Absorbing Michael Cohen’s hearing yesterday and reading MAGA commentary, I’m struck by the deep and destructive levels of cynicism in the GOP and America's far right wing.
GOP cynicism, it seems to me, explains much of what we are seeing.
c-span.org/video/?458125-…
Dershowitz is saying this:
In the US, we forbid vaguely worded criminal statutes for that reason:
law.cornell.edu/wex/vagueness_…
An example from yesterday's hearing: A form Michael Cohen was asked to fill out required that he disclose work for foreign governments. Cohen testified that . . .
“GOTCHA!” Rep. Meadows basically said: you worked for a bank that is mostly owned by a foreign government.
c-span.org/video/?458125-…
Even after hearing Cohen’s explanation and offer, Meadows filed a criminal referral on Cohen: 1010wcsi.com/fox-politics/g…
A bad act (actus reas), and
A criminal state of mind (mens rea).
That way we don’t criminalize people for mistakes.
law.cornell.edu/wex/mens_rea
(there are limited exceptions)
Another more cynical (and I think more accurate) way to sum up the GOP position is that everyone is guilty:
The GOP proceeds to “prove” their "everyone is guilty" worldview by showing that Cohen and his lawyers committed a crime when filling out Cohen’s form.
She was talking about the 2016 election and how shocked Putin was when his interference techniques worked (Putin takes credit for Trump’s win).
If you think all elections are fixed, then you see no problem with fixing them in your favor.
To control the people through this method, you tell people that all politicians are liars. If they believe this, they dissolve into tribes, preferring their own liar to the enemy liar. See @jasonintrator
Or you persuade people that “the entire system is corrupt,” which means “everyone fixes elections,” which means “Trump fixed the election, but he’s our cheater. . .
I’ve written about how this feeling of being victimized underlies the Trump-GOP worldview.
Here’s an analysis in relation to Kavanaugh:
The truth doesn’t matter, and law has no meaning, because everyone is motivated by greed and self-interest.
💠torpedoing truth
💠 undermining rule of law, and
💠 bringing more corruption to politics while campaigning on an “anti-corruption” platform.
We fight cynicism by holding on to our ideals.