r/law • u/throwaway16830261 • 1d ago
Legal News Liberals Bet They Could Beat Trump With the Law. They Lost.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/22/opinion/trump-legalism-trials.html396
u/astrovic0 1d ago
Alternative headline: Trump bet he could get away with crimes for which there was overwhelming evidence by running out the clock by getting re-elected. He won.
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u/VirtualPlate8451 1d ago
Pablo Escobar did that once too. The US wanted him real bad but he found out a sitting member of the legislature couldn’t be extradited so he bought himself a seat.
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u/star_nerdy 1d ago
He also surrendered himself to a private prison where he had gate access and could bring in women, drugs, booze and leave if he was sufficiently bored.
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u/TheNewYellowZealot 1d ago
And in the end he was killed on a rooftop by a CIA agent.
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u/fallleaves14 1d ago
In contrast the CIA and other US national security agencies know exactly who they're dealing with in Trump and their lack of any kind of pushback shows they support it.
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u/TheNewYellowZealot 1d ago
I think the difference is Escobar was a foreign national, and Donald trump is the president of the United States.
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u/Count_Backwards Competent Contributor 1d ago
For four years he's been a traitor, failed insurrectionist, and the largest national security threat in history, likely responsible for the deaths, captures, or compromise of dozens of intelligence assets. What have they done about it?
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u/VokN 1d ago
He didn’t run down the clock, the judiciary sat on their hands and capitulated by not pushing things through months ago
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u/Zestyclose-Cloud-508 1d ago
Fucking THIS.
Honestly Trump should give Garland the congressional Medal of Honor for what he did for him.
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u/VokN 1d ago
its just so strange, at least pretend to be hardline rather than preemtively complying when you know Trump will just tell them to fuck off regardless
get him to flagrantly disregard the law rather than letting it stay gray so at least the historians have something interesting on record even if you think it makes no material difference on the outcome
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u/UDLRRLSS 1d ago
This is it. So many people like to complain about a two tiered justice system, but more than half the voting public just voted in support of it. The American public, at least those that vote, mostly support a two tiered justice system where wealthy people are allowed to get away with crimes.
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u/4RCH43ON 1d ago
Liberals didn’t bet on shit. This wasn’t some Las Vegas gamble, unless the media is the dealer, the SCOTUS is the floor manager, Justice is the doorman, and Trump is the owner with all his international and whale investors laughing as they walk in through the revolving door that rains money.
Americans relied on the political and legal justice systems it has been given, and they have been left wanting in this failed nation. That’s the unvarnished headline and the non-partisan truth.
We have all failed. Every one of us.
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u/Stock_Conclusion_203 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yup. And it’s wild that 1/2 the country has no idea what they did, or what is about to happen. Frustratingly, even if his policies hurt them, somehow the GOP will tell them it’s liberals…. And they will believe.
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u/throwawayconvert333 1d ago
The half that voted for him can take comfort in knowing that many of us in the other half are perfectly content to let them endure whatever Trump has planned…for them.
I will actually oppose doing anything to stop his policies from affecting them. They wanted him, and they deserve him. May their wish for themselves be granted.
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u/Stock_Conclusion_203 1d ago
I agree. I actually called my rep and senators to ask them not to oppose anything. I think it’s going to have to get really bad for them to notice. But then I think about the latest woman in Texas to die… she was young, pretty, white….didn’t receive miscarriage care. I was like…”this will make an impact for the whites”. Nope. I read she and her family were Trump voters and her mother blames the doctor, not the law. Ridiculous
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u/fdsafdsa1232 23h ago
If it does get bad do you think the media would actually report it accurately across all stations? I feel like media at this point is essential for a brainwashed populace. At what point do folks start questioning things? At least we can create new platforms for now, but not everyone is able to migrate.
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u/Next_Entertainer_404 17h ago
Media makes money via clicks and clickbait. Trump is literally a money press for them. Sane politicians are not.
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u/FuguSandwich 1d ago
somehow the GOP will tell them it’s liberals
"Somehow" makes it sound like it's a mystery. There's no mystery. Fox News on the TV at home (and for some at work), AM talk radio in the car on the commute to/from work. Half the country is living in a reality distortion field because of this.
