A Nickel’s worth of free advice
“What’s good for the goose is also good for the gander.” — Proverb
This is a piece I am dedicating to my conservative friends and family. So, feel free to read from that perspective. Consider this a love letter of sorts. If you are calling this a sham trial I have only one thing to tell you. If you would be screaming for a Democrat to be prosecuted under the same circumstances then you have no leg to stand on and I would politely invite you to shut the hell up. There is a reason why I opened with the proverb I did.
If you don’t believe me then I invite you to consider the drawn out case of John Edwards. I didn’t hear anyone at the time scream political prosecution. I certainly didn’t hear that for Rob Blagojevich was sent to the slammer. Current senator Bob Menedez is in the midst of his own corruption trial. I don’t hear anyone screaming about political sham trials there.
As we sit, the Republican party is being led by a convicted felon. An independent district attorney’s office decided to bring charges. An independent judge presided over the case. Twelve independent citizens listened to the evidence and cross examinations and voted unanimously to convict. It’s time to stop this fantasy of Joe Biden being both a drooling mental deficient and mastermind that controls every Democratically elected district attorney in the country. It cannot be both. You have to choose one. Choose carefully.
The answer is that the second one definitely isn’t true. This has always been Trump induced projection. He wanted to control the justice department. He wanted them to be his own personal attorneys. He strong armed them into doing things they shouldn’t have done. So, he naturally assumes everyone does it. He assumes it because he has no idea how any of this is supposed to work.
Here is my plea. It is not too late. On July 15th we will likely know what the Trump penalty will be when the Republican National Convention is underway. Nominate anyone else. Nikki Haley would appear to be the most logical choice but it could really be anyone at that point. You can cite any reason you like, but the reason should be that you don’t want a felon as your party’s leader.
Since I know this is not likely to happen I have a secondary plea. I know the calendar won’t be your friend here, so you can feel free to do this the Wednesday after the election, but it is time for a Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, or a Jeff Flake to step up and form a new conservative party. Their ideals could be simple and fairly similar to what Republicans used to stand for.
Would Nikki Haley do better than Trump at the polls? My political instincts and training say likely not. The hardcore MAGAs would likely stay home and depress the GOP vote. You may even see some show up and vote for the lower ticket races and leave that spot blank in protest. She would get people worried about Biden’s age and mental acumen that would still vote for him if it were Trump running against him. That’s a hard race to predict for these reasons.
What I will say is that you wouldn’t be poisoning yourself for 2028. You would remain a viable party and if you were able to either silence or shun the rest of MAGA then your party could return to normal and possibly survive. If you don’t do this you become a zombie party if you haven’t become that already. Sure, you take some seats due to gerrymandering and demographic advantages in certain areas of the country, but you cease to be a governing party.
This event is one of those cataclysmic events that turns an entire election on its ear. My personal belief is that Trump will have reverse coattails. He will cost Republicans down ballot races. A Nikki Haley might not. She might not galvanize the forces for a red wave, but she will stave off a blue wave. That might be your best bet and your best hope right now.
The Republican party is not going to return to normal. Normal left the station a long time ago. Trump will be the nominee because he has to be for his own protection from the other federal cases against him. The GOP is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump family.
1Nick, I’m guessing you think your conservative family and friends still have some common sense and aren’t deep in the cult of trumpf quite yet. My brother is in deep and he would yell and carry on like the crazy person he’s become the past 9 or 10 years. There is no reasoning. Despite the history of trumpf lying (verified fact checking identified over 30000 lies during his presidency, and I suspect it’s quadruple that between 2015-now), cheating charities and students, frauding, and on and on, the magats in trumpf’s cult block that all out.
2Not surprising that the media is giving much more attention to the repugnantican mouthpieces than to reasonable experts on the side of the law. I’ve finally tuned the news out for now
I’m afraid his appeals to his convictions will drag out well beyond November and he’ll be able to spew more lies, raise more money and incite more violence. Help us all if he gets elected. It gives me nightmares.
I’m likely pissing into the wind. Most of my MAGA friends and family are too far gone. My real hope on our side is t stop fighting the DAvfight in Georgia and just find any competent prosecutor and move forward. Gets some more convictions. Secure jail time.
However, I reach across because I know one straggler here and there will accept the olive branch. I’ve never deluded myself to think it will be many. Even just one or two is a good result.
3“She shouldn’t be allowed to run…If she wins, it would create an unprecedented constitutional crisis… we could very well have a sitting president under felony indictment and a criminal trial. It would grind government to a halt.”
