Internet Memes: “There are never any serious consequences! That’s why Trump and his pals keep breaking laws!”

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This is from one of the TV lawyers I talked about in last week’s blog post:

“Trump has never suffered any actual consequences” or the common corollary, “Trump keeps breaking laws because the legal system is corrupt or failing” are what Yale professor Timothy Snyder calls an “Internet Trigger,” and I’ve called a “rage-inducing simplification.”

Simplifications take a complex situation and boil it down to something that seems true and perhaps has some truth in it, but is not true. Rage-inducing simplifications trigger rage. Snyder defines an Internet Trigger as something a person sees on the Internet, feels triggered by, and repeats. (For more on that, and why these kinds of untruths are a danger to democracy, see this post.)

The implication is that Trump breaks laws because there haven’t been enough consequences. This in turn implies that (1) more consequences will solve the problem and (2) Trump breaks laws because of a failure in the criminal justice system. Like this:

A sampling of the actual consequences Trump has suffered (this is not a complete list):

The problem isn’t that there are no actual consequences. The problem is how Trump (and his enablers) respond to them.

When Nixon was about to be impeached and the evidence against him was overwhelming, he resigned. When Trump was impeached and the evidence was overwhelming, the Republican Party shielded him and lied for him.

Most people, when they lose court cases, they drop their claims. Trump loses court cases and literally ignores the rulings.

Had an organization run by either Hillary Clinton or Obama been indicted for fraud, that would be the end of their careers because the Democratic Party doesn’t lie and shield lawbreakers.

When first-term presidents lose their reelection bid, they generally step aside and allow new leadership to take over the party. Not Trump.

Trump received the Republican nomination in 2016 despite a history of violating rules and norms. He was elected president after it was revealed that he had paid off a porn star for an affair he had while his third wife was pregnant, and a recording of him saying, “When you are a star, they let you do it. . grab em by the pussy.” While he was president, he was shielded by a major political party and a well-oiled propaganda loop. Since leaving office, he has solidified his grip on the Republican Party.

Yet people believe that Republicans are cool with lawbreaking and insurrections because there are not enough consequences:

In addition to the consequences Trump personally suffered, here’s a partial list of what his buddies have been through:

It’s almost as if getting charged with crimes makes Trump associates even more likely to commit crimes.

Okay, so: Why do Republicans Break Laws (and protect and cheer lawbreakers)?

Republicans break the laws they don’t like (and cheer those who break the laws they don’t like)

I wrote about that here, in the section on hierarchy and fairness. How people feel about lawbreaking depends on how they feel about the laws. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry David Thoreau, and the abolitionists in the 19th century who helped enslaved people escape also broke laws. If you think the laws are wrong, you don’t mind when people break them.

We have a long history in this country of a sizable group of Americans being anti-federal government. The Confederacy was anti-federal government because they knew that the federal government, if given the chance, would abolish slavery.

Segregationalists were anti-federal government because they knew the federal government would outlaw segregation. (And in fact, it was the federal government that ended racial segregation.)

The federal government gave us the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965) which helped enable members of minority communities to vote and move into positions of power.

People who want to get rich by cheating want to dismantle the regulatory agencies of the federal government so they can cheat the way they did in the 19th century.

This is from the Patriot Front white supremacy militia’s manifestos:

“The time of the Republic has passed in America as the system grows too weak to perform its duty. … The damage done to this nation and its people will not be fixed if every issue requires the approval and blessing from the dysfunctional American democratic system. Democracy has failed in this once great nation.”

“The American Identity was something uniquely forged in the struggle that our ancestors waged to survive in this new continent. … To be an American is to realize this identity and take up the national struggle upon one’s shoulders. Not simply by birth is one granted this title but by the degree to which he works and fulfills the potential of his birth.”

“An African, for example, may have lived, worked, and even been classed as a citizen in America for centuries, yet he is not American. He is, as he likely prefers to be labeled, an African in America. The same rule applies to others who are not of the founding stock of our people as well as to those who do not share the common unconscious that permeates throughout our greater civilization, and the European diaspora.

Such people want to destroy the federal government because of a “crisis of legitimacy” which happens when people don’t think the government governs on their behalf. See: “The Authentic Appeal of the Lying Demagogue.”

They think the “political establishment” is favoring new groups over “real” Americans. Exactly what Laura Ingraham explained here when she said, “The America we know and love doesn’t exist anymore. Massive demographic changes have been foisted on the American people, and they are changes that none of us ever voted for, and most of us don’t like … this is related to both illegal and legal immigration”

If you want to dismantle the federal government, you can do it slowly or you can bring in a wrecking ball.

Trump was a wrecking ball. These guys are wrecking balls:

So let’s just dispense with the silly talking points that there have never been any consequences and that’s why the rightwing cheers lawbreaking.

Is it fascism? or is it a personality disorder?

Another Yale professor, Jason Stanley, author of How Fascism Works, argues that Trump maintains power because he “cynically uses a set of fascist tactics.” Others say that Trump acts the way he does—and doesn’t respond to consequences like a normal person—because he is a malignant narcissist.

Why not both?

It’s sort of obvious that the Hitlers and Mussolinis of the world have something wrong with their brains. They are not deterrable. They are immune to the mass suffering of others. All that matters to them is power.

Something is clearly wrong with a guy who files a motion asking for a special master on the grounds that the documents he stole are covered by executive privilege even after being told repeatedly by the courts and others that he does not have the authority to assert executive privilege.

Consequences don’t matter to Trump and his enablers because they are immune to facts

Once in a while, for example, while I was reading the redacted affidavit, I find myself thinking, “How will they defend THIS?” The answer: They live in a hermetically sealed disinformation chamber. They don’t exist in the world of facts and truth. For example, this what Tom Fitton’s response to the unsealed affidavit:

Trump could release a video of himself robbing a bank and tell his supporters it showed that the FBI manufactured evidence and his supporters would believe it.

Liars (and simplifiers) have the advantage

A liar can spew dozens of lies in a few minutes. Each lie can take hours to refute. Moreover the refutation is never completely successful because the liar has the advantage of first impression and lies can be formulated so that they are catchy and persuasive. The truth is always more nuanced and complex.

Similarly, it’s super easy to toss out a rage-inducing simplification like, “There are never any actual consequences!” and “Why should he stop if there are never any meaningful consequences,” and look how long it took me to refute it.

So stop blaming the criminal justice system. Put the blame where it goes: On the Republican Party for defending and shielding lawbreaking.

Political problems require political solutions. The GOP needs to lose elections. That’s how they will learn. For what you can do, see this post.
The fringe elements will always be there, but they need to lose power within the party.

People blame the Biden Administration (and Merrick Garland) for Trump’s continued lawbreaking

The problem with the idea that “they commit crimes because there haven’t been enough consequences,” is that people who think this start blaming the anti-fascist pro-Democracy party for the fact that the fascist, anti-democracy party exists.

Absurd, right? You have two parties: One trying to maintain democracy and the other trying to destroy democracy. People then turn their anger at the pro-democracy party for not using the criminal justice system to dismantle the ant-democratic party.

The problem isn’t that Trump commits crimes. The problem is that he is being supported by a major political party and that it’s possible for a majority of citizens to vote Republican in the 2022 midterms — even with everything we know.

 

 

If you got this far, you need some dog content.

JJ Saved Us Again

A skateboarder approached on the sidewalk (da dum da dum). JJ let loose a ferocious bark. The skateboarder kept going. Or you might say the skateboarder fled in terror.

JJ is so inspiring that one of my readers painted his portrait:

Thank you, Clare!

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