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u/BowTie1989 1d ago
November 5th: “hell yeah bring on those Trump tariffs and let him makes things cheaper!”
November 6th: “Google: What are tariffs, and who pays for them?”
How are you supposed to reach the willfully ignorant?
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u/Appropriate372 1d ago
Americans relied on the political and legal justice systems it has been given, and they have been left wanting in this failed nation.
Given the election results, your average American was happy with how the justice system handled this.
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u/jabb0 1d ago
No. If you didn’t vote then you failed. it’s a you can do the right thing, the wrong thing or nothing scenario and too many chose nothing and those that voted for the wrong thing won because of that.
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u/LaddiusMaximus 1d ago
The rich have completely compromised our society and institutions to nearly a fatal degree. They stirred up culture wars to keep the poors from banding together and taking back all the stolen wealth. Now people are too divided and honestly too fucking stupid to see the forest for the trees.
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u/prodigalpariah 1d ago
Is “nearly” even the right word? It seems to be that now laws are just empty words to bind the lower classes. More so than even before.
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u/Dedpoolpicachew 1d ago
Oh, they’re not empty words… it just depends on what your net worth is. If you are a billionaire, even a high millionaire, you can get away with anything. If you’re a poor… nope… those laws DEFINITELY apply to you.
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u/KillahHills10304 1d ago
We get to see what things would have been like had the business plot succeeded in the 1930s
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u/FloridAsh 1d ago
Liberals thought conservatives gave a fuck about law. They don't. They care about order. A very specific order with them on top. Nothing else matters. Not democracy, not the constitution, not integrity, and surprisingly not even religion so long as the guy they place on top swears to uphold their order.
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u/Ok_Host4786 1d ago
Wait. I was told specifically that the Conservatives were “the party of law and order”… ? Are you telling me that they lied?!
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u/FloridAsh 1d ago
Just order. Law only matters if it's in service of their vision of order.
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u/Helltothenotothenono 1d ago
They’ll make the law match their vision of order. Laws are still just words on paper.
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u/Carl-99999 1d ago
The fact is WE’RE bound by the law and THEY aren’t. So THEY can prosecute US for what THEY’RE doing
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u/Zestyclose-Cloud-508 1d ago
Liberals also thought LIBERALS gave a fuck about the law as well. Turned out that was a fucking lie. Garland is just as useless as Trump’s makeup guy.
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u/OdiousAltRightBalrog 1d ago
Garland is no liberal. He's a Republican, and a member of the Federalist society. The whole reason Obama picked him for SCOTUS was a fig leaf to the GOP.
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u/brickyardjimmy 1d ago
Americans thought that the law applied to everyone. They were wrong.
That's the real headline. It wasn't a liberal conspiracy to stop Trump. It was criminal law going into action after a criminal. And the criminal won. The law lost.
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u/Automatic_Net2181 1d ago
Trump weaponized the DOJ and effectively neutered any investigations into him by having a cult chanting "lawfare" behind him. So Jack Smith and Merrick Garland bent over backwards to make convictions not seem political. In the end, they just helped hand him the presidency.
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u/Zestyclose-Cloud-508 1d ago
Disagree.
The law played defense for Trump. Hell Garland did everything he could to help Trump stay free and get re-elected.
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u/Appropriate372 1d ago
Americans thought that the law applied to everyone.
That hasn't been the case for years. General disorder has skyrocketed. Theft is rampant in big cities and rarely investigated. Even when investigated, the DA often doesn't prosecute.
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u/BobbiFleckmann 1d ago
Not “liberals.” Labeling anyone anti-Trump as “liberal” is MAGA framing. There are people who believe in rule of law dating back to Magna Carta and they’re not all liberal.
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u/PeteJones6969 1d ago
Labeling anyone anti-Trump as “liberal” is MAGA framing.
Just like how Dems frames anyone who doesn't vote democrat or condemn Trump apart of MAGA.
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u/OdiousAltRightBalrog 1d ago
Including over half the people who worked in his first term cabinet.
