"Lock her up is right." - "She has to go to jail."

by T Sun Oct 16, 2016 9:06 am

Charles Krauthammer: In democracies, the electoral process is a subtle and elaborate substitute for combat, the age-old way of settling struggles for power. But that sublimation only works if there is mutual agreement to accept both the legitimacy of the result (which Trumpery keeps undermining with charges that the very process is "rigged") and the boundaries of the contest.

The prize for the winner is temporary accession to limited political power, not the satisfaction of vendettas. Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez and a cavalcade of two-bit caudillos lock up their opponents.

American leaders don't.

In America, we don't persecute political opponents. Which is why we retroactively honor Gerald Ford for his pardon of Richard Nixon, for which, at the time, Ford was widely reviled. It ultimately cost him the presidency. Nixon might well have been convicted. But Ford understood that jailing a president for actions carried out in the context of his official duties would threaten the very civil nature of democratic governance.

What makes Trumpery's promise to lock her up all the more alarming is that it's not an isolated incident. This is not the first time he's insinuated using the powers of the presidency against political enemies. He has threatened Amazon's Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, for using the newspaper "as a tool for political power against me and other people. ... We can't let him get away with it."

With exercising free political speech?

Trumpery has gone after others with equal subtlety. "I hear," he tweeted, "the Rickets [sic] family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $'s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!"

He also promises to "open up" libel laws to permit easier prosecution of those who attack him unfairly.

Has he ever conceded any attack on him to be fair?

This election is not just about placing the nuclear codes in Trumpery's hands. It's also about handing him the instruments of civilian coercion, such as the IRS, the FBI, the FCC, the SEC. Think of what he could do to enforce the "fairness" he demands. Imagine giving over the vast power of the modern state to a man who says in advance that he will punish his critics and jail his opponent.

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