Donald Trump has been indicted. And a few partisans on the left want Democrats not to be such namby-pambys about it.
If I understand correctly, the idea here is that Dems need to make hay out of this situation — both for their own prospects and for the sake of shoring up American democracy itself. You can’t expect the American people to understand just how awful this is. You have to tell them.
Maybe. But let me offer an alternative theory.
There’s a school of thought that Joe Biden won the presidency in part because he emphasized being boring over the prospect of another four years of crazy-making ideological warfare. Similarly, it seems likely that Democrats were (relatively) successful during the 2022 midterms because voters understood the danger to democracy of electing a bunch of Trump acolytes who bought into the lie that the 2020 election had been stolen as the price of winning their GOP primaries.
They want norms and normalcy, in other words.
Well, one of the old norms among responsible elected officials in cases is this: Don’t gloat. Emphasize due process. Talk about the right to be presumed innocent. Furrow your brow at the nature of the allegations. But make sure it doesn’t look like you’re putting your thumb on the scale when juries and judges are involved.
It was a pretty good norm. But it wasn’t Trump-style behavior.
I don’t know Dick Durbin’s thinking, but I suspect that he might be playing his cards close to the vest because it’s good for democracy. And maybe it’s better to give wide berth to the rampant idea that this is a political hit — not because you’ll convince the Trumpists, but because you need to convince that group of voters in the middle who are sometimes OK with Trump and sometimes not that this really is a legit prosecution. Gloating — overtly trying to exploit the situation for political gain — might actually undermine it.
Partisans always want their elected officials to be tougher and angrier. It’s not always smart. Elected Democrats1 might preserve the American system — and their own political prospects — by showing restraint.
Again, emphasis on “elected” here. If you’re a lefty with a Twitter feed or an MSNBC show, have at it.
Agreed.
I think you’ve summarized the situation well. Democrats in public office need to show deep concern while saying, “These are very serious charges. I will leave it to the wisdom of the American judicial system to determine guilt or innocence.”