Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
In other words, voters are just like you, in that they don't really care. Thanks for that postcard from America.
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Yglesias suggested a technique to force out Trump. I commented on the likelihood of its success based on facts.
A reasonable view of the facts compels recognition that Trump can be removed through careful political maneuvering. The Ds have to throw a perfect game, and they have to get a lot of R help, but it can technically be done. A reasonable assessment of the facts leads to the conclusion that protests, OTOH, are not likely to succeed, or to even occur to a significant extent.
Just because you feel very strongly about removing Trump for his efforts to solicit information from foreign powers does not mean anywhere near a majority of Americans agrees with you. We both know this sort of information is acquired by politicians through back channels all the time. What do you think opposition research is? The only difference here is Trump is so dumb, he tried to make a trade for it. And since he has no access to discreet back channels, rather than wash such a transaction as skilled politicians and research providers would, he had a fool like Giuliani out there soliciting the information.
I see in Trump, and I suspect this is a majority view of voters, the living embodiment of the nation, "It's not necessarily being criminal, but being dumb, that gets people in trouble." Trump is dumb. He sounds dumb. He speaks like a child. He has ludicrous hair. It's impossible not conclude he's just a blundering thug, exposing himself where others would have gotten away with things. I don't think people march against buffoons.
The closest analogue for Trump's recent malfeasance is the Iran Contra situation. Do you recall marches congealing around collective upset at Reagan having funneled weapons to a nation that had just years earlier held 50 of our State Department employees hostage? No. That never happened. And if it didn't happen there, why on earth do you think it'll happen in response to an allegation Trump held up foreign aid to a nation most Americans still think is called "The Ukraine" to get dirt on Biden?
Schiff is an ex-prosecutor. I think some of those guys think people are as doggedly interested in pursuing all "wrongs" as they are. This is a delusion. I think even the simplest grasp that life is complex, systems are complex, and the letter of the law and ethical considerations are more malleable than perhaps we'd like them to be.* And that sometimes, a fool is elected President.
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* ETA: If not for there being "ways things are actually done" separate and apart from the way the rules, and certain of their stewards, assert things "must be done," the world would grind to a halt. Even at this age, I'll read an agreement literally only to later find "industry practice" deviates from its terms. If you've plead out a criminal case, you've seen the divergence between the law and "what happens" in its most stark relief. I'd suspect that 59% of Americans polled saying they support impeachment of Trump are doing so not because they're incensed about what's been alleged, but because anything that might get the guy off their televisions sounds great to them. (Shit, I'd love to see him impeached and removed if not for the fact that we'd then have President Pence for a few months.)
