I mean, the framers created a constitution and were betting on the proposition that democratic rule (in the limited sense enacted in 1789) was a possible thing that could work and that “the people” were sufficiently wise to undergird such a system. This despite the skepticism advanced by monarchists since at least the fall of the Roman Republic in 27 BC, and the fact that rule by “the people” as reflected in the near contemporaneous French Revolution led mainly to violence, revenge, and the enactment of policies from a dictatorial regime (which claimed to represent “the people”), which was later, after more violence, replaced by the Directory and then the dictatorial personalist regime of Napoleon (and ultimately to a monarchy headed by the buffoon Napoleon III).
The US has for 230 years proven, with some significant hiccups but also major expansions of voting rights, that law-based democratic rule is possible (and adequate to make it the most powerful and prosperous nation that has ever existed). So have dozens of other countries. But, if Trump wants to prove that US democracy is actually a fragile thing and that a criminal with dictatorial aspirations can become President, well that’s on the US, and there will have to be modifications made in the system to ensure that it cannot happen again. The fact that basically everyone in the US with a college degree is against Trump (less than 16% support among college graduates) means that he cannot win in broad sense, but just how the revenge of the educated and informed shakes out has yet to be determined.
OK, but also a gameshow host nearly ended the entire experiment with American democracy. And not even one of the smarter gameshow hosts like James Holzhauer or Steve Harvey, we’re talking a guy who is legitimately dumb by gamehsow host standards and he almost broke the whole thing.
The Office of the Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts has issued a statement saying that a “fictitious” document has been shared online after Donald Trump claimed that charges had been filed against him ahead of a grand jury vote.
“While there have been no documents filed today regarding such, all members of the media should be reminded that documents that do not bear an official case number, filing date, and the name of The Clerk of Courts, in concert, are not considered official filings and should not be treated as such,” the court said.
Yeah, but by who, how and why? I’m not even sure of the what: was this fictitious document actually on the court website? That’s some basic journalism fail.
I guess it does leave me free to speculate. Like did some MAGA court employee post this so Trump could send out his prepared fundraising email?
That’s one of the things that gets me. Like I can sorta, at least in the abstract, understand how some dickheads can think that another electron won by dems could be an existential loss for whatever they support (ie, a "Flight 93 election). And thus that personalist rule or whatever is the answer. But when they champion the dumbest narcissist in the US to get behind, it shows that they have no political ideas and no political theory, they are merely acting on whatever personal grievances they have untethered from any underlying conception of reality. I honestly believe that almost no one is THAT stupid, but I do believe that people are stupid enough to bundle themselves in a cocoon of ignorance and conspiracy theories and to avoid at all cost contradictory information. It’s the warm embrace of a cult, but it is not any sort of legitimate political philosophy.
Looks like we get the indictments this evening after all. Keen to hear what the legal experts think of this regarding pre-trial bail (my default assumption is of course he gets bail, because lol of course the usual rules don’t apply to him, but this seems persuasive)
