According to the pundits, the Democrats had a bad weekend. Right-wing media has anointed the survivor of a failed assassination the inevitable winner of the November election. A chance photo of a bloodied Trump, fist raised in front of an American flag, has become an instant icon in MAGA circles. And in a case of fortuitous timing, the wounded warrior arrives in Milwaukee as the Republican National Convention begins.
So what?
The MAGAs were always going to vote for him. The convention was destined to be a hagiographic exercise in groveling obeisance. And the right-wing media had been predicting his victory for months.
So no change there. Not a single one of these Trump sympathizers was going to vote for a Democrat anyway.
For the next three days, Trump and his cult will dominate the airwaves. He will get a boost in the polls. And the bookies will give him better odds of winning. However, after the party is over, the hangover sets in. And it is then that the Democrats must take advantage of the cards they have been dealt in the last few days - as well as the aces they already hold.
The GOP has successfully argued that gun violence is an inevitable side-effect of the freedom and liberty granted to ‘patriots’ by the Second Amendment. And as long as it was gays, minorities, and school children being massacred, they got away with that narrative.
But now the Democrats can make the case to the centrists and independents - where the election is decided anyway - that the gun-nut philosophy has created a country where no American is safe. Where even people surrounded by “good guys with guns” are potential victims of the zealots’ insanely promiscuous approach to gun violence.
Democrats can paint this conservative-created Supreme Court as enablers of this third-world (shit-hole country) approach to gun ownership. They can slam out-of-touch Justices for legalizing the nationwide, universal availability of guns, including war weapons - like the AR-15 used by the Trump rally killer.
The Democrats can also paint this Conservative Supreme Court as pro-fascist activists, granting an imperial president immunities not found in the Constitution. A position at odds with the whole purpose of the American Revolution. America’s first patriots risked their lives and fortunes to throw off the yoke of a tyrannical monarch. It is absurd to think that they got rid of George III, simply to allow a future court to replace him with a different George III.
In addition, Democrats can hammer home that, not only did SCOTUS hamstring the Jan 6 trial by delaying the decision until the last day of their term - preventing the voters from knowing if Trump is an insurrectionist before they vote. They built in further delays by not defining what they meant by an “official action.” This calculated ‘oversight’ allows for more dawdling as Judge Chutkan’s decision on what is an official action will inevitably be appealed back to them.
However, there is another silver lining. Now Chutkan can have a mini-trial over the nature of Trump’s actions leading up to the Capitol riots — which will shine a light on his attempted election overthrow. And the Democrats better figure out how to make that work to their advantage.
Which brings us to Trump’s poodle, fangirl Judge Aileen Cannon. On the surface, her dismissal of the stolen secrets case looks like a win for her boy. But fortunately, for America and democracy, Canon is a moron.
She should have just kept delaying. But now she has swung the matter in special prosecutor Jack Smith’s favor. She has done something appealable. The 11th Circuit can now remove her from the case.
Of course, should they do so, the Supreme Court will take it up. And delay it. But that will give the Democrats more ammunition to show that the top of America’s judicial branch is a bribe-taking anti-democracy, plutocratic tool.
Lastly, recent events will probably remove the “somebody besides Biden” movement to select the Democratic nominee. Now Democrats will be able to focus on the prize. Winning the goddamn election.
PS. Democrats can use Trump’s VP nominee, JD Vance’s, past comments on Trump — “America’s Hitler” etc. — as well has his extremism on far-right Media to their advantage
