This story made the news on MSNBC shortly after The New York Times broke it last night:
How long before we see Trump leading chants of “lock them up” at his rallies? I’m not sure what kinds of signs and t-shirts will be made since there’s no one villain to put on them. They will figure something out.
The fever dream of paranoia being proposed is that there was a conspiracy of FBI and CIA agents who set out to blame the interference in the 2016 elections on, wait for it, not the Russians but rather the Democrats.
Barr, if you haven’t been following this, has been jetting around the world trying to find (or concoct) evidence that doesn't exist. He has a professional prosecutor named John Durham supposedly leading the investigation but he is taking an unprecedented role for an Attorney General.
This is from the NY Times:
Mr. Barr is closely managing the Durham investigation, even traveling to Italy to seek help from officials there to run down an unfounded conspiracy that is at the heart of conservatives’ attacks on the Russia investigation — that the Italian government helped set up the Trump campaign adviser who was told in 2016 that the Russians had damaging information that could hurt Clinton’s campaign.
But Italy’s intelligence services told Mr. Barr that they played no such role in the events leading to the Russia investigation, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy said in a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Barr has also contacted government officials in Britain and Australia about their roles in the early stages of the Russia investigation.
Revelations so far about Mr. Durham’s investigation have shown that he has focused in his first months on the accusations that Mr. Trump’s conservative allies have made about the origins of the Russia inquiry in their efforts to undermine it. Mr. Durham’s efforts have prompted criticism that he and Mr. Barr are trying to deliver the president a political victory, though investigators would typically run down all aspects of a case to complete a review of it.
This is such an obvious political ploy that it is a shame that it is already having one of its obvious intended effects. It is diverting attention from the House impeachment process which is, of course, the legitimate Constitutional version of a criminal investigation.
Now it will become not just a talking point for Trump’s minions and apologists. It will become the 2020 campaign version of the “lock her up” rallying cry.
Will it work?
Therein is the question because Hillary was easy to villainize not just because she had some characteristics that Trumpers disliked in addition to the simple fact that she was a self-assured and powerful woman. She was fairly easy to turn into Cruella de Vil who, instead of killing dalmatians, was running a human trafficking and child sex ring called Pizzagate,.
Because she was running against the beloved and worshipped Donald Trump and saying bad things about him his cult like supporters were primed to believe anything bad about her no matter how off the wall the claim was.
How easy it is to influence Republicans can be summed up in one word, though better repeated three or four time is a row: Benghazi.
Every candidate can benefit from a good rallying cry which inspires a crowd and can be used as a slogan.
Here’s a list of official campaign slogan from all candidates from Wikipedia. You can see from those you remember and those you don’t from your lifetime that some were much better than others. Notably absent is “lock her up” and “build the wall” because they weren't slogans, they were chants which were generally far more persuasive than official slogans.
Barack Obama’s 2008 “Yes We Can” was far better than his 2012 “Forward.” McCain’s 2008 “Country First” was anything but inspiring.
Trump’s “Make America Great Again” ( no surprise, he stole it since it was first used by Ronald Reagan in 1980) was one of the best official slogans because it played to the fears and prejudices of his base on so many levels, and in a smaller part because MAGA itself became a slogan that fit on a hat.
There are two questions to consider as I noted. One is whether this malevolent Keystone Cops — or better put Russian style — version of a law enforcement investigation will be able to drag on long enough before the more than likely vindication of the FBI and CIA to distract from impeachment? The other question is wether "lock them up" be as effect as "lock her up?" Are Trump supporter so brainwashed and/or paranoid that they will believe that the agencies whose fictional heroes they've admired all their lives are really traitors?
What do you think? Take the poll.