(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The New York Times goes looking for Democrats with doubts about prosecuting Trump and finds them [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-14 Reid J. Epstein, Anjali Huynh and Alyce McFadden collaborated on the following article at The NY Times: In interviews, dozens of Democratic officials nearly all agreed that Donald Trump deserved his latest indictment, but were far more divided over whether the case was good for the country. The headline is a nasty bit of framing, portraying Democrats as being being both vindictive and cowardly. Of course Democrats have some reasonable concerns about what putting Trump on trial might lead to — and not just Democrats. Anyone who puts America, democracy, and the rule of law first has to be concerned about what the Right Wing is going to do. ...Interviews this week with more than 60 Democratic members of Congress, state legislators, liberal activists and party officials found near-universal agreement that Mr. Trump deserved to face federal charges for his handling of classified documents, but a notable divide over whether the indictment was good for the country or even for their party. “I don’t want to see this chaos machine do any more damage to the country, to hurt any more people,” Representative Greg Landsman of Ohio, a moderate freshman from Cincinnati, said in an interview Tuesday, referring to the former president. “Democrats, Republicans, independents, everyone has to sort of take a disposition of seriousness.” emphasis added For years, Democrats have debated the wisdom of prosecuting Mr. Trump for the various crimes they believe he committed. Vice President Kamala Harris, during her presidential campaign, said the Justice Department “would have no choice” but to prosecute Mr. Trump. Now, the documents indictment serves as a political Rorschach test, coming at the onset of the 2024 presidential campaign in which many Democrats expect a Biden-Trump rematch. Some Democrats are thrilled that the man who has tormented them for seven years may finally be held to account for his norm-breaking actions, but others are fearful that Mr. Trump will again defy political gravity, and that his supporters might respond to the indictment with violence. Top of mind for many Democrats is the possibility of another outbreak of civil unrest resembling the riot by Mr. Trump’s supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. While Mr. Trump’s first appearance in federal court on Tuesday took place without problems outside the building, there is no shortage of Democrats who predict that at some point, Mr. Trump’s candidacy will lead to more chaos. emphasis added There’s something fundamentally wrong with the way this whole article is framed. All through it, it paints this as a problem for Democrats versus Republicans. This should not be framed as a partisan issue. Everyone who is not in the tank for Trump and the GOP should be worried about what could happen. Trump’s actions threaten the very foundations of American democracy, and the Republican Party is right behind him. If you want to know where “the reasonable people” are going with this, here’s the predictable ‘solution’ to the threat of violence coming from the Right: Not all Democrats have been swayed by the indictment, however. Bruce Ledewitz, a veteran of the Gary Hart and Al Gore presidential campaigns who is now a law professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, has written columns dating to 2019 warning against trying Mr. Trump in court. He counseled Democrats to follow the example of President Gerald Ford, who pardoned his predecessor, the just-resigned Richard Nixon, to spare the country of the trauma of litigating his tenure in office. “Nobody asked the Ford question: Is this in the best interest of the country?” Mr. Ledewitz said. “Trump could be president and be in prison. I don’t know who thought this would be wise for the country. It’s just not.” If Ledewitz is one of the people who persuaded Al Gore to concede to George W. Bush “for the good of the country”, well we all know what a good decision that turned out to be. There’s also this about pardoning Nixon: Ford was a Republican — how partisan was that? Further, the Republican Party still had people willing to distance themselves from Nixon, and Nixon was willing to go quietly. None of that applies to Trump. There’s also the reflex citing of the claim that prosecuting Trump would make America look bad overseas. (Right — the same countries that are terrified of Trump returning to the White House.) The New York Times could just as easily have interviewed Republican leaders who are against prosecuting Trump (also for the ‘good’ of the country) and are all set to go January 6 again, supporting Trump in his threats of violence. Tom Sullivan is very clear on what we are dealing with. Watching the House and Senate Republicans whatabout 37 federal felony charges and the MAGA faithful wave their Trump and anti-Semitic banners as fiercely as ever confirmed what reporter Betsy Woodruff Swan said of Trump supporters on Tuesday: “The goalposts are on roller skates.” Digby takes a look at the Right Wing’s Bizarro World view of the ‘real’ problem. They expect Biden to be arrested at any moment. The right, and that includes the House DOJ and Senators like Chuck Grassley, are pimping this ludicrous non-scandal. [The bogus allegations about the Burisma ‘scandal’] It’s done to appease the cult so they can believe that Biden will soon be in the docks himself. But it’s nuts. I only share this with you so that in case someone confronts you with it you’ll understand their hysterical babble. Digby is also very clear on the threat of violence coming from the Right — and they are hardly trying to hide it. If we don’t deal with Trump and the Republican Party now, the cost will keep going up. Like cancer, you don’t wait to start treating it. The NY Times is not wrong to look at Democratic concerns about what prosecuting Trump may lead to, but the way they are framing the issue is part of the problem that saddled us with Trump in the first place. Denial is not a solution and it’s not a partisan issue of simply Democrats versus Republicans. One more thing. Here’s how the print version framed this: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/14/2175331/-The-New-York-Times-goes-looking-for-Democrats-with-doubts-about-prosecuting-Trump-and-finds-them Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/