JV Last has a great piece up today about the Colorado decision that you should read in its entirety. I’ll just excerpt this one part:
Have you ever noticed how, whenever Trump does something terrible, there is always an argument that holding him accountable can only help him?
You can’t impeach him in 2020, because it’ll just make him stronger.
You can’t impeach him in 2021, because you’ll turn him into a martyr.
You can’t raid Mar-a-Lago to take back classified documents, because you’ll rile up his base.
You can’t prosecute him for crimes X, Y, and Z, because it’ll make Republican voters love him more.
There is a strange, self-limiting, helplessness to that thinking: A wicked man does immoral and illegal things—and society’s reaction is to say that we must indulge his depredations, because if we tried to hold him accountable then he would become even worse.
Is there any other aspect of life in which Americans take that view?
That’s not how parents deal with children.
It’s not how regulatory agencies deal with corporations.
And it’s not how the justice system deals with criminals.
The only analogue I can come up with is foreign policy: There have been times when American foreign policy has sought to give foreign dictators what they want in order to prevent them from making more trouble.
I am not an expert, but my impression is that this mode of operation has not often led to good outcomes.
This is one of the most frustrating repetitive dynamics in American politics and it makes me want to scream. It’s as Last writes, “Heads Trump Wins, Tails America Loses.” The reactions last night to the Colorado demonstrated that perfectly. Over and over people said things like this:
Sigh.
Last also points out how the opposite dynamic applies to Biden: Heads Biden Loses, Tails Trump wins. No matter what the guy accomplishes it’s always, always framed as a problem. This is what we’re up against folks.
Happy Hollandaise!