Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was removed from his position at the White House on Friday. Today Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked that every agency inspector general investigate retaliation against whistleblowers who report presidential misconduct. (Politico)
This is a good move by Schumer, but there needs to be a much bigger understanding of all forms of intimidation Trump and the GOP use constantly.
Trump’s retaliation against his political enemies has hidden, delayed benefits to all the GOP.
When Dems win they are pushed to “look forward not backward” so legitimate investigations & prosecution of lawbreaking Republicans are stopped. We saw this from Obama following the George W. Bush years. I fear the same will happen after Trump is out of office. “We don’t want people to think we are like the Republicans and are retaliating.”
It will be essential to make it clear that investigating, arresting and convicting people for actual crimes is about justice–not retaliation.
Besides themselves, who helps the GOP escape justice for their crimes? 1) Moderate Democratic politicians 2) The mainstream media 3) The violent right: both real ones and the ones who bluster online 4) Concern trolls: both fake ones on the right and real ones on the left 5) Political consultants
1) Moderate Democrat Politicians
Right now I see Klobuchar talking the most about the people in America coming together. She is trying to appealing to the voters who remember decent Republicans and the ones who want to stop believing their neighbors are hateful and cruel. (“He seems so nice at Church. I can’t believe he would vote for Trump.” Despite him having a bumper sticker saying Illegals go home.) This appeals to people who are exhausted by the constant fighting and attacking they see from the right.
2) The Main Stream Media
It’s important to see that the mainstream play a huge role in blocking any investigations and prosecutions of Republican elected officials.. The media will DEMAND that a Democrat winner “reach across the aisle” and work with some mythical moderate Republicans who will be elected in the future vs working with actual lawbreaking, craven ones who exist today and might be re-elected in November.
3) The Violent Right “We’re crazy and have guns!”
The right’s constant threats of violence will play a role in blocking future prosecution following an election. “We have guns! We lost. Start going after out defeated leaders and we will go crazy!” This is an idea that the is pushed hard in social media and not all of it is coming from inside the US.
4) Concern Trolls
A fourth group are concern trolls. When they are the fake ones on the right their goal is the appeal to the values of the left. The right uses this to expose what they see as hypocrisy of the left. WE are the ones that are vindictive and punish the losers.”
It is most powerful when it comes from the left. “We need to be merciful. We can pass laws so it won’t happen again, but arresting and punishing Republicans will take our energy away from getting our agenda passed.’
5) Political consultants “Don’t upset the swing voter who didn’t vote for you!”
A forth excuse to not follow up on prosecution of crimes is the concern of upsetting the independent voters (who probably didn’t vote for them anyway.)
“The independents don’t want us to go after ALL the GOP law breakers. They just wanted Trump to go away. Things going back to normal means GOP still get away with crimes and Democrats have to resign for the appearance and rumors of crimes.” Establishment political consultants do NOT want to satisfy the dedicated people on the left who WANT investigations. They will tell their candidates to move forward. “Don’t get bogged down in the past. It will be a really hard fight. If you expend your political capital and don’t get a conviction you will look vindictive.”
Every time there is an outrageous move by the right, such as vicious retaliation of political enemies, the left will be expected to say, “We won’t do the same thing. We won’t retaliate against our political enemies.” That’s good. But what needs to be made clear is that holding people accountable for law breaking is what we MUST do to reestablish the rule of law and to get justice.
