Crooked Donald Trump Leads A Criminal Republican Party
The Entire Enterprise Is A Crime Family
Donald Trump’s apparent federal indictment is not a sad day for the United States. It’s a good day for the rule of law, the equal application of justice, and accountability at the highest levels of government. If anything is sad about it, it’s a reminder of how figures like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Richard Nixon unfortunately avoided real legal consequences for their actions.
As a longtime skeptic of this entire enterprise, I am certainly happy to have been wrong. I still think this all took too long and appears to be too limited in scope, but this is ultimately the right path.
In many ways, Trump is the leader the right deserves. In the last few years, both parties were able to somewhat throw caution to the wind and put their support behind political figures that the party establishment did not initially back. For Democrats this was President Barack Obama, who appealed directly to the liberal id with his appeal for “hope” and “change.”
When Republican voters also chose their dream candidate from a large field of nominees, they chose a racist conspiracy theorist who rose to prominence as a serial clown in the tabloid press and on reality TV, Donald Trump. Way back in 2015 when this all began, there were already concerns about criminal associations and corrupt business practices by Trump. Republicans didn’t care, as long as they got to weaponize their racist impulses and white entitlement.
As things have progressed, through two presidential impeachments for abusing his powers — including trying to usurp a democratic election — the right has stood by him. They continue to stand by as Trump racks up indictments in the criminal courts and seem dead set on rallying behind a crook as the party’s presidential nominee against President Joe Biden.
But it’s not just Trump. The Republican Party and the wider conservative movement supports criminality and thuggery at all levels of American government. Trump isn’t an isolated case, he’s just the most visible symbol of a pervasive rot.
This is a movement that has tried, over and over again, to disqualify Black and Latino votes by cutting down on polling places and wresting power away from cities and municipalities where minority voters have gone a different way from conservative whites.
The right and the Republican Party have time and again backed violent right wing militants, from the thugs who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, to mobs who have threatened and even bombed abortion clinics, to wide-eyed bigots trashing Target stores for endorsing Pride or wreaking havoc at school board meetings for the sin of educating children on Black history.
Republicans and conservatives are also fine with corporate crime waves. Big banks and their leaders getting tax breaks while screwing over the middle class? No problem. Polluters injecting their poison into the planet without oversight or penalty? They back them.
It’s no different the way the right backs white right-wing vigilantes when they kill innocent people, especially Black people, and also support police abusing those same communities.
When Trump told the brownshirt Proud Boys to “stand by” he wasn’t just speaking for himself, he was just giving a voice to the Republican Party and conservatism.
Criminality is what they live and breathe, the very essence of who they are. None of this came out of the blue, despite the repeated attempts by the right to pin the blame for this solely on Trump.
It wasn’t Trump who led the right-wing mob trying to shut down vote counting in the 2000 election. Trump was busy shilling steak and fake university education when Republicans were busy embracing crackpot conspiracy theories and stoking the fires of extremist right-wing militias.
This isn’t a movement that has a shot at redemption. It’s long past time to stop begging Republicans to “finally” “speak out” against Trump and his criminal behavior. The right has shown us time and time again that far from being appalled by what Trump keeps getting caught doing red-handed, they actually like it. From Mitch McConnell at the top to the mouth-breathing MAGA supporter tweeting out his frustrations or yelling on the street corner, they are all in.
So let them stew in it. This isn’t rhetoric or a mindset that is remotely deserving of a life preserver. They don’t want you to rescue them. They are absolutely happy where they are. They love doing crimes and lending their political support to a serial criminal.
Throw them an anvil and watch in pride as they sink to the bottom of the filth where they belong.
If you like this newsletter, please consider becoming a paying subscriber by clicking here to join. I won’t be putting any of my regular columns behind a paywall and they will always be free. Thanks to everyone who has subscribed so far!
— Oliver
Follow me, Oliver Willis, on Twitter @owillis and on Substack Notes
Exclusive Kal-El Photo
Kal-El would never improperly handle classified documents, because he would just immediately rip them to shreds.
Among the many things that should have been more widely reported about Donald Trump is that while he was running for president, he couldn't get a loan from a US bank. As well as the fact that Australia turned down a Trump project because he was nothing but a money launderer.
That and he was in a civil fraud case for which he paid $25M three weeks after he was (sort of) elected.
That little puppy definitely saves you from having to buy a shredder