Like many readers of this site, I suppose, I have endless faith in the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Recently that tendency has been successfully repressed in some quarters but I am not confident, from the rhetoric on TV, that the House impeachment managers are going to do what needs to be done.
It seems to me that what Democratic politicians have failed to do was tell it straight and simple. The line on Donald Trump in 2016 should have been a steady drumbeat: “He’s a fraud, a liar, a thief, phony as his combover — no more a businessman than Bernie Madoff.” It was obviously true, provable, and absolutely understandable, even by Joe Six-Pack. It might have made a difference, but in any case some pithy truth would have been injected into the record.
In a sort of brown-acid flashback, I now sometimes find myself (almost) screaming at the TV screen, appalled that nobody is saying the obvious, simple truth, in terms everyone can understand. I say put it bluntly: “It’s an open-and-shut case. There are hundreds of millions of eye-witnesses. He did it in broad daylight, on national TV.”
People sort of say that, often mealy-mouthing around it, or getting high-falutin’ with it, but that isn’t the same as just saying it straight out.
It’s a virtual certainty that most of the Republicans in the Senate will ignore their ‘lyin’ eyes’ and nullify the case, just like the Emmett Till jury. (The only real question is whether the Senators will prolong the suspense with a break for soda pop like the ‘gentlemen’ of that jury.) This makes it trebly important that the case be made strongly, simply, indelibly. America must have its nose rubbed in a decades-long pattern of incitement (“Execute the Central Park Five!” “Hillary Judges? You got your 2nd Amendment rights, heh, heh...” “Don’t be too gentle with ‘em….” “Fight like Hell…!”) in which the insurrection of January 6 was an easily predictable culmination. Those who vote to acquit this time will be accessories after the fact, just as they were last time. Indeed, it should be emphasized that the first acquittal licensed the final treasons. The prosecutors need to make acquittal as hard to swallow as they possibly can, and make sure it sits toxically in the gut of all who choke it down.
One way to do this is though really visceral appeal. Let us not use euphemisms. This is no time for flowery rhetoric, or pantaloons on piano legs. A thing that was apparently fairly common was that the insurrectionists shat in the offices and conference rooms and smeared their feces around. (I wonder if samples were taken for DNA testing, and if not, why not?) This is the legacy of Trump and the people he “loves.” They shat on Democracy. They should have to wear that forever, and those who vote to acquit must be tarred with the same brush.
