The Radical Argument of Trump’s Team and Trump’s Base
checked and accelerate, dark lord.
(Post on 4Chan on February 9, as the opening arguments in the impeachment trial took place)
Writer’s note: Some of the language in the posts cited is not PG13. Be aware of it as you read through this.
There is one argument made by Donald Trump’s defense team that is both crazy and bizarre. The reason why Democrats, partisan as they are, want to convict Donald Trump is to remove him from American politics. Democrats, we told, are afraid of the former president. With this act, Democrats are also disenfranchising his voters, all 71 million of them. Some of this might be true, but not all. Trump is a populist and his movement is still present. We know, because Republicans fear him. It is also at its heart, grievance politics.
They also argued that the trial is not constitutional. I find this to be dangerous and disingenuous. I am going to skip the legal mattes with this piece though, because people who are far better qualified, will go there. I will stick to the politics of this.
This argument was not just addressed at one person down in Mar-A-Lago or the esteemed members of the Jury. The likelihood that Trump will be indicted is very low, though if it happens it will be good for the Republican Party long term.
This argument was made for the party base, one that believes they were right, are right and the election was stolen. A poster on Gab is a good example. For obvious reasons, I am keeping the identity of the poster hidden. I have no interest in exposing them, but I read them regularly because it is important to keep an eye and notice the radicalization. According to this poster, Trump is getting dragged before the Senate:
twice on bullshit charges, Dems trying to make Trump look bad, that’s because they are really afraid of him and the 75 million people that made him. (This is close enough for government work, the actual number was 74,222,958 votes, or 46.8 percent of the votes cast.)
This tone is not unusual across multiple far-right platforms. Many in the base still feel that the election was stolen from them and that Trump won. They still believe the big lie. The lawyers knew who their customers are. The argument that this was a way for Democrats to remove trump from the process is one popular with the former president himself. It is clearly his grievance politics.
White Supremacy and These Spaces
It should surprise no one. These spaces are full of not just far-right fans, but also white supremacists. They are busy recruiting. This post via GAB is a good example, but hardly unique.
Trump is a Zionist ConMan, which is why him and most other republicans refuse to come to Gab where they know they will get mocked and called out by the anti-Zionists and white nationalists.
Keep the MAGA movement going, but dump Trump. Also, if white people do not pull their head out of their ass and collectivize (aka, white nationalism) than what is the fucking point. I am not going to fight for a nation where I am second class to foreign failed races of people who think this country is theirs just because our fucked up immigration system let them in. That’s literal cuckoldry on a national scale.
The whole colorblind neo-conservative Christian-Zionist Reaganomic party needs to die ASAP.
Again, there is no use in identifying these people in this piece, beyond the quotes, removing screen handles. The idea is to give you a taste of what is circulating in far right-wing spaces. This is mild by the way, and this person got some pushback at GAB. The entry point for many into conspiracy land was QAnon. Now that it looks like none of what Q said would happen (some still expect Trump to be inaugurated on March 4, and they are going down the Sovereign Citizen route), white supremacists are busy recruiting.
Race purity and white genocide are more conspiracies, more red pilling. So a few in these spaces took the arguments made by the lawyers to be made for them. A few actually believe Trump will be convicted, and others told them that it was not going to happen. The latter is likely right. But the fact is that the trial itself is making many of them angry and feel persecuted once again. To be frank, there is a feeling of alienation that is dangerous.
Anything that happens to Trump is taken personally because they see Trump as their leader. This is exactly why Republican Senators are torn right now. Conviction and personal courage could very well end their careers since the party they belong to has coddled this fringe for so long, that they now are the GOP. I would argue that this would be good long term if they care for their party to survive.
This radicalized base is also arguing that the movement can exist outside the GOP, and even take power outside the GOP. There are discussions in these spaces about forming a third openly fascist, white supremacist party. Oh never mind we have a few small third parties in some states (like the Independent Party in California) that already are precisely this, and cannot even hope to take a fireboard elected post.
The Future of the GOP and this Trial
We also have more moderate Republicans talking about forming a center-right Conservative Party. Suffice it to say, the GOP is no longer that. Of course, forming a party in the United States is not as easy as it was in 1852 when a similar break happened. The moderates and rational people left the Know-Nothings, the Wigs, and went and formed their own party. The Grand Old Party, which took the presidency in 1860. This story is known, it’s part of the foundational history of the Republican Party.