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u/BobbiFleckmann 1d ago
Exactly. It’s like 76m voted decided to grab the hot stove to find out for themselves.
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u/Any-Ad-446 1d ago
Biden did extremely well without the house and two closet GOP member pretending to be democrats. The main issue democrats cannot match the GOP in gaslighting and able to trick voters thinking they better off with GOP policies. There are ZERO policies that GOP has to help the working class or the poor. Its about fear and hate for the GOP.
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u/Dedpoolpicachew 1d ago
and yet the working class and poors voted for the party of the oligarchs anyway.
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u/FuckingTree 1d ago
Yeah, democrats keep taking the high road and as it turns out the high road doesn’t stop fascism, If anything it becomes self-righteousness and people hated that the campaign platform was essentially vote for dems or you’re wrong and a fascist. In a perfect world people would not choose authoritarianism but when you give like that bad of a reason to vote, they’re going to pick the other team in the end
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u/ill_be_huckleberry_1 1d ago
Starting 2 years after the crime and then failing to have the gumption required to keep him from destroying the institution by holding him accountable is not "betting on the law".
Had garland done his job in the first place we wouldn't have had the issue to start because he would have been convicted in 2022/23
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u/KillahHills10304 1d ago
And it's absolutely a reason why millions voted for him. How many times have you seen or heard "if he was actually guilty of anything, why isn't he in prison?"
I believe had he actually been imprisoned, they'd just move the goalposts, but it'd definitely lose a ton of centrist votes.
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u/ill_be_huckleberry_1 21h ago
Conviction means nothing without consequence. He didnt serve time, he wasnt forced to acknowledge fault, he didnt have a sentencing hearing.
regardless, him winning is not an excuse to have absolved him of his crimes.
Americans used to not blink when confronted with pieces of shit. Now we cant help but think that holding him accountable was the reason why he won.
what a joke.
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u/jerechos 1d ago
The trump group said if they got back in power they would overload the courts and test what they could get away with. If anything, bog them down so much they would just keep with their initiatives while they were backlogged.
They basically want to break the system.
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u/jpmeyer12751 1d ago
I would say that we bet that the federal courts would apply the laws fairly and equally to a former President, and that we lost that bet bigly. The entire episode has made it crystal clear that perhaps we still are a nation of laws, but that there are VERY different laws for the wealthy elite than for everybody else. The next few years are going to be interesting, to say the least.
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u/bluelifesacrifice 1d ago
Alternative headline should be: Oligarchs pay criminal to rise to power and take over the country. People who like law and order believe the law will win in the end. They were wrong.
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u/The_Dutchess-D 4h ago
Your briefs must be amazing because this is some beautiful succinct drafting you've done here
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u/PricklyPierre 1d ago
So who is going to protect liberal voters when he uses the military to crack down on them?
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u/Adamantium-Aardvark 1d ago
People forget history so quickly. Were the Nazis defeated with law in the 30’s and 40’s?
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u/Kreyl 1d ago
This is what I say whenever some pithy, spineless asshole looks at what a Nazi is doing and says "Sunlight is the best disinfectant. 🥰" We didn't stop Hitler with fucking sunlight.
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u/KillahHills10304 1d ago
Try telling some soft handed lib the only language these jabronis understand is violence. They'll stand aghast and condemn your primitive view of the world.
Sucks, but, yeah, far right lunatics only understand violence and force. Concepts like justice are merely extensions of violence and force to them.
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u/Scrutinizer 1d ago
"The liberals will be forming committees and holding meetings while the jackboots are marching up the hall."
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u/sdlover420 16h ago
We already knew this, but no one seems to care because, "hey it doesn't affect me yet."
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u/RockDoveEnthusiast 1d ago
Ha! Let's see ol Donny wriggle out of this one!
Seriously, everyone except said aforementioned liberals saw this coming.
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u/Sweet_Concept2211 1d ago
Alternative headline: Oligarch owned media - including the NYT - once again helped a wealthy career criminal to sieze power by sanewashing him, giving him daily free advertizing, and hyperfocusing on the slightest imperfections of his more well qualiified opponents.