Posted on 11/22/2024 10:28:45 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
The yearslong effort to vanquish Donald Trump in court was a dismal failure.
For liberals like me, it may be tempting to attribute the collapse of the various cases against him to convenient explanations of process or personnel. The more uncomfortable truth is that our search for political salvation primarily through the law has backfired. To oppose Mr. Trump in his second term, liberals must learn the lesson of this defeat, which is that there is no alternative to persuading our fellow citizens of our beliefs.
For decades, liberals have made the mistake of prioritizing legal victories over popular ones. It was a method of prolonging the civil rights movement even after its opponents assembled a majority to halt it. Fifty years ago, Richard Nixon’s four Supreme Court appointments — Mr. Trump got only three — shoved the court right and consigned liberals to damage control. While liberals saw breakthroughs afterward for women and L.G.B.T.Q. people, delivering progress more quickly than elections could, they failed to stop the conservative drift of American law.
A few victories made it easy for liberals to forget that the law is just another domain of politics where their enemies enjoy power too. They talked of law as a matter of principle, ignoring that their movement had mainly treated it as a weapon for legalistic political change. Legalism’s greatest theorist, Judith Shklar, defined it as the adoption of an ethics of rule-following and defended it as a useful strategy. Along the way, you claim that the rules are on your side and impose them on your political enemies, and sometimes yourself, because the results are good ones.
The trouble is that they regularly aren’t. In this election, legalistic tactics contributed to Mr. Trump’s victory, helping to produce the popular majority he had never boasted before...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Within the law includes Letitia James and Jack Smith and Judge Merchaun and armed raids on Mar-a-Lago. Even invited, if not direct, assassination attempts.
So, it that lawfare—abuse of law—didn’t work, something stronger must be needed... like vote fixing, BLM, directed mass disorder, border chaos.
I think I’ve got it, although I didn’t get past the paywall.
Nah, the ‘rinos’ will be busy tossing road blocks.
and they should suffer the consequences politically for their actions for Abusing their power and the law to try to destroy an innocent man!
More like despite the law.
Such flimsy cases. Anyone who watches law & order know the cases were a travesty of justice. Crazy E Jean, Engoron the moron, sweaty fat Alvin ? What a cast of losers. NY legal system has disgraced itself.
Once Trump gets the keys to the White House, he needs to bring the whole world down on their Screamin’ Banshee commie asses. Give them a reason to scream and throw tantrums.
Wasn't there a song with that line some years ago?
“I Fought the Law” by the Bobby Fuller Four, 1966
The line goes this way, “I fought the law and the law won.”
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