UNI88 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 29, 2025 10:04 am
GannonFan wrote: ↑Tue Jul 29, 2025 7:31 am
At the end, 2020 was a whimper. Sure, J6 was a big deal, a really big deal, but it was one day. Maybe Trump thought it was going to be a bigger deal, but in the end it was like 1,000 of some of his most yahoo-sycophants fighting with the Capitol building cops and then walking around the building with no clue what to do. There was no chance of the election being overturned, not even the slimmest of it. And after J6, Trump just sulked away. He should've been impeached (he was) and removed from office (he wasn't) and barred from holding office again (he wasn't), but Republicans then didn't have the backbone and Democrats were just looking forward to opening up the government spending spigots to test out their new economic theory to care.
As for the 2016 transfer of power, show me an administration that, on the way out, accused the incoming administration of basically treason by means of saying they were controlled by a foreign government? Clinton's followers stole vandalized thousands of dollars of computer equipment by removing "W"'s before Bush Jr took office - Obama's passed around the results of a tainted and rushed investigation with the sole purpose of smearing the incoming administration and setting up the groundwork from it for an impeachment. John Quincy Adams hated Andrew Jackson but even they managed to pass the baton of power without threatening to bring down the Republic.
I agree with much of what you're saying by I think you're downplaying the 2020 election too much. It was more than January 6. His obstruction was significant, he:
- called state officials begging them to "find" votes or not certify results.
- created slates of fraudulent electors.
- has been caterwauling about it being stolen since November 3, 2020. He's still hasn't stopped!
2024 was a charlie foxtrot worthy of the history books because everyone knew biden was in a state of mental decline but wasn't dropping out until he finally did. When he did, it put the Democratic Party is a position where harris was the only real option and she wasn't a good candidate. What might have happened if biden had never been a candidate and there had been an open primary? It's a fascinating what if.
trump's first impeachment shouldn't have happened. If it hadn't, his second impeachment likely would have succeeded and he wouldn't be POTUS today. Thank you nancy pelosi.
Eh, with Trump, almost all of it is bluster. Sure, he called the Georgia guy and asked him to find votes. But what of it? You can't just create votes out of thin air and they of course didn't, as there was no way to do that. He could be on TV every night, begging every state to find more votes and it still wouldn't create votes. It looks despicable, sure, but it doesn't and didn't do anything material.
The fraudulent elector thing was much of the same. Even the MAGA folks considered it a fringe theory, as it clearly violated the Electoral Count Act. And it got as far as them creating slates, but it went no farther than that because it wasn't going to work. The Vice President slapped it down, if he hadn't then Congress would've slapped it down, and if they didn't SCOTUS would've slapped it down. The system worked, as it always has.
I don't disagree that Trump wanted to subvert the will of the electorate, of course he did. But that didn't all of a sudden sour the electorate on the government and the electoral process, as kalm claims it did, and have it reverberate for decades to come. Heck, after all the shenanigans in 2020, the electorate came out in large numbers and dutifully cast ballots in the 2024 election. For people so disillusioned with government and elections, we sure seem perfectly willing to participate in them.
If the Democrats were so worried about the state of the Republic and the belief of the electorate in our system of government, they should've proceeded with charges against Trump right away. J6 was on TV and was easy to see. Instead, trying to make sure Trump was still relevant and the opponent in the 2024 election (where they thought he was a weaker candidate) they slow-walked the J6 commission out for almost two full years, and then took almost another full year to bring charges, all in an attempt to weaken him as close to the election as possible. Funny how things work out despite all the planning otherwise. On the bright side, come January 2029, Trump will truly be out of years left to be in the office.