October 29th 2019

By chloris creator (of the Daily Kos community)

Daily Kos

I am not a fan of Morning Joe, but occasionally I listen to the show because it gives me a sense of how moderates or “reasonable” right-wingers feel about what is going on. And today Joe Scarborough went on and on about something I disagree with. He and Mika were chatting about the booing and the “Lock him up!” chant that spontaneously erupted at the Sunday World Series game, and Joe was deploring the behavior of the crowd. The idea of imprisoning leaders is repugnant.

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I understand where Joe is coming from. We don’t want one party to go and imprison the other party every time there’s a change in power. Being in charge means hard choices, and many leaders could be locked up for real or imaginary crimes. Or for frivolous infractions, which I believe was one reason for the memo at the DOD that has stopped them from charging a sitting president.

I would accord Trump some of the trappings and norms of the presidency if he ever respected those norms. But he has used those norms — has taken advantage of them — to commit crimes.

However, this was not just the tit-for-tat for Trump’s bad behavior in inciting the “Lock her up!” chant that is still used at Trump rallies (and they have investigated Clinton over and over).

The problem is that the DOJ memo and the deference given to presidents has been abused by Trump and his enablers. They have viewed as an invitation to crime and to keep on criming. Trump and his enablers consider themselves above the law.

Here’s how the usual methods are failing us:

• We cannot count on many of the elected appointed officials. Because of the electoral college and the fact that the Senate is skewed to the Republicans, the will of the majority is not always known or felt by those who are in charge. We the people cannot count on the Senate. We cannot count on the Department of Justice, when the AG is off trying to build up conspiracy theories.

• We cannot count on the media. Often what is portrayed in the media has been arranged to make Trump look good. Only his chosen are permitted at rallies (last week, everyone at a college was forced to stay in their dorm rooms while he gave a speech). Photos are set up as well. Sometimes we catch on — Trump wasn’t in the room with the generals when the Baghdadi raid was happening, which we know because all the computers weren’t hooked up and because the time was wrong — but we probably don’t catch everything.

• We cannot always count on the elections. The electoral college gave the victory to Trump in 2016, despite a clear majority for Clinton. We rallied and made our opinions clear in 2018, but we’re still blocked. November 2020 is still a whole year away, and what with Russian interference requested by Trump (and already going on) and enabled by McConnell, we’re not sure we can count on those results. 

The booing was a way for we the people to let Trump and his Republican enablers and the rest of the world know just what we think about him. You know that “strongly disapprove” choice in all the polls? I don’t think Trump and his enablers understand just how strong that disapproval is.

By yelling “Lock him up!” we the people are sending a message to the Republican senate that we are aware Trump is a criminal and that we want him removed. This is important because they don’t always answer their phones. They are not responding to the will of the people.

The booing and the Lock him up chant were one of the few ways for the people to be heard.

Also, sometimes, Morning Joe, you have to lock up the criminals. Even Pelosi has said she wants him in prison.

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Update (but without calling too much attention to it): This is the exercise of the First Amendment, folks. That’s what these people were doing. It’s what we have.

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Posted with permission