official actions that turned out badly. That's vindictive partisanship. But charging Trump with his very real crimes is imperative, because the main reason Trump will run again in 2024 is to avoid prison. Put him there before he has a chance!  As Longman notes, numerous other well-established democracies do not have a problem with this. 

We have this norm because most presidents are not venal, self-serving assholes, and the few that were weren't out-and-out criminals. Trump is.  

Bring the charges.

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