Chris Christie delivered easily the most chilling speech of the Republican National Convention. He didn’t just attack Hillary Clinton. He led the crowd in a mock prosecution of Hillary Clinton.See also McKay Coppins:
Christie’s conceit -- a prosecutor inviting a mob to condemn the accused on count after count -- resembled a show trial more than anything else, free of any and all protections for the defendant.
Obviously it wasn’t a real trial of any kind. But the implication was nonetheless clear: Clinton deserves to be dragged to court for what she’s done when what she’s done is pursue policy options that Chris Christie doesn’t like.
... what made Christie’s speech genuinely scary was that it was a distillation of the Republican convention so far, not an aberration from it. Both nights featured the crowd breaking into frequent, raucous chants of, "Lock her up!" Former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn repeatedly stopped his own speech to echo the crowd’s call to imprison Clinton.
... The jailing of political opponents is something that happens in dictatorships and banana republics. It is not something an advanced democracy can accept as a normal demand.
If Hillary Clinton wins in November, she's going to get sworn in with a wide swath of the electorate believing she should be in jail.
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) July 20, 2016
And I'll stand by my response:
Or executed. https://t.co/FM5R9sB2bb
— Steve M. (@nomoremister) July 20, 2016
This is frightening, but it's certainly au courant. We're in a moment when a lot of people, even in democracies, simply don't think their enemies should be allowed to walk around free.
Some of this is on the left -- I don't want to go all Jonathan Chait on you, but there are people, especially on some campuses, who don't think even idea-based right-wing speech should have a hearing.
But much more of it is on the right. Christie's speech came on the day when Breitbart editor and pprofessional attention whore Milo Yiannopoulos was permanently suspended from Twitter for encouraging his hatemongering followers to harass Leslie Jones, a black actress who's in the new Ghostbusters. That movie, with four female leads, has inspired a large group of man-babies to proclaim that it simply shouldn't exist. The boys can't merely choose to stay away from it; instead, its estrogen level is described as a threat to their very lives.
Gamergaters want to drive women out of the gaming industry. A coalition of white male science fiction writers and fans wants to prevent pro-diversity writers from being nominated for Hugo Awards. And on and on.
This is how a lot of our fellow citizens think right now: If you don't share my opinion, you should be banished from the face of the earth. The GOP may not be the party of youth, but the RNC lynch mob seems very contemporary.
14 comments:
Manicheanism is now full-blown.
I am good.
YOU ARE EVIL AND DESERVE TO DIE.
I expected riots after Obama's first election, but I think people were too occupied with their own troubles with the economy and the two occupations.
Now, I expect riots and violent unrest after Hillary's elected - OR, TRUMP!
In the first case, the Reich-Wingers will commit violence because WE won, in the second, because THEY won, and can now feel free to do some elimination.
This GOP convention has turned the hate-dial up to 12.
We are in for some really ugly times.
Anything to get people to stop talking about that moron, what's his name? Oh, yeah, Trump.
It's not just an attack on a person: it's an attack on a woman and a Democrat. if thy mob can be led to co after her, it can just as easily be led to go after her.
Last nigth, Christie, himself right in the path of federal prosecution as his pollitcal mentor and patron and his senior aide are being indicted and prepped for sentencing and testimony, previewed a morning after a Donald J. Trump being sworn in as president as the start of a a reign of terror, arrests, purges and pogroms against their political opponents.
I don't how it could have been posed any more clearly than Trump looking into the camera last night and saying: Now you know the Art of the Nomination, and who now gets to pay the price: Clinton, Democrats, democracy and us. What Christie did last night, what this whole convention and nomination process is doing, is making this election personal to each of us.
It's about the law of the mob versus the Rule of Law now. It HRC and Obama the Democrcatic party can't see the urgency of GOTV now, or if responsible adults can't be bothered to get up off the couch and answer this attack, we're done, all of us.
As I read, this started echoing in my head:
“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
These people want to lynch someone.
One wonders if the VP nod were the fat fuck's last bit desperate gamble to avoid landing its corrupt ass in jail. Didn't work for Agnew so one wonders what makes it think it would work now, but... history only repeats to those paying attention. And my invitation stands: it is welcome to come down here and tell me to my face to sit down and shut up.
Yes, it. There are humans, there are Human Beings, and there are the less than sufficiently evolved.
Feud is right, we have to stop doing what we're doing. Now!
Christie's participation in this is especially chilling because he has been mentioned as a serious nominee for Attorney General. Does it matter that someone with that aspiration seems to approve of jailing his political foes? I don't expect to actually have to witness a Christie nomination to AG -- maybe Christie doesn't either and he's just letting it all hang loose. That, as you say, does capture the zeitgeist -- at least of the RNCinCLE.
The icing on the cake is that not only do they think she should be jailed or, worse, executed, they think it should be done without a fair trial - "tried-and-executed" or trial by the mob. "Crucify her!"
This hatefest is chilling.
This GOP Convention looks like "The Triumph of the Will" - minus the snazzy outfits, goose-stepping, and torches.
Or, 'The Will of the Donald.'
RNC lynch mob ...IS exactly what we witnessed!
Only things not prominently on display was the robes, hoods and burning cross.
Had the photos been taken in black and white ...one would be hard pressed to determine which year they'd been taken ...1916 rather than 2016!
WOW ...
RNC lynch mob ...IS exactly what we witnessed!
Only things not prominently on display was the robes, hoods and burning cross.
Had the photos been taken in black and white ...one would be hard pressed to determine which year they'd been taken ...1916 rather than 2016!
Just to update:
1. Christie Port Authority appointee Wildstein pleaded guilty in 2015. His plea agreement was made public in May 2015. It includes a condition of ongoing cooperation in the federal investigation.
2. Wildstein's sentencing been put off several times, to accommodate various motions by former senior governor's aide to Kelly and former Christie PA appointee Baroni, Wildstein's boss at the time.
3. At one Wildstein court appearance in 2015, US attorney Fishman was asked if he foresaw further indictments out of the Geo. Washington Bridge closure. He said no, & declined to discuss anything outside that.
4. The trial of Kelly & Baroni was originally set in 2015. There have been several "continuances" to accommodathe pre-trial motions to dismiss.
5. June 14 2016, Kelly & Baroni lost their last pre-trial motion to dismiss their charges.
6. Their trial is set to start September 12 2016.
7. Pursuant to his plea agreement, Wildstein will testify at that trial. His sentencing will happen some months after it's over.
8. July 14 2016, David Samson, attorney powerhouse behind Christie's political career & chair of the Port Authority (appointed by Christie) at the time, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bribe United Airlines over his "Chairman's flight" route from NJ to his home in South Carolina.
9. Sentencing was put over to mid-October 2016.
10. Fishman told the sentencing judge that Samson was "cooperating with federal investigations".
11. Fishman was asked by news media if those involved Christie; he declined to answer.
12. At the same time, Fishman announced indicment of a former aide to both Christie and Samson for the same conspiracy.
Difficult to believe Christie's desperate efforts to game the role of Trump's choice for veep is unconnected to the ongoing federal investigation.
I'm just guessing this perspective is why Steve can't re-post any angry columns of his blasting Obama and Holder for refusing to prosecute the Iraq War criminals.
The Republicans held a convention and a Klan rally broke out. This is a scary precursor of fascism if Donald Trump gets elected president.
You're getting tiresome, Mr. Hoop.
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