What separates us from the Third World in our politics, he opined, are the twin concepts of peaceful transfer of power via the ballot box rather than by military intervention and the unwritten and unspoken principle that victors do not use the police power of the state to punish the vanquished. Without the second concept, no sane person will ever relinquish office if they run the risk of ending up imprisoned or on the gallows. Once politics become a blood sport, he said, there is no way to stop the slide into rule by people with guns. I’d never really looked at it that way and can’t, even today, disagree with him. If there is any debt owed to Gerald Ford, it is his preservation of the republic by pardoning Richard Nixon.

With that said, it seems as though the left, which has long detested America, is hellbent on crossing that redline and pushing this nation ever closer to one where the abuse of law and the use of the judicial apparatus as stormtroopers and enforcers rather than the rule of law and respect for tradition prevails. If Politico is to be believed, stay with me here, the left is anticipating that President Trump will soon be indicted on state felony charges in New York: POLITICO Playbook: How Palm Beach is preparing for a possible Trump indictment: //

We need to anticipate that President Trump will, indeed, be indicted by a New York grand jury. The New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney have too much political capital involved in their highly public investigation of President Trump to shrug and say, “nothing there, folks.” With the New York power structure in utter chaos thanks to Andrew Cuomo’s predatory behavior, casual cruelty, calculated evasion of the law, and superhuman hubris, there is literally no mechanism left within that state to prevent a revenge indictment that could very well propel the instigator to national prominence. They will give no thought to the long-term damage done to our political life or even the damage done to the Democrat party in 2022 and 2024. The lizard-brain urge to lash out at President Trump is simply too strong to be resisted. //

There won’t be any kind of a face-off between Ron DeSantis and Cyrus Vance over the corpus of Donald Trump. If he’s indicted, he will end up on trial. He will be convicted. He will spend the rest of his life in jail. The left will think they have taught us a lesson, and they will be right. The next Republican president will be under enormous pressure to take a similar Democrat scalp. To be on the safe side and make it hurt, he’ll probably have to take down several prominent Democrats. And the left will ‘wave the bloody shirt’ and demand retribution the next time they occupy the White House. The real question becomes why a Republican from a Blue or even a Purple state would even bother to run for the presidency and what he would do when leaving office meant either prison or financial ruin in defending himself? //

Laocoon • 12 hours ago

Outstanding post!

Take a look at the events that led up to the Spanish Civil War sometime. This criminalization of political opposition, anti-religious fanaticism, doctrinaire socialism/communism/anarchism, a willingness by the state to tolerate political violence from the forces of the left, the personal danger of opposing the favored factions of the Republic...all these combined to spark the Spanish Civil War. The persecution of any non-socialist political opposition to the Republic forced many of their victims to take up arms just to survive.

Increasingly the US is starting to resemble that awful conflict.

Usernotfound Laocoon • 12 hours ago

I’m afraid there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed and the left is desperately searching for it. //

uplateagain • 17 hours ago

The indictment of Trump could well be an historical turning point. A match to pooled gasoline. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. The British march on Concord to confiscate weaponry. Anyone thinking such an act won't inevitably portend a lot of retribution at the least (actual physical retribution... not political) and quite possibly ultimately full scale civil war, has no concept of how abused and righteously indignant half or more of the country is already feeling about Democratic criminality, bullying, and their working attempt to establish a one-party system and eventual overthrow of Constitutional government and the free market system.

The symbolism of arresting Trump on trumped-up charges would be too great for way too many people to stomach.

Fyrch uplateagain • 2 hours ago

While I may agree with you in spirit, I don't believe the actual anti-fascists in America are cohesive enough to fight back.

The Progressive fascists yell about breaking the system & Whyte Soup/Remacy because they count on the citizenry to meekly bend the knee to outrageous demands simply in order to get on with their lives. It's not just this silliness with wearing masks; we were already letting high school dropouts sexually molest us simply to board a plane, and meekly allowing those in power to get away with the most egregious abuses of law because some paid to watch big men chasing little balls while the rest of us paid to applaud (quoting Michael Crichton).

America's Republic was already sliding into the abyss, not because of a fake insurrection but because people were watching a horde of hOOrs called the Kardashians. //

clconnett • 2 days ago
If the Democrats go down this road there are two options: they stop with one scalp, and we don't retaliate, or we retaliate and they do the same. The problem is that we can't not retaliate. Once they use the state to arrest and detain the politico opposition, there's no closing that door. Either we concede the nation, or violence reigns.

This is not something we should cheer for, but a result we should mourn. //

metalman304 • 2 days ago

Nice theory but think about this....Cy Vance was and is, bossom buddies with Hillary Cankles Clinton. There is no way in blue hell he would retire before taking the first chair on the prosecution of the 45th President and Hillaryś arch enemy. His retirement is more like a signal that a ham sandwhich will be easier to indict than DJT. //

clconnett • 2 days ago

No. It's stupid to wish for further deterioration of our political discourse. This isn't something we callously invite, it's a reality we face with stoicism.

Think about it: Where does something like this end? They take Trump, so we arrest, try and imprison Pelosi, Schumer, and Nadler. So they come for Cruz, DeSantis, Noem, Hawley, etc. The heat is always ratcheted up until... what? What's the final outcome?

I get the attitude of, "We'll let them have it!" Okay. And how many will you, personally, visit in prison, in the hospital, or at their wake? The violence of policing will lead to violence in the streets. And we're all losers then. //

hawkeye1903 • 2 days ago

Yes, stupid to wish for. However - it's very much like the situation facing Israel. We would live in peace with democrats if they would as well, but the democrats have zero intention of letting us live in peace or "otherwise live" if we don't succumb to their boot on our neck. I already know where the democrats intend "it" to end.... we can mourn it, and face it, and prepare for it at the same time.