Donald Trump jail compromise: The far right makes a good point. – Slate
One of the right’s most common rhetorical responses to the prosecutions of Donald Trump has been to say something like if they can do it to him, they’ll do it to you! (Trump just said it himself at a Friday morning Trump Tower press conference at which he also brought up, for some reason, an accusation that “Congo” is releasing prisoners into the United States.) The idea is to remind conservative voters about the threat of Liberal Big Government Tyranny, and it’s probably an effective way to activate the Republican base even if, as this tweet points out, it doesn’t quite make sense:
"if they can do it to trump they can do it to you" oh wow I didn't realize that regular ppl could be arrested . good to know
A related idea that has exploded into increased circulation since Thursday’s jury verdict is that Republicans should take revenge for Trump’s conviction by putting Democrats in jail too. Heavily bearded right-wing media star Matt Walsh was one of the first to call for this kind of retaliation, demanding a Biblical 10-to-1 imprisonment ratio of high-ranking Dems, although his brain seems to have been too clouded by red mist to actually name any high-ranking Democrats besides the president. (Hunter Biden is not active in Democratic politics.)
Donald Trump should make and publish a list of ten high ranking Democrat criminals who he will have arrested when he takes office. First on the list should be Joe Biden. Second should be Joe Biden's crackhead son.
Kamala Harris! Kamala Harris is the vice president, Matt! Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez … I could probably think of at least two or three others.
Bush administration lawyer John Yoo is calling for retaliatory prosecutions too, although, as Jonathan Chait points out, Yoo’s argument manages to get the golden rule wrong, which is a bit embarrassing for someone whose job is supposed to be knowing what laws say. So is Sean Davis, the head of the right-wing Federalist website, and that’s ironic, because a top-down system of prosecution-demanding is not federalism. Every state’s voters should be able to make their own decisions about putting One to 10 Democrats to Be Named Later in the pen.
But let’s take these calls with the seriousness they deserve for a minute—i.e., a Friday-afternoon blog post level of seriousness. While it doesn’t seem like it would be fair to put Democrats in jail for literally nothing, perhaps a compromise could be reached of putting any Democrat who’s done what Trump did in jail. (Note that Trump will not be sentenced until July, might not be sentenced to any imprisonment at all, and could delay house arrest or going to jail by appealing his conviction.)
Namely, Democrats should face retaliatory imprisonment if they made nondisclosure payments to a pornographic actress to prevent her from sharing an allegation of an extramarital affair at a time when such allegations could have been politically damaging, then created fictitious transaction records to hide evidence of the payment.
It seems like a fair trade. If they could do it to him, they should be able to do it to you—that’s what justice being blind really means.
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