Note to pundits: If you don't understand that "lock him up" was a sardonic reference to the chants at Trump's own rallies, and thus simultaneously an act of collective defiance against his authoritarianism and an expression of schadenfreude at his current predicament, be quiet.
And yes, they meant it, too. They meant that he should be impeached, convicted, removed from office, indicted, tried, and then sentenced to prison, yes. Because he's a criminal, and that's what's supposed to happen to criminals who are also the President of the United States.
Trump is engaging in criminal acts for his own gain and illegitimately using the powers of the presidency to shield himself from justice. Calling for his removal from office and punishment according to the laws of the land is an act of civic virtue.
Even if you say it in a snotty way.
It's not authoritarianism to call for an authoritarian leader to be held to account for his crimes. It's the other thing.
And honestly, I'm glad we're having this discussion, and that a "lock him up" chant was the spur for it. Because since Trump's "lock her up" chants were so egregiously lawless, it's easy to slip into seeing "lock him up" the same way. Resist that impulse.
The path of least resistance, when Trump leaves office, will be to back away from a full accounting of and reckoning with his crimes. There will be a lot of people calling for charity, for "looking forward, not back," for an unearned "coming together as a nation."
But Trump's presidency has revealed deep rot and weakness in our democracy. If we survive this, it will be a close thing, and removing him from office is not enough. We will need to repair the damage done—and the damage revealed.
Moving forward with criminal indictments against Trump and his cronies isn't sufficient to repair that damage, but it's a necessary part of the process. And that's why last night's chant wasn't just cathartic, but virtuous and civic-minded.
TL;DR: Lock him up.
Just one last thing: There's a lot of fear of mass action being expressed today—as if fifty thousand people chanting "lock him up" is somehow illegitimate even if each of those fifty thousand people has legitimate, thoughtful, coherent reason to want to see Trump imprisoned.
Mass action is essential to the democratic process, and essential to social progress. That's true now, and it will be true after Trump is gone. To oppose mass action in principle is to deny ordinary people their voice and their power.
Mass action, like voting and speaking and writing op-eds and donating to political candidates and door-knocking and standing on a street corner wearing a sandwich-board sign, is a tool. It can be used for good or bad ends.
As a far wiser man than myself once said, those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its mighty waters.
What we heard last night was the roar of the ocean.
