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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 16, 2023

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because no other US Presidents have committed the crimes Trump is being accused of.

I'm not going to contest this point much, but I think there's ample reason to for people believe his misconduct is being handled with a particularly harsh hand for actions that, if committed by someone who has the favor of the elites, get away with minimal punishment.

If calling an election fraudulent and seeking to undermine or overturn the results is bad enough to warrant prosecution, Stacey Abrams should probably have been hit for this too. To her credit, she's quieted down considerably since she lost the rematch in a clear blowout. Not clear that Trump would do the same, granted.

If mishandling classified documents ranks up there, then we of course have Hillary, but yeah, we also have Biden storing them in his garage.

Sexual misconduct? Well Andy Cuomo resigned over that. Would they have brought these charges to trial and sought actual sentencing if he hadn't?

And we really have to remember that Hunter Biden very nearly walked away with a sweetheart plea deal except the deal was so good that it didn't pass the Judge's sniff test. So there's other reasons to wonder what kind of double standards might be at play that makes Trump such a target. REALLY seems like there's somebody's thumb on the scale in both Hunter's and Trump's cases.

Indeed, the fact that Hunter is being prosecuted at all is the main reason I'm willing to believe that there's any modicum of justice left in the Federal Justice system.

So I think your argument ultimately has to coalesce down to "No other person in high political office has committed every single one of these egregious/criminal acts over the course of their career so as to warrant a particularly hard smackdown."


And I'll let my own position on it be more clear:

I think the reason Trump is getting prosecuted is mostly because his political opponents control some of the legal systems which have jurisdiction over him, a weakness which most politicians would studiously avoid.

For example, even if Ron Desantis, in his capacity as Governor, wanted to strike back against those who have thrown political attacks at him, he'd be hamstrung by the fact that most of them don't have sufficient connections with the state of Florida to even be subject to the State's jurisdiction. He currently has the simultaneous advantage of being ensconced in a politically friendly state so if he confines any misdeeds to Florida he has a much better chance of avoiding an eventual prosecution.

Trump, with his lengthy career in NYC and his businesses being based out of New York effectively had his ass flapping in the breeze for politically motivated prosecutions coming out of a state where his 'allies' have no sway.

Similar with Fulton County, Georgia, although We'll see if Kemp steps up to assist on that one.

And we really have to remember that Hunter Biden very nearly walked away with a sweetheart plea deal except the deal was so good that it didn't pass the Judge's sniff test.

That's not why the judge rejected it. Plea deals are treated like contracts, and those require a "meeting of the minds" to ensure that both parties know what they're agreeing to. Hunter's plea deal was a confusing and ambiguously written mess. During the hearing, the judge very quickly realized that Hunter's defense attorneys interpreted it one way (expansively, covering Hunter from potential foreign agent charges), and the prosecutors interpreted it another way. This was very sloppy work by the standards of federal court, and it made sense for the judge to give the parties another chance to hash it out (they didn't).

I think the reason Trump is getting prosecuted is mostly because his political opponents control some of the legal systems which have jurisdiction over him, a weakness which most politicians would studiously avoid.

Let's assume that Trump "did everything right" as he likes to say, and committed 0 crimes. How much would you estimate his overall prosecutions to change?