**** Trump and I hope he rots in a federal prison, but he's just one big, ugly tumor caused by a deeper-rooted cancer in this country, a cancer that we need to effectively combat. I don't think executing him and making him a martyr would be a wise move to that end, even if it were realistically on the table. Drag him through a very well-publicized trial and show both him and the country at large that politicians and the wealthy are not, in fact, above the law and then throw him in a cell to wither away his last few years. Go after all of his assets wherever possible and see to it that he dies a powerless, penniless, discredited felon, not a martyr for qanoners, white supremecists, and fascists.
In the meantime, the rest of us need to be organizing, unionizing, and educating. It's the only hope we have of fixing this slow motion train wreck of a country before it completely devolves into violent fascism.
There's a lot in this concise post that I want to remark, so I hope everyone can bear with me as I try to fully respond.
1. Assuming that he is found guilty against Conspiracy Against Rights or any other charge on which the death penalty is the statutory maximum (which is not a guarantee, since I don't think we can 100% predict the future for stuff like this), I think the death penalty is justified based on my previous argument for the statutory maximum for any guilty charges. The ones who think that he is a martyr are going to cause trouble anyways, and I believe that the benefit of giving him the electric chair, lethal injection, or whatever legal method is available would outweigh any potential unrest that could come from this. It is clear that he will continue to wreak havoc while he is alive in any way possible.
2. Realistically, I doubt that he will be fully discredited in the way that you describe, as much as we want it, due to the fact that there are too many Qanoners, white supremacists, fascists, and other right-wing extremists that have been empowered in his wake. If these followers choose to rebel, I think we need to face this head on rather than show any indications of appeasement, as the violence is going to happen anyway. I suspect that it will take a couple of years past 2024 before we see any true resolution to this issue, however. However, I think this subject is certainly worth discussing in the near future when the indictment/trial talk dies down a bit.
3. I have participated in organizing and educating over the past six years, and I am sure many of you have done this. The problem is that too many Democratic groups and organizations are not willing to admit the mistakes that they made in 2020 and 2022, and many volunteers have quit due to being talked down to and having their feedback ignored. As a result, there has been quite a bit of donor and volunteer fatigue due to the higher ups' inability to learn from their errors. Which is why too many races have crap candidates getting the Democratic nominations or have insufficient Democratic outreach in key areas in the country. If people are interested, I can certainly provide an insider look at some races that I am volunteering for that are currently being neglected and are important at the Senate, House, and other downballot race levels. I think that this talk is also meant for another time, not only since people here are rightly focused on the indictment, but also because the data for some of these key races are incomplete as of now.
Phew. Hope everyone can understand this long post.