That was then, this is now.
Forming parties and accessing national elections right now is specifically difficult. Texas is insanely difficult. This was done by both Democrats and Republicans over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to prevent credible competition from rising. Now that will make it more difficult for an amicable divorce, but not impossible. In fact, it may come to that, as the Republican Party is so radicalized that it is censuring members who have taken moral votes to impeach Trump or to find this trial legal.
Members of the Senate are afraid of that radicalized base or have embraced that base. I would argue that Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz are part of this insanity. They expect this base to continue to grow within the party, ironically, it continues to contract. But at this point that die, as far as they are concerned is cast.
The trial is telling us a lot because some of the Senators are doodling, or reading other things. They are not paying attention as commanded. Let’s be honest, it is silly for us to expect the Sergeant at Arms to arrest any of them as long as they stay quiet. Even if they are breaking the spirit of the oath they took.
So What is the Use of the Trial?
Yes, the cynics in places like Twitter are asking, why bother? It’s not like he is going to be convicted. We know that finding enough Republicans to find the president guilty is near impossible. I wish there is some realignment of the moral universe and they find a political spine, but some of them are not just witnesses or jurors, they are likely accomplices. So it would be a fool's errand to expect them to find Trump guilty. However, there are good reasons for this.
First, there is a historic record. In a generation or two people will not care for the smaller actors in this saga, unless they are also charged in Federal Court. Then there is a slightly better chance they will be remembered. Just think about Watergate. Outside Richard Nixon, now many of us remember the particulars? However, we know, fifty years later, how bad Watergate was.
The trial and the January 6 insurrection make Watergate look like a nice walk in the park. So we need the historic record, and all this will be in the Congressional record, making it easier for historians. But it also has a role at present.
Yes, there were warnings from Republicans that this would further divide the country. And in the narrow aspect of their base, they are correct. Those people have been radicalized to the point that this trial (which is a form of accountability) is raising the temperature. Those people were going to get angry no matter what because they are positive that the election was stolen and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president or worst, they believe we have a double in the White House and the presidency will be restored to Trump on March 4.
Many Americans are finding the details of a lot of this through the trial, even if it is through the evening news. A few in the radicalized right are starting to walk away from that toxic environment. Yes, they are feeling betrayed, but not by the system, but by Trump and Q. We need this to start the healing process.
We also know that DAs are looking at federal charges for the former president, These are separate from this trial, which lies somewhere between the law and the politics of all. One is over his interference in Georgia. The DC Attorney General is thinking of charging Trump for a misdemeanor for the events on Jan 6.
He is in hot water in civil court as well. So the trial in the Senate may be just the beginning of his troubles. As all this continues to build, more of his base will start to peel. Mind you, some are ready to pick up arms and see all this as just revenge from the deep state, or other entities they imagine.
The chatter in these spaces continues. But we as a nation need to confront this, and the Senate Trial, no matter how it turns out, is important. This is another post on 4Chan, that will tell you how they feel about this. How universal this is, of course, is a good question. But speech about the civil war is a constant.
We’re already in a civil war faggot. Since nov 3 2016. You’re now watching the political theater play out to control the narrative and general consensus that democrats are indeed communists and shit on real Americans. It’s called governing, if you’re not the government you are governed.
Realize the chatter in these places continues, and at this point, it is growing to the levels it did before the Jan 6 events. This is concurrent to the trial as Democrats present their case.
God bless Trump
God bless America
Traitors need to hang
This is another post, celebrating the events of Jan 6, which I will remind you, are seen as a good thing by these people:
this fucking cunts argument
”ooga booga, orange man bad and told his supporters to attack police officers”
imagine the treason trials we would be holding for the few democrats who survived if they got into the chambers 10 minutes earlier
It is important to be aware that from the view of the base, this trial is making them angrier. They also see this as a whitewash, and some are questioning why a representative of the American Virgin Islands is even allowed to speak on these matters. But this is why many in the Republican Party are afraid. This is the monster they created, and as they say, they now need to sleep in that bed.
The problem is that the rest of us are in for the ride. As the chatter increases in its violent intent and language, we will see more violence. This is part of not just Trump’s legacy, but also that of a party that is cowering in fear in the face of the mob.
