Here's an uncomfortable admission: The Trump convictions don't sit well with me.
I've always been in favor of jury nullification, saying I would have a hard time convicting even in the case of archation, just because it feels like handing government a win. Doing what The Ancestral Enemy wants is the wrong thing to do, except in extraordinary circumstances. This isn't that.
When it's a counterfeit "law" I wouldn't convict my worst enemy. Liberty is more important than personal feelings.
And this seems to be the case in this trial.
It's not even about Trump. I liked Donald Trump when he used to appear on David Letterman's show. That ended when he entered politics. Politics makes people stupid and usually a bit evil, too. Although I never supported him, I never suffered from TDS, and never thought he was a unique danger like so many others seem to be hallucinating he is. I think this allows me to think more clearly where he is concerned.
I don't need or want a president and I don't need or want to be governed. By anyone. Particularly not by an anti-gun bigot (like all presidents turn out to be).
Part of me thinks "The shoe's on the other foot now", but part of me sees this as a bogus trial, politically arranged and rigged to take out an apparent enemy of the current party in power. (Even though he used to belong to their party and still follows their dogma on many important issues.) If they imprison him, it will make him a political prisoner, and I am completely against governments and the holding of political prisoners. Even if I disagree with the prisoners on everything of importance. I oppose all political prosecutions.
This has caused me to have some sympathy for Trump-- not support, but sympathy for someone I don't generally find to be a very sympathetic character. I don't like it, but there it is. That was an amazing accomplishment, Democratic Party. Congrats.
If they had gone after him for his actual crimes-- the bump stock ban, continuing the Stupid and Evil War on Politically Incorrect Drugs, not pardoning Snowden, Ulbricht, and Assange (and others), supporting police, and other evil things he did-- similar to the evil things every other president does-- then I wouldn't care. Get him. But to go after him on the things they chose? Things they'd ignore if he wasn't Donald Trump? Nope. Not gonna buy it. It was a sham.
Trump is now an outlaw. Not a Liberty Outlaw, but the other kind. Yet definitely no worse than the kriminals-- the serial archators-- who are out to get him.
So, my feelings are definitely mixed.
Will it backfire? I wouldn't mind seeing it happen. And I don't really mind seeing Leviathan eating itself. Anything that shatters government's illusion of legitimacy is a good thing.
Just like having Biden as a president has shown how utterly inconsequential having a president is. If he can do the "job", anything could. The "job" could be abolished without problems, as long as you didn't change the rules and eliminate the requirement that the president sign bills that the congressvermin pass to make them enforceable "laws". No signature; no new legislation, which would be a good start.
Having a president is a terrible idea, as is having any kind of political government... which can decide to "get" its enemies. Maybe even you or me.
"I liked Donald Trump when he used to appear on David Letterman's show. That ended when he entered politics."
ReplyDeleteWhat time period was that? He "entered politics" AT LEAST as early as 1988 (when he tried to get considered as George H.W. Bush's running mate), and probably earlier. He first ran for presiden in 2000, but withdrew when he realized Pat Buchanan was going to whip his ass for the Reform Party's nomination.
OK, when I *noticed* he'd entered politics.
DeleteWhen he started his campaign for 2016. I heard people saying he'd tried to run before, but that was news to me.
Yeah, when he announced for 2016, he tried very hard to pretend that it was the first time and that he was an "outsider."
Delete