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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   10604 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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Jumping up and down on the “defect” button is not the kind of humanity I appreciate.

And while I agree that our Trump stans would bend over backwards to justify such a pardon, I don’t find it admirable.

Jumping up and down on the “defect” button is not the kind of humanity I appreciate.

How is this more defect button than Trump pardoning the Blackwater massacerers? I think killing 14 civillians is bad, and I don't want private security firms representing America to do that on the world stage. I definitely don't want the world to get the message, "we'll accept any level of misconduct, and the perpetrators won't even face a tiny amount of justice."

I don't think Joe Biden should have lied about pardoning his son, and if Joe himself was personally involved in corrupt dealings, I want all of that information set before the American people. However, I don't think the mere act of pardoning his son is a bad thing. It is only bad if Joe Biden was personally involved in corrupt dealings, and is now pardoning his son so that Joe's connections are never made public.

I don’t like that either.

Though I’d have pointed to Charles Kushner, or maybe to Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, rather than PMCs with no personal connection. Trump openly showers favors on people in his orbit; he has somehow passed this off as mundane instead of scandalous.

That doesn’t make me feel better about Hunter Biden.

How was it a defect button? The president has the power to pardon crimes. This is a known power.

Both options in the prisoner’s dilemma are known, too.

Pardoning your kids is eroding a common good to benefit yourself and yours.

But I think it's fair to say that it's highly questionable for the President to use that power to prevent his loved ones from facing legal repercussions for misconduct. If the presumption that it's illegitimate for a Republican President to do such a thing, but legitimate for a Democrat President to do it, that is a defection.

Where did I say it would be illegitimate for a Republican to do the same thing?

You said that a President pardoning someone isn't hitting a defect button.

If two teams have agreed not to use the power of Presidential pardons for illegitimate purposes, then if one team goes ahead and uses them for that purpose, that team is defecting.

When was this agreement ever a thing?

Every time Trump has been accused of nepotism (e.g. the Jared Kushner appointment) or of abusing the power of Presidential pardons for nepotistic reasons (Kushner's father), Democrats are implicitly appealing to said agreement.

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