Vengeance

We’re just over a week from the election, and Trump is beginning to make appointments to his cabinet and staff, and to various agencies.  There is not much  really surprising so far—corporate stooges, bigots of one sort or another, anti-science clowns, and the like.  I think perhaps we are seeing the invisible hand of the Heritage Foundation and its database of suitable candidates to help Trump pursue his agenda.  The immediate future is looking pretty dismal.

Much of the buzz has concerned the question of who Trump will appoint as his Attorney General.  Trump has made it clear that he intends to seek a very harsh vengeance on his political opponents—the Obamas, the Clintons, the Bidens, Jack Smith, Nancy Pelosi…the list goes on and on.  The Department of Justice and the Attorney General will certainly have a crucial role to play in this orgy of vengeance, so we can expect Trump to appoint someone who will be absolutely loyal to him, despite having taken an oath of loyalty to the Constitution.

And, indeed, he has—Matt Gaetz.  Although Gaetz has been critical of the DOJ and various other government agencies in the past, he has not, as I write this, said anything about his plans as AG.  But Trump loyalist Mike Davis (a Republican lawyer, advisor to the GOP on judicial nominations, and likely Trump appointee to some position) has likely set the tone for what is coming with his public pronouncements and threats.  For example, this post on X: 

 Here's my current mood:  I want to drag their dead political bodies through the streets, burn them, and throw them off the wall.  (Legally, politically, and financially, of course.). 

And there is considerably more of the same and worse here.

This practice of prosecuting politicians for unpopular policies or personal grudges was a prominent feature of the ancient Roman Republic as it collapsed into a civil war that lasted more than a decade.  And after all the slaughter and suffering, the result was a regime in which everyone was subject to the whims of an (often insane) emperor.  The people against whom Trump is seeking vengeance are very popular in the US and many other parts of the world.  His quest for revenge could easily devolve into open political violence, or even a civil war.  Trumpettes make no secret of looking for reasons to use violence against their opponents.  And the antifascist movement is waiting in the wings for an event that will reactivate it.  With this much fuel around, something is bound to spark eventually.

Of course, Trump’s hypocrisy in this matter is no surprise.   He claims immunity, but insists on the right to prosecute anyone who upsets him.  Still, if he actually tries (or manages) to jail Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, this might agitate people enough to trigger violence.  After all, once they are in jail, they might not hang themselves, just like Jeffrey Epstein.

It is possible that the Supreme Court will put a stop to this sort of insanity.  But it is not very likely.  The immunity ruling alone indicates clearly that SCOTUS has become entirely partisan, as have many lower courts.  Will SCOTUS grant the same immunity to Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden?  Will it act to protect others who have earned Trump’s ire merely by carrying out their duties under the Constitution?   I see  little reason to think so.

It looks like the cluster fuck is getting nicely underway.