1. Remember the Mueller cult? That seems kind of funny now.
2. Saturday Night Live did a regular series of skits featuring Trump (Alec Baldwin) cowering in fear under the stern glaze of Mueller (Robert Di Niro in his gruff tough guy mode). As we now know, it was the opposite: Mueller cowered before Trump.
3. Writing in @newrepublic in 2017, I noted that both liberals & conservatives are addicted to the myth of the heroic prosecutor: the selfless federal lawman who can save us from the messiness of politics & political corruption.
4. Historically, the myth of the heroic federal prosector & lawman goes back to the propaganda campaign that J. Edgar Hoover concocted in the 1930s to sell the FBI: amid the real corruption of big city mayors & cops, the G-Man was faithful to the law.
5. But political crimes are as much about politics as about law-breaking: they require a political redress as well as a legal one. What we haven't seen, amid all Trump's corruption, is much political response to Trump's massive corruption (Elizabeth Warren is the exception)
6. More on how heroic prosecutors are not the salvation from political corruption and what needs to be done to rein in future corrupt presidents: thenation.com/article/politi…
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.