AUTHORITARIANISM WITHOUT AN AUTHORITARIAN

I'm sure you know this happened last night:

President Donald Trump was greeted with a thunderous chorus of boos from the sold-out crowd attendance at Game 5 of the World Series between the Nationals and Astros.

Trump, who showed up shortly after the first inning, was introduced to the crowd after the third inning during the Nationals' salute to veterans, a regular feature at Nats’ games.

As the next inning began, fans chanted "lock him up," a nod to the motto that Trump supporters directed at Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Let the handwringing begin!

Publicly calling for your political opponents to be jailed without due process is an authoritarian strategy, even when liberals do it. Of course, it’s much worse to hear it from elected leaders than spontaneously from an unprompted crowd, but still. This is #polarization https://t.co/gOcY447gSm

— Jennifer N. Victor (@jennifernvictor) October 28, 2019

For starters, this is not a "strategy" -- it's some fed-up people exercising their freedom of speech, and demanding something that, at least for now, is impossible.

Trump is a man who appears to be guilty of multiple crimes -- constitutional, financial, sexual -- but he literally can't be locked up right now, because he's been determined to be immune from prosecution while in office, and because it's all but certain that the Senate won't convict him in an impeachment. He might face justice -- in a court of law, not in some sort of drumhead tribunal -- after he's defeated in 2020, but even though a clear and convincing majority of Americans don't want to him to win again, Facebook, fat-cat money, foreign interference, and GOP vote suppression might give him another Electoral College win, quite possibly in spite of another popular vote loss. Which means he'll be immune from prosecution for another four years. If expressing frustration with that distinct possibility -- using Trumpworld's own words, thrown back in Trump's face -- is "authoritarian," I'd like to know: Who's the authoritarian leader here?

It's quite possible this man can't be brought to justice through legitimate means. If he goes down, it won't be in a coup -- it will be because the legitimate authorities determined that he's a lawbreaker.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are also fretting.

"We are Americans and we do not do that. We do not want the world hearing us chant 'Lock him up' to this president or to any president." -- @JoeNBC pic.twitter.com/9IgMCETBdn

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) October 28, 2019

SCARBOROUGH: But again, I speak to the "Lock him up" chants. Again, it's just -- it's un-American. It started with Donald Trump. In fact, he's made it the centerpiece of his rallies.

BRZEZINSKI: We find it sickening when it happens at his rallies. I find it kind of sickening to watch people leering at the president.

SCARBOROUGH: Of course it's sickening. We are Americans and we do not do that. We do not want the world hearing us chant "Lock him up" to this president or to any president --

BRZEZINSKI: And yet he created it.

SCARBOROUGH: That's what I'm saying. Let's hope, as we move forward, maybe this is one less fascist tactic he and his supporters use during chants -- that you are going to actually imprison your political opponents. So let's leave that behind --

BRZEZINSKI: I hope he gets it.

When Trump's crowds chant "Lock her up" in reference to Hillary Clinton, they're talking about someone who's been investigated by the authorities and found not to have done anything that warrants prosecution. And they're chanting it to a president who regularly flirts with genuine authoritarianism -- who regularly suggests that legitimate acts are criminal, even treasonous.

Trump, if he decided to be the dictator he'd clearly prefer to be, could attempt to imprison Hillary Clinton. In a second term, he really might do it.

The crowd at the World Series game can't get Trump locked up. Also, Trump hasn't been cleared by the authorities. These are two rather significant differences between the ballpark crowd's chant and the chants at the MAGA rallies. Also, obviously, the chant at the ballpark was mockery of the original.

Isn't all of this obvious? Do some people really need it explained to them?