Posted on 06/19/2024 7:01:22 AM PDT by ksm1
I've been on FR since the Bush years, first as a lurker and then more active during Obama and the initial Tea Party movement. Throughout that time, there always has been active and for the most part respectful debate on FR, that sometimes got a bit heated but we all basically wanted the same thing for the country, even if it meant different ways to get there.
With the Trump years, I was skeptical of Trump at first in 2016 since he was an unknown, but then he won me over when he was actually President. You can find my posts from his years in office where I defended him. That said - there was enough left on the table, like a number of bad hires who kept undermining him, that I wanted to see a competitive primary and a candid discussion on both his record and what would be different this time around if he gets the nod.
Well that's when things got weird. We never had that discussion. It just became a yelling match, and if I wanted to do that, I'd just go join those Palestine weirdos on college campuses. No thanks.
Guys, Bob Good had an excellent 100% conservative voting record. Trump primaried him for his one and only crime which was endorsing DeSantis, even though after the primary, Bob Good came to visit Trump during his trial in NYC.
This isn't giving me any confidence that Trump has learned from his mistakes of bad hires and bad endorsements. We should have completely dominated the 2022 midterms but a number of bad endorsements sabotaged us. Dr. Oz? Seriously? Yes Arizona had some shady things with their election, but there were a bunch of other cases where Trump endorsed a weak candidate - OR, he's been backing people who DO win and then vote RINO when it counts. We can't keep saying "we want better people in Congress" and then let things like this slide.
Why I care: the grassroots activist right has always played an important role. I saw during the Bush years on FR that we'd organize campaigns to write letters to Congress to push for our values. Same during the Obama years, which is how we prevented Obama from doing a lot of gun grabbing and so forth. There was minimal of that during the Trump years. It was just "trust the plan". This isn't helpful. Politics was meant to be an active process that citizens participate in. During the Trump years, it seemed to turn into just a spectator sport. That's not how this is supposed to work.
Is this really what we want, no real political power because we actively are pushing RINOs into office to replace conservatives, but at least we "own the libs" with snarky internet remarks? Is this really the best we can do? And look, I know the left is unfairly attacking Trump, but Trump or ANY Republican needs to get pressured from the right as well, so he actually does what we want. I know the left is going to attack Trump, or anyone to the right of Rachel Maddow for that matter, but it's really getting frustrated that any pressure for accountability *from the right* is dismissed or actively trolled.
Bob Good shouldn't have even been in a competitive race. He was as solid as they get. This is getting ridiculous.
Sorry, you’re not telling the truth. He’s been as strong as anyone on this, but you are so devoted to the narrative that you somehow need to make it fit.
He has spoken out about the J6ers and has no power to overturn or intervene in a FEDERAL rap. The J6ers are being prosecuted on Federal charges. No governor has any power to interfere.
“DeSantis last year said that his administration would review “weaponization” of government and making determinations on “a case-by-case basis” about whether to use pardon power, after he was asked about January 6 defendants on a conservative podcast. The remarks drew major ire from the left at the time.”
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/614690-j6-pardon/
“Responding to an interview question on “Clay and Buck,” the Florida Governor opened the door to clemency actions on “Day One” surrounding the attempt to halt the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election.
“The Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation have been weaponized. We see that in a variety of contexts,” DeSantis argued.
“And so what I’m going to do is on Day One, I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases (where) people are victims of weaponization or political targeting and we will be aggressive at issuing pardons.”
He argued that prosecutors have not been pursuing justice equally.
“These were people that were there to attend a rally, and then they were there to protest. Now, it devolved, and it devolved into a riot, but the idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true, and it’s something that the media had spun up just to try and basically get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and for political aims,”
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/desantis-jan-6-unfortunate-insurrection/story?id=101560997
These were people that were there to attend a rally, and then they were there to protest,” he added.
“Now, it devolved into a riot, but the idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true and it’s something that the media had spun up to try to basically get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and political aims.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/18/desantis-trump-cnn-interview-jan-6-charges
“Ron DeSantis said charges against Donald Trump over his election subversion that culminated in the deadly January 6 attack on Congress would not be good for the US.
“I hope he doesn’t get charged,” the Florida governor told CNN in a much-trailed interview on Tuesday. “I don’t think it’ll be good for the country.”
What would you like him to do, as a governor?
The lawfare in his state, again, is Federal. Again, what would you like him to do?
You’re not telling the truth about the endorsement. Trump only endorsed him after the trend line started moving his way. He won in spite of Trump — who was not that popular in a purple state, though he had won it — not because of him.
This is typical of what Trump does. He takes a race where the GOP is likely to win, endorses, then claims credit for it — and then his followers parrot that.
While the state was leaning red when DeSantis took office, it moved sharply and firmly red once he was in office.
As to the “binary choice,” I already pointed out the faulty logic in that. You simply refuse to accept it. But repeating “binary choice” over and over like a mantra doesn’t make it truer.
Thank you Joe. I was too tired to take up the cudgels.
This ken guy is not a constitutional lawyer, is not even a lawyer, but sits on the board of some outfit that I have never heard of.
I admire how far you are reaching though.
Good bye.
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