WWHG
I wrote two books which essentially broke down players’ qualifications for the baseball Hall of Fame. I went through a number of different tests and statistical gymnastics to determine whether particular players were a good fit. One of those tests is what has often been called the Player A and B test. I certainly didn’t invent it. I couldn’t tell you who did, but it has come in handy more than a few times. Essentially, you simply look at two players’ numbers and remove their name. From there, it becomes pretty easy to figure out which player was the better player.
Baseball is a peculiar sport where numbers become sacrosanct. Spit out enough numbers and most of us could identify the player anyway. However, the methodology is important. We develop emotional attachment to guys in a positive or negative way. If we can remove that emotion we can make better decisions with the ballot and we can make better arguments in the sports bar.
WWHG stands for What would Hillary Get. Hillary is no longer relevant in our politics. At least she shouldn’t be. She will never run for public office again and so she should not be particularly relevant. Of course, certain people will try to keep her relevant for their own purposes. For our own sanity, you can replace her with whoever you want. Essentially, we can turn our politics into a Player A and B test.
So, when we consider what to do with ex-presidents we can ask the simple question: what would Hillary get? If she (or Bill) had brought home boxes of confidential documents and stored it in their attic what would happen to them? Even more important than what would happen to them is the question of what should happen to them? What would you argue for?
Obviously, this is where the concept of “but the emails…” will come up. Let’s keep in mind, the FBI not only investigated that multiple times but announced less than a week before the election that they were still investigating. Nothing came of it because it was determined that she did not have any secret or sensitive information that she shouldn’t have had on the private server. Was that the right ruling? I’m not an expert on email servers or confidential documents. However, we can easily apply the same test in reverse.
Our politics has become so tribal that we reflexively defend or accuse based on which team we play for. Criminalizing politics has always been distasteful for that reason. However, sometimes you have to do it in order to protect the sanctity of our nation. WWHG needs to plastered on every billboard. We need those rubber wristbands. Some people need it tattooed on their chest. If you are willing to excuse a guy taking home boxes full of sensitive documents that he had no legal right to then you better be ready to excuse the same for those on the other side.
If you listened to Keith Olbermann’s podcast today you’d know what he thinks tfg should get: indictment and the Rosenberg treatment!
1Indictment for sure, but shooting the SOB is too easy on him. Let him live out the rest of his miserable existence in a supermax. No internet, no McDonalds, no adulation from the MAGA masses. Just one hour a day out of his cell and three meals a day of prison food. Since prison food is probably healthier than a steady diet of McD’s he might even live longer.
2Trump was always going to get some special treatment as a FPOTUS, and I’m okay with that up to a point. When the archives took back 15 boxes of documents in January, there were reports of classified information, but it was never confirmed. Had Trump given up all 48 boxes then, the public might never of heard another word about them. Hillary would not have gotten a Mulligan for that, but compared to Jan 6, it would have faded into the background.
But that level of criminality was not enough for Trump, he had to double down. As Beau of the Fifth Column put it, if you or I had done this, we wouldn’t be in prison, 10-20 would be what the caretaker would tell out family when they came to visit, Row 10, Plot 20.
The fact that Trump hasn’t been arrested yet comes down to only a couple of legitimate reasons. Certainly, Merrick Garland is going to be careful. We don’t want him to lose his 100% conviction streak on this one. More importantly, I’m sure someone is comparing the information Trump had with NSA intercepts of foreign intelligence services to see what can be traced back to Trump. That would explain the degree of panic in Trump’s current behavior.
3Nick, WWHG everywhere for sure.
4But buddy, going after trump isn’t criminalizing politics.
It’s the government going after a criminal.
Going after Hillary was using government positions of power (Trey Gowdy comes to mind) as a means to make a criminal out of a political opponent.
And no amount of screeching lies that the opposite is true,
5makes it true.
There just ain’t a middle ground.
Cuz the screeching keeps pulling the middle towards the screech.
6Which is the point.