I promised myself (and even more importantly my wife and kids) that I wouldn't talk any more about trump... but these are historic times, so indulge me. Brief observations (I almost wrote 'Grief observations'):
- My main take away from reading the indictment is actually all the people who did the 'right thing' at multiple layers of government, which is both comforting and discomfiting. Comforting in the sense that the indictment sketches out all the levels of government (state and federal) required to make the scheme of flipping or discounting electoral votes in a presidential election possible, and it's significant. It seems almost like an impossibility, especially if there is more than one or two states involved. What is made clear in the indictment was that trump's scheme was hamhanded and destined to fail. And yet... if Pence had caved to his demands not to count some electoral votes, it would have gotten very messy. I still don't think it would have worked, but it would have been very very ugly. So there is definitely at least one very critical point of weakness in the system.
- The mainstream media coverage so far is driving me mad. Fox is predictably hysterical. CNN and MSNBC are predictably overly legal and lost in the weeds. I have yet to see anyone clearly articulate the basic scheme. So allow me to do it: There is a process for counting Electoral College votes in a presidential election. The votes are alotted in each state based on the winner of the popular vote. These votes are then required to be certified by state authorities by the 'safe harbour' date of December 8th (they are required to sign the certificates on December 14th). Once certified by the Secretary of State and Governor, these votes are then sent to Congress to be formally counted on January 6th by the Vice-President who presides. That's it. Certification means all legal avenues for inquiry, re-count, court challenge or objection have been exhausted (except 'objections' raised in Congress, but these are ultimately meaningless for reasons I won't go into here). There is no such thing as 'de-certification' - I wish people would stop using that term. Any effort to promote 'de-certification' is by definition illegal. Any effort to promote electoral votes other than the legally certified votes is illegal. This is the crux of the case. The other part of the case relates to the scheme to stop the lawful function of government on January 6th, namely the process of counting the certified votes by the Vice-President, which trump and his minions tried (and succeeded) in doing for a while. That's it. Focus people! It's not more complicated than that.
- The idea that it matters what trump believed or didn't believe about the election, is a distraction. His delusions, or willful blindness is not a defense. What matters in legal terms is 'criminal intent' not what he believed or didn't believe in his pea brain. What matters is what he intended to do, which was to stay in power in spite of the certified election results, which is by definition corrupt and criminal. A bank robber may believe that all the money in the bank belongs to him, it won't excuse him from pulling out a gun and threatening to kill the teller if she doesn't hand over the money. It's still armed robbery. Stealing money, stealing the election. You get the idea.
- On trump's continued popularity with his core followers, despite (or more likely because of) his legal indictments. Yes, it fits with the narrative of victimization they relate to, and the more trump is 'victimized' by the 'deep state', the more they will embrace their hero. That's certainly one part of it. But the other (related) part of it, I believe, is an anti-hero religious model that trump has played up by saying that he represents their salvation, their 'revenge' and that he is the only thing standing between them and the (evil, Marxist, godless etc.) forces that are 'coming after' them. Insofar as they see trump as their salvation, and I believe many of them do, they will continue to support him until the story reaches the only conclusion possible according to the model. His sacrifice. He will have to die politically and legally speaking. So for them, there is no turning back. Ever. Because at that point they believe he will be resurrected and they will do whatever they can to make that happen. He's got them forever and no amount of de-programming will work.
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