Some of the delays were due to deliberate stalling by his supporters, but I suspect that many of the delays were due to Biden’s and the DOJ’s reluctance to put him on trial and either fail to convict him or convict him but let him go without any substantial punishment. I don’t think they saw sending the guy who half the country wanted as President to jail as an option.
My guess is that this was a mistake (at least from Biden’s partisan point of view) but it’s hard to say that either of these two outcomes would have actually hurt Trump’s chances. After all, he was elected despite the NY state conviction. I expect that many people here will say that Trump should have been jailed. That would have caused a crisis of some sort without necessarily preventing him from being elected, but maybe the risk was worth taking given that he did end up being elected.
that either of these two outcomes would have actually hurt Trump’s chances.
He wouldn’t have been able to campaign. There is no fucking way he wins from a jail cell because he simple doesn’t appear “viable”. And of course another R would step up to get on the ballot, then you split the ticket and the conversation. Its pretty ridiculous to suggest that if Trump was in jail it wouldn’t have had a significant impact on the election, considering that the implicit “viability” of a candidate is a primary contributing factor to any candidates chances. Even the slighted glimmer of a dent to viability and and a candidate is cooked.
Biden is and was a coward and his administration is composed of lack-luster managers of a now dead neoliberal management ideology. Their worthless approach to politics has been supplanted by fascism, and their unwillingness to take the act of governance in support of changing a system that fundamentally is not working for people is precisely why Trump was able to get away with literally everything. This neoliberal management caste will not suffer the consequences of their decrepit world view: We will.
I agree that Trump would have very little chance of becoming President if he was jailed before 2024 and kept in jail. I was imagining a “jailed at the last minute” scenario in which Trump’s credibility as the opposition leader imprisoned by a President he accused of being elected illegitimately could have been enough. I presume that before Trump became the front-runner Biden hoped that jailing a former President wouldn’t be necessary to stop him, and after he became the front-runner it was probably too late.
Even jailing Trump early wouldn’t have been risk-free. Republican Congressmen would publicly denounce the act as illegitimate, impeach Biden, and try to pass a law to free Trump. The impeachment and the law would go nowhere, but the controversy (and the likely riots) could sink the Democrats in 2024 against whoever the Republicans did nominate. Then that Republican would be inclined to have Biden prosecuted, which would be bad for more than Biden himself.
(And trying to jail Trump but failing for whatever reason would probably sink the Democrats against Trump.)
Counterpoint: try to destroy the country, get your head cut off and put on a spear outside the white house where people can take thumbs-up photos with it.
Some of the delays were due to deliberate stalling by his supporters, but I suspect that many of the delays were due to Biden’s and the DOJ’s reluctance to put him on trial and either fail to convict him or convict him but let him go without any substantial punishment. I don’t think they saw sending the guy who half the country wanted as President to jail as an option.
My guess is that this was a mistake (at least from Biden’s partisan point of view) but it’s hard to say that either of these two outcomes would have actually hurt Trump’s chances. After all, he was elected despite the NY state conviction. I expect that many people here will say that Trump should have been jailed. That would have caused a crisis of some sort without necessarily preventing him from being elected, but maybe the risk was worth taking given that he did end up being elected.
He wouldn’t have been able to campaign. There is no fucking way he wins from a jail cell because he simple doesn’t appear “viable”. And of course another R would step up to get on the ballot, then you split the ticket and the conversation. Its pretty ridiculous to suggest that if Trump was in jail it wouldn’t have had a significant impact on the election, considering that the implicit “viability” of a candidate is a primary contributing factor to any candidates chances. Even the slighted glimmer of a dent to viability and and a candidate is cooked.
Biden is and was a coward and his administration is composed of lack-luster managers of a now dead neoliberal management ideology. Their worthless approach to politics has been supplanted by fascism, and their unwillingness to take the act of governance in support of changing a system that fundamentally is not working for people is precisely why Trump was able to get away with literally everything. This neoliberal management caste will not suffer the consequences of their decrepit world view: We will.
I agree that Trump would have very little chance of becoming President if he was jailed before 2024 and kept in jail. I was imagining a “jailed at the last minute” scenario in which Trump’s credibility as the opposition leader imprisoned by a President he accused of being elected illegitimately could have been enough. I presume that before Trump became the front-runner Biden hoped that jailing a former President wouldn’t be necessary to stop him, and after he became the front-runner it was probably too late.
Even jailing Trump early wouldn’t have been risk-free. Republican Congressmen would publicly denounce the act as illegitimate, impeach Biden, and try to pass a law to free Trump. The impeachment and the law would go nowhere, but the controversy (and the likely riots) could sink the Democrats in 2024 against whoever the Republicans did nominate. Then that Republican would be inclined to have Biden prosecuted, which would be bad for more than Biden himself.
(And trying to jail Trump but failing for whatever reason would probably sink the Democrats against Trump.)
Counterpoint: try to destroy the country, get your head cut off and put on a spear outside the white house where people can take thumbs-up photos with it.