If you admit a crime openly and proudly, it isn't wrong.
It isn't even a crime.
Trump could easily be found "not guilty."
Celebrity and shamelessness are a powerful combination. Trump isn't an abstract impersonal "defendant." He is Trump. And he doesn't appear ashamed of who he is and what he did. He has a presumption of innocence in the minds of a great many people, and they aren't changing their minds.
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| O.J. Simpson found "not guilty." |
Democrats who are appalled by Trump find it hard to believe that anyone could believe his Big Lie or any of the other dishonest narratives that he spins out. Democrats see so clearly that Trump is obviously guilty of crimes that they think that surely most Americans will share their disapproval. He openly admits to transgressions. He brags about them. How hard could it possibly be to convict him?
Criminal behavior does not necessarily bring disapproval. Guilt and shame are different.
Trump has a technique. It works. The key is shamelessness. Look proud and defiant. If one states openly what one does, then it must not be wrong. Trump openly fired the FBI director because he wouldn't promise not to investigate ties between Russia and Trump's campaign. Firing him was obstruction of justice. Trump said, yeah, so what?
Trump openly said he would happily meet with representatives of foreign governments to get dirt on political opponents. That is illegal. Trump said sure he would do it, anyone would. And then he did so by trying to make delivery of American military aid to Ukraine contingent on Zelenskyy's announcing an investigation of Biden. That wasn't criminal, Trump said. It was perfect.
He openly lobbied to get international conferences held at his properties. Why not? He openly says he wants political prosecutions of political opponents. Of course. The call to Georgia's Brad Raffensperger was "perfect." January 6 rioters were patriots. Dictator? Sure, he said with a smile.
Do not be confident of guilty verdicts in upcoming Trump trials. O.J. Simpson denied guilt. His shamelessness came from sticking to his denial in the face of physical evidence, motive, and opportunity. Simpson was a handsome sports star who transitioned into playing friendly characters in movies. We thought we knew him: A good guy. He was an easy racial crossover figure, Black in skin color but culturally non-racial, doing commercials for General Motors, Hertz, and The Boys Club nonprofit organization. In his trial he stuck to a wildly improbable story. The jury ended up questioning the prosecution's motives and procedure. Maybe the cops planted evidence. Maybe something. They just did not want to believe O.J. Simpson did it.
Our justice system looks at guilt. Did the defendant break a rule? Trump is changing the moral venue to one of shame. If you feel shame, then you were wrong. If you don't, then you are right to do it.
His lawyer, Christina Bobb made the point on Real America's Voice, an internet video channel. Forget guilt.
The president is elected by the entire nation, and it should be the entire nation who determines who they want for president, whether they are guilty of insurrection or not. It's up to the people.
This statement comes amid the assertion by Trump's lawyers that he is immune from prosecution for any crimes he committed as president, even one of breaking laws to stay in office.
Trump is unashamed. A great many people pick up on that cue. Trump did nothing to be ashamed of, therefore nothing wrong. According to a Washington Post poll only 18% of Republicans say they think Trump is probably or definitely guilty; 75% of Trump voters think he is probably innocent.
Trump hasn't sold everybody, and certainly not Democrats. But he may have sold enough people to hang-up a jury and then claim he was 100%-vindicated. He may have sold enough people to win a presidential election against Joe Biden.
8 comments:
"Trump is unashamed."
No surprise there. According to Merriam-Webster, a psychopath is "a mentally unstable person, especially a person having an egocentric and antisocial personality marked by a lack of remorse for one's actions, an absence of empathy for others, and often criminal tendencies.
Interesting take on the "moral venue". Consciousness of guilt is certainly intertwined with consciousness of shame. A conspicuous absence of either one must resonate to some extent when Trump's knowledge or intent is an element to be proved. Never mind that he appears to be a malignant narcissist....
But isn't the literal venue more likely to be dispositive? Hard to see Trump winning in NYC or D.C. An uphill climb for him in Atlanta, perhaps, but for the prosecution in Florida. O.J.'s jury arguably sent a message about the system and about Los Angeles policing more than it did about any supposed innocence.
The column is convincing except for the analogy with the O.J. Simpson trial. The jury didn't find Simpson not guilty because he put on a shameless front. That verdict was made likely when jury selection occurred. The L.A. police had no credibility with the county's black residents because policing had been egregiously racist for decades. Furman's testimony allowed the defense team to link the general distrust of L.A. police to the Simpson case.
I wrote this before seeing Herb’s comment so it mostly agree.
I don’t disagree with your premise Peter, but think the parallel with O.J. is misplaced. Simpson didn’t admit and justify murder. Simpson denied them and while he wasn’t convicted, nobody is hiring him for any endorsements or movie roles, much less choosing him for elected office. What’s different about Trump is he flips the moral argument without a hint of irony.
Regardless of Trump’s shamelessness, and whether or not a jury convicts him, his contempt for America’s founding principles and values is a matter of public record that he proudly displays almost daily, to the wild cheers of his mindless cult. Republicans approve of his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, and they’ll try it again if given the chance. They have no more regret than the madman leading them because they’re as batshit crazy as Trump is – a danger to themselves and others. Biden isn’t exaggerating in the least when he points out that the coming election is about defending our democracy.
Donald Trump's legal matters are analogous to the O.J. trials. As Herb Rothschild notes, the composition of the jury mattered in the murder trial. A different jury in the civil case for damages for the families of Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman saw mostly the same evidence as the jury in the criminal case saw, but the civil jury saw that evidence differently when it ruled for the Brown and Goldman families and against O.J. Simpson. Donald Trump has already beaten two attempts to convict him in the Senate; this has everything to do with the composition of that jury. If the Donald Trump insurrection, Stormy Daniels, or Georgia election cases were tried in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, or Malheur County, I'd bet on Donald Trump. Donald Trump wasn't kidding about being able to get away with killing someone on Fifth Avenue. To Low Dudgeon's point: juries often send messages even though jurors might deny that; the Rodney King verdict in Simi Valley might be an example of such message sending, and surely the Los Angeles riots were a reaction to that message. "Read the room," as they say.
Aghastitude!! Electing a convicted criminal is not so unusual on the world stage, just look South.
In October 2022, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, won the closest election in Brazil’s history over Jair Bolsonaro. It was actually a re-election for Lula, who also held the office from 2003 to 2010. Lula was convicted in an international corruption scandal in 2017 of accepting bribes of $3.7M. His conviction was overturned.
Lula is 78. See any parallels?
Wester Shadrick Cooley was our congressional representative. Congressman Bob Smith supported him. We could have had Sue Kupillas, but the "jury" didn't care about the truth enough to elect her over Cooley. Sad, but we survived. To those who think that the "threat to democracy" is an existential threat: We live every day of our lives in some of the most backward places in the United States; that is, Jackson (Dead Indian Road/take lots of vitamin D and don't get vaccinated), Klamath (Dennis Linthecum, fighting for the right to not show up in the legislature), Josephine (Art Robinson/abolish the globalist United Nations), and Siskiyou Counties. The world hasn't come to an end; and the rest of the country can reelect Trump and live like we do. Trump cares about me; my life matters to him. See you in church on Sunday. As Johnny Cash sang, "The lonely voice of youth cries, what is truth?"
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