INTRODUCTION
Competitive games (think about simple Tic-Tac-Toe) and competitive sports (think about the more complex football) are useful to help us understand politics—which is crazily complex and confusing. Politics can be understood as a type of competitive game which has rules by which voters, individual politicians, and political parties win or lose.
By fully understanding the rules of a game, one can understand why some players win more often and some lose more often. Everyone wants to be a winner—even in Tic-Tac-Toe!
Did you know that you can always win or draw in Tic-Tac-Toe?
I highly recommend you go to https://www.wikihow.com/Win-at-Tic-Tac-Toe to see a great example of knowing rules and strategies by which you can always win or draw when playing Tic-Tac-Doe.
Now let’s look at American football. It’s vastly more complex than tic-tax-toe, but it has specific rules to make it safer to play, make lots of people want to play it, and make it a huge spectator sport.
When there are no referees or judges then both kids and adults will try to cheat; they sooner or later get caught and folks get mad, fights can break out, and people quit! So for games and for all competitive sports there are referees/judges to insure all play by the same rules.
POLITICS HAS THESE ESSENTIAL QUALITIES OF GAMES
1. The stable rules of the game.
2. The players are the citizens and politicians in the game.
3. There’s always cheating and intentional bending or misunderstanding of the rules which make for blaming, denial, and conflict. Professional politicians routinely add conservative spin or liberal spin as they motivate support for their side of any issue.
The more complex the game and the more invisible the moves of the players, then the greater is the cheating and angry conflict. This plagues politics much more than American football where 95% of it can be seen on the football field.
4. In politics, there are a wide variety of referees, judges, overseers, integrity and ethics committees, and complaint departments. This wide variety contributes to confusion and pessimism as to what actually too place and what remedies could have any practical significance.
In our further discussion, I use the term “referee-judges” to emphasize how in football someone is on the field of play watching the action to insure fair play. In politics the Supreme Court is the ultimate judge and there are other oversight committees with judgement powers (but they are less distinct or visible).
WHO ARE THE REFEREE-JUDGES IN POLITICS?
They are not the combination of:
Impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate.
These processes are inherently biased political events which reveal political agendas, secrets, and produce much drama. Three presidents have been impeached and all were acquitted by the Senate. Since the beginning of America, there have been just 21 impeachments; these resulted in eleven persons leaving the government. Two hundred years and just eleven problem persons culled out!
The frequent and effective referee-judges in American government are:
The Department of Justice (in the Executive Branch), which dutifully attempts to decide the law without bias. For example, the Department of Justice prosecutors are selected to be without any self-interest in the case at hand.
The Supreme Court (the Judicial
Branch), which dutifully attempts to decide the law without bias. Of course,
experts in the subject of bias inform us that everyone is biased and what's most important is one professionals to be aware of