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Notes -
Would you say the same thing about Navalny?
No.
He broke the law, didn't he?
He may or may not have done. I'm not aware and I don't think it's particularly relevant. Putin controls the Russian system and uses any means at his disposal - legal, illegal, whatever - to crush opposition.
It's not realistically possible to stand for election as an opposition candidate and win in Russia. In America, it is - and it has been done in the last 2 Presidential elections.
You're mistaking what it means to be "opposition". I think everyone else is saying that "opposition" means "opposition to entrenched powers in the bureaucracy". But that mark, only one of the two last presidential elections was won by the opposition. We saw it happen the first time, and then we saw the entrenched powers in the bureaucracy absolutely freak out and go totally mad, we saw them publicly declare that they felt bad about not pulling out all the stops to prevent it, publicly declare that they were going to pull out all the stops to prevent it from happening again, and then we saw them actually pull out all the stops to prevent it from happening again.
It would be as if Putin somehow lost an election, spent a term essentially running the government from afar, saw that Navalny had zero success in wrangling any of the organs of power, and then saw all those organs of power ensure that Navalny lost the following election to Putin and was promptly jailed.
Trump wasn't in opposition to the entrenched powers in the bureaucracy. As you say yourself, he did nothing to weaken them. Nor did he even try.
Allow me to clarify. The entrenched powers in the bureaucracy were in opposition to Trump. Regardless of whether Trump viewed himself as being in opposition to them, whether he took actions to weaken them, or whether he was successful in such actions. None of those things are actually relevant for determining whether the entrenched powers in the bureaucracy believed themselves to be in opposition to Trump or whether they took actions to weaken him, or whether they were successful in such actions.
In that case, what does it mean to be the "opposition candidate"?
Navalny can't compete for the Russian Presidency in a free and fair election, because Putin won't let that happen. Trump totally could compete for the American Presidency in a free and fair election, and did so twice (before he made himself constitutionally ineligible and committed a ton of crimes). And if he had just followed the law, he would have no impediment to doing so again.
That's the difference I'm pointing at.
The candidate for which the entrenched powers of the bureaucracy will pull out every stop in order to oppose.
Perhaps in the early Putin elections, one could say that they were free, as well. It was only after Navalny committed a bunch of crimes that he made himself constitutionally ineligible.
This relies on two premises: 1) That he didn't follow the law, at least to the same extent that most people follow the law, and 2) That other people would be equally prosecuted for not following the law, at least to the same extent that Trump can be said to have not followed the law. Both points are highly disputed and to the extent you simply ignore the dispute and ignore the details of people claiming a double standard, no one who you're trying to reach is going to believe you. If you want an explanation why they're not going to magically wake up and suddenly think like you, it's because you haven't even actually tried to engage with what makes them think differently.
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