06-02-2021, 02:10 PM
(06-02-2021, 04:55 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: Back in the 2016 campaign, there was a common mantra among the Republicans about Hilary, “Lock her up.” They seemed to have a good time chanting it. Of course, nothing came of it. She and any other Obama administration people were not charged. The entire thing has faded. Nowadays, the flip side accusations are taken seriously. There seems to be a real desire to lock him, his family and various people up. Indictments, convictions and pardons are flying around and rumored. The Democrats are taking the proceedings entirely seriously, even if Biden does particularly want to be associated with it.
I’m not sure where this leads. I also note Hillary retreated from public life, while Trump declines to go away. But we will see where this and other differences lead.
I think of what Karl Rove said about a political opponent of one of his clients: that they were going to f--- him like he has never been f---ed before. Not only does Rove defeat the person but make that person and many of his supporters give up on politics as excessively distasteful. Someone as successful as Karl Rogue -- excuse me, Rove -- inspires imitation among people whose ruthlessness overpowers all other personal traits. Sure, winning is important, but something is also important in winning: that the quest be desirable. (I am not saying that Karl Rove had anything to do with the Trump campaign).
It is essential that in the democratic process, both sides recognize that the preservation of democratic norms be more important than winning the election. One way to destroy democracy is to create the consensus on the Other Side that politics is an odious activity so that one decides to use one's talents elsewhere. To that end someone like Rove or an imitator ensure that politics becomes a playground for characters as swinish as... irony intended ... the pigs in Animal Farm.
Theater has its merits. Don't be fooled; we need it, as it can enlighten us in the form of entertainment. Does anyone have any question of the merits of Shakespeare and Shaw? Or, for that matter, Gilbert and Sullivan? Even so, it is best that politics have substantive issues as the focus and not a stream of catcalls against the Other Side. Great theater (which includes opera) tells us or reminds us of something that we need to know. Bad theater debases us. "Lock her up!" is horrid theater.
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Now to a great relevancy: the legal system can itself be a theater. The drama has been powerful. President Biden can distance himself from it to an extent because he trusts the courts to do their appointed tasks. He has obvious concerns, and the deeds of Donald Trump before he became President look horrible. To be sure, those deeds leave a paper trail, and that requires a jury attentive to details that can incriminate as much as can a murder weapon with finger prints of the defendant and ballistic evidence that connects the gun to the deceased -- or to eyewitness testimony..
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.