{"id":10201,"date":"2021-01-19T08:57:29","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T08:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=151618"},"modified":"2021-01-19T08:57:29","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T08:57:29","slug":"trump-may-be-on-trial-but-the-system-that-produced-him-will-be-acquitted-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/19\/trump-may-be-on-trial-but-the-system-that-produced-him-will-be-acquitted-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump May be on Trial, But the System that Produced Him will be Acquitted"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It is a fitting end to four years of Donald Trump in the White House.<\/p>\n

On one side, Trump\u2019s endless stoking of political grievances \u2013 and claims that November\u2019s presidential election was \u201cstolen\u201d from him \u2013 spilled over last week into a mob storming the US Capitol. They did so in the forlorn hope of disrupting the certification process of the electoral college vote, which formally declared his opponent, Joe Biden, the winner.<\/p>\n

On the other side, the Democratic party instituted a second, unprecedented impeachment<\/a> process this week, in the slightly less forlorn hope that Trump leaves office disgraced and humiliated, foreclosing any possibility he can run again in 2024.<\/p>\n

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Russia wants us to know it is very much against Trump impeachment. https:\/\/t.co\/tpvVJtXewT<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) January 12, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Barely concealing its alliance with the incoming Biden administration, Silicon Valley has shut down<\/a> Trump\u2019s social media megaphone. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has lobbied the joint chiefs of staff to cut an \u201cunhinged\u201d Trump out of the chain of command, in a move that was reportedly rejected out of hand<\/a> by Pentagon officials because, they told the New York Times, it would amount to a \u201cmilitary coup\u201d.<\/p>\n

And Biden, who boasts that he was the author the Patriot Act years before 9\/11, has been touting<\/a> a new \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d bill, as though the US did not already have a plethora of ways to crack down on dissent, of both the legitimate and the illegitimate varieties.<\/p>\n

With this as the backdrop, Washington DC is designating<\/a> the inauguration of Biden next week a \u201cnational special security event\u201d.<\/p>\n

Authoritarian tribes<\/strong><\/p>\n

All this is not just the latest sign that the US political system has degenerated into tawdry theatre. It is growing evidence that US politics is devolving into a permanent confrontation between two authoritarian tribes. Both are convinced that the other side is un-American, perverting the true republic. Both are unwilling to compromise, believing they share no common ground. And ultimately both are fighting for a rotten cause.<\/p>\n

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In any other moment, it would not be hard to understand why it’s incredibly menacing to have elected officials supported by Silicon Valley publicly demanding that those mega-corporations use their monopoly power to silence adversaries. But as was true after 9\/11, anything goes: https:\/\/t.co\/OwhHfuvKTf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 11, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is not a divide between ethical and unethical politics. This clash is now a bitter grudge match. It is civil war by other means. Not only is the chasm between these rival camps widening, but the real criminals are making off \u2013 as they always do \u2013 with the loot.<\/p>\n

Each tribe has been coalescing for a while now around a centre of gravity. On the Republican side that became clear with the emergence of the Tea Party and the birther movement during Barack Obama\u2019s tenure. But it took Trump\u2019s election as president in 2016 to create a proper oppositional centre of gravity on the other side.<\/p>\n

Those in the Democrat tribe who now disdain Trump and his supporters for their desperate refusal to accept November\u2019s result overlook how they greeted Trump\u2019s victory in 2016. They struggled to accept the legitimacy of that outcome too, even if they did not resort to the overt violence of the mob at the Capitol.<\/p>\n

It began with arguments that, while Trump might have won the electoral college vote, he lost the popular vote<\/a>. Four years ago, the electoral college also faced self-serving accusations that it had disenfranchised the majority.<\/p>\n

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The presidency is the only office where you can get more votes & still lose. It’s time to end the Electoral College. https:\/\/t.co\/OXZ9vHaIH1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Sen. Barbara Boxer (@SenatorBoxer) November 15, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Democrat tribe took to the streets as well, in protest marches in cities across the US under the banner of the Resistance, denying Trump was their president. That was understandable, given his personal behaviour and the policies he advocated. But it did not end there.<\/p>\n

Russian conspiracies<\/strong><\/p>\n

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