Capitol Hill Blue Forums Thread Like Summary - Why the Memory of Jan. 6 Can’t Prevent a Trump Resurgence

Why the Memory of Jan. 6 Can’t Prevent a Trump Resurgence (Ross Douthat, NYT)
I often disagree with Douthat takes, but here I think he makes so much sense:

There are two metrics for the success of the House’s Jan. 6 committee. One is within the committee’s control: A fair and comprehensive accounting of how far Donald Trump and his inner circle went in their effort to overturn the 2020 election, and how that effort interacted with mob violence, can serve future generations of Americans regardless of how it’s received today.

But the committee’s more immediate goal is to help prevent Trump’s return to power, by further advertising his unfitness for the highest office in the land. And for that goal, success and failure are both largely out of its control, since even a pitch-perfect presentation will be at the mercy of partisan polarization, a Balkanized media landscape and online life’s remorseless pace.

Among those general forces, though, the biggest single obstacle to the committee’s Trump-disqualifying effort is a specific spirit, a shrugging, everybody’s implicated sensibility — a view of our politics that sees norm-breaking all over the place, both right and left winking at riots and intimidation tactics, and Trump as one dubious actor among many..
....

They've been trying.
Unfortunately their plan to REPLACE MPD with a larger public safety agency comprised of state and county law enforcement fizzled because it was not a well thought out piece of legislation, just as the last two California single payer ideas weren't.
It's one thing to advocate for progress, another thing to come up with well written legislation that can get the job done and in the case of America, we've become so accustomed to think tanks and PAC's grinding out gavel ready law that we seem to have lost the ability to just do it ourselves like the old Schoolhouse Rock video shows us.

But the example of Camden New Jersey keeps coming up.
Years ago Camden was the worst crime ridden hellhole imaginable and their PD was similarly recalcitrant and Camden DID replace their police with an entirely new force. Past officers were encouraged to reapply provided that they went through some new training.
Some did, some did not but in the end Camden saw improvement, and that's been noted in past posts here as well.

I hope Minneapolis figures this out.
As regards public sector unions like police shops, it's clear conservative beefs against public sector unionizing may be valid.
If we were not so polarized a solution might be hammered out.

Poll: Half of Americans now predict U.S. may 'cease to be a democracy' someday

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that most Democrats (55%) and Republicans (53%) now believe it is “likely” that America will “cease to be a democracy in the future” — a stunning expression of bipartisan despair about the direction of the country.

Half of all Americans (49%) express the same sentiment when independents and those who do not declare any political affiliation are factored in, while just a quarter (25%) consider the end of U.S. democracy unlikely and another quarter (25%) say they’re unsure.

At the same time, however, a large number of Americans seem indifferent to the high-profile hearings by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — an effort to get to the bottom of one of the most dramatic assaults on the democratic process in U.S. history.

---Are we really going to just "let it happen" and climb into the cattle cars?

And that's why there is no need to worry about him. He'll get whatever is coming to him or he won't.

Democrats need to be thinking about the future. Because it's looking kind of bleak right now.

While everybody is patting themselves on the back for jailing Trump they're going to lose the WhiteHouse and see Trump pardoned by DeSantis.

That analysis is a bit silly: A president can't "take the bull by the horns" when his slight majority in the Senate includes two DINOs. What's he supposed to do? Go down to the Capital and arm wrestle to get what he wants? There is a reason why he can't get much done, and that's because voters did not choose to give him clear majorities in congress. Let's place the blame where it belongs.

Voters wanted an administration that would do little after all the radical crap from Trump. They got one.

Donald Trump's presidency was a fluke of math and misplaced loyalty. Unfortunately, that is a formula ripe for repetition.

When Trump announced his candidacy it was great fodder for late night comics and know-it-all pundits. People just didn't take him seriously. But with a field of a dozen candidates the math to winning primaries is not very daunting. 9% is a potential winning haul, and winner takes all. Trump went from incredible to inevitable in no time. Then the general election came down to brand loyalty, and Republicans are very loyal to their brand (even when they pretend to be "independent").

Now Republicans are reversing that formula, and brand loyalty is the primary consideration. Math can be manipulated, it turns out. If Trump runs, he'll be nominated by the party. The key to the next election is whether vote manipulation can trump campaigning.

The Mayor, city council, even the chief of police have been at war with the POLICE UNION in Minneapolis for well over twenty years.

I've mentioned the battle with Bob Kroll numerous times here, sorry if you missed it or scrolled past it.



Bob Kroll