Thread by @odanu

We need to have a serious talk about the difference between justice and revenge with regard to Trump and the GOP in general. As a decent metaphor, let's review the history of the aftermaths of WWI and WWII in a very History 101 sort of way.

The long and short of it is that after WWI, Germany was required to pay reparations of an enormous amount, crippling their economy. This did nothing to address the issues at the leadership level and instead served to further radicalize ordinary German citizens.

(reference here) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War…(signed,damage%20caused%20during%20the%20war.

In contrast, after WWII, while there were also reparations, they weren't so onerous as to cripple the economy. Instead, consequences focused on legal trials of those directly responsible

for the crimes of the Nazis, including leaders and several levels down the organization, and further individuals at lower levels (such as concentration camp guards) who followed unlawful orders.

When we administer justice for the crimes against humanity of the Trump administration, for sedition and even for treason, we need to find the point where we administer justice to all of the leaders who gave the orders, and at least the most egregious of those who followed

unlawful orders. After that, there needs to be, like there was in Germany after WWII, an extension of grace (remember, grace is UNEARNED) to rank and file people who may have agreed with Trump policy, but did not actively support it in any significant way.

Like in Germany, there needs to be a path back to finding oneself on the right side of history. It might be offensive to some to draw parallels between the Nazi government and Trump's administration, but as any expert on authoritarianism can tell you, the Trump administration

isn't "trending toward fascism", it IS fascism, full stop. So the justice at the top levels needs to be clear and swift and impartial, and the path back to reality and justice and compassion for those people who believed Trump's lies because they matched their prejudices, or

who fell for Russian and GOP propaganda, or who didn't believe the news about immigrant camps and Trump's responsibility for the massive death toll from COVID19 in the US, etc., needs to be broad, compassionate and patient with firm boundaries around "this behavior is not

acceptable in a democracy. Once you've shown a pattern of changed behavior, welcome back."

Not all of the remedies need to be criminal legal ones. Many of them will come from social pressure and shunning. Others will come from civil penalties such as losing licenses to practice

their professions for ethics violations. And we need to address the issues that make people (rural people especially) susceptible to these narratives. We need to address all the things that the progressives keep advocating for, especially income inequality, as well as addressing

rural infrastructure, education deficits, health care, massive indebtedness of family farms, etc.

It's going to be a terrifically difficult balance to achieve, especially if the GOP wins the Senate and Mitch McConnell is still its leader.

But it's a necessary balance. We need to address the rot in our information infrastructure, educate the educable, and shun those for whom "I can't control others" is equivalent to "my rights are being violated".

It's going to be hard, but I have confidence we can do it.