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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35390 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 3, 2023

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I really, really don't think it would.

You might think it's deserved, but I don't see how it would make anything about the situation better. Dangerous precedent indeed.

Democratic politicians are, right now, using the criminal justice system to pursue their political enemies. That's already a bad situation. If the Democrats aren't going to do anything about that themselves -- and they clearly are not -- turnabout is the only thing that can get the US out of the situation.

Trump going after his personal enemies within the GOP (as discussed upthread) isn't turnabout - it's an escalation (viz-a-viz normalcy) or a distraction (viz-a-viz what Alvin Bragg is doing). Trump going after a druggie fuckup like Hunter Biden (which seems to be what most of the MAGA crowd away from this forum want) would also be a distraction. Turnabout would be Trump going after the key players on the other side of the table - particularly potential presidential candidates and key congressional leaders.

Going after the GOP wouldn't help, but attacking Joe Biden through Hunter would be useful turnabout. The biggest problem for that would be that Hunter may be too obviously legitimately dirty.

Turnabout doesn't help! It just says "welp, this is the new normal." I agree that bending over and taking it isn't going anywhere, but the best outcome for America is if the Democrats get massive voter backlash for this. That doesn't happen if it becomes common practice.

Democrats are not going to get voter backlash for it because their voters support it. Turnabout may make this a "new normal", but such an equilibrium allows for a truce to be arranged. The Republicans just bending over and taking it and counting on the conscience of Democratic voters to stop it results in no equilibrium at all, just a spiral into further abuse.

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