Felon? Criminal? Government chaos? Who pointed this out? Donald Trump of course.
4Rick, you think the media would put that out there, what trumpf said about HRC? Noooo.
5Appears that the repugnantican congress critters are going to weaponize the supremes like they’ve done for years. Considering the federalists and bought and paid for members of the court, I won’t be surprised when they rule on making trumpf immune from prosecution, killing 3 birds with one stone- freeing trumpf from his felony convictions, killing the pending cases and blowing up our democracy. Sorry to be so pessimistic but consider who we’re talking about.
They have shown that clip on MSNBC. The trouble is MAGA will never see it. When media itself is splintered then reality itself becomes skewed. Then you get dimbasses that don’t watch any news. Those are the folks that won’t know at all unless a random person tells them.
6Another conservative party? Like the “Tea Party”?
Bah. Burn the lifeboats!
https://professionalleft.blogspot.com
7You could probably count the number of major media repeating trumpf’s comment on your middle finger. MSNBC is a given.
8LHU; LHU! Lock him up! Turn about is Fair Play:another proverb.
9Get ready for the crusades, the Xtian Nationalist fundie whackjobs are coming for your sorry librul Demonrat asses.
None of y’all are pure enough true believers to pass their evangelicfascist litmus tests.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/1/2243411s/-At-Texas-GOP-convention-Republicans-call-for-spiritual-warfare
10Sandridge, that Daily Kos link has Access Denied Block. Any advice?
11PP, don’t y, try going to the main DK page and find the link there. It was a prominent story a few hours ago.
12Driving the point home that running a felon for president isn’t going to do the Repubs any good won’t make them reconsider I don’t think. They want someone they think can win because the whole Project 2025 only works if there are Repugs in control. Course I’m of the opinion that they shot themselves in the foot by embracing fatso the dim bulb but it’s really more on the preparedness of the democrats to win and get rid of the seditious that have tried to take over our country as it stands. We will never have a perfect union. We do come pretty darn close though, why else would so many want to live here? When I hear or read one of those seditious SOB’s refer to our country as a s$%thole I get the urge to shove them out for a while.
13For a few days, I thought, why aren’t the decent Republicans breaking off to form a new party, like the original Republicans did in 1854?h After all, that party went from zero to dominance in national politics in 6 years.
But then I bethought me of the difficulties tat India and Pakistan had in splitting the assets of the Raj in 1948.
In 1854, the parties had a sketchy existence. There were local clubs (like Tammany) but no national and only exiguous state organizations. No money to speak of.
Today, the parties have assets in the billions, huge permanent staffs and — perhaps most problematic — the vast school of political remora fish: think tanks, lobby law firms, PACs, even a few colleges.
Could a breakaway faction of Old Republicans carry off any of those assets? If not, how would a Revived Republican Party finance its own infrastructure?
14I wish we could still put him in the stocks.
15Those are excellent points Harry. I see the GOP problem as purely demographic. They are gambling on 2024 because they know it’s all or nothing if they continue down this path. If he wins its game over for democracy. If he loses it’s game over for them in all effect.
It will take a couple of decades to tear down the last vestiges of conservatism but it will happen. Biden has already gotten through 200+ judges. He gets in another 200 or so in another term and likely one justice on the SC. The GOP will win around 200 House seats and 40 Senate seats based on demographics but that’s not near enough to govern. They are holding on for dear life.
I handpicked the ones I did because they are already out and have nothing to lose. They aren’t welcome in the current GOP. So why not give it a go?
16I have been thinking what I would do if I were a never-trump Republican.
Options range down from running a candidate in every race, which is a hard sell considering that all would lose. It is asking a lot to have someone work hard for a sure defeat.
Here is my proposal: Run a ‘Real Republican’ in every contested House district. I have the slogan: Write in a Real Republican.
The goal would be three-fold:
Show the strength of antitrump Republicanism. I believe this would be at least twice the 15% that antitrump Republicans show in primaries.
Begin creating a New Party organization by having Republicans from around the country flood those 30-odd districts to support the Forlorn Hope candidates, establishig relationships and bona fides for 2026 and beyond.
Making sure that most of those swing districts are won by a Democrat so that, if trump does win the presidency, there will be an antitrump solid majority in the House.
That’s expecting a lot more than we are going to get. I will contribute $1,000 to any Republican who runs on such a scheme (up to 50 candidates). Purely symbolic but symbols mean something.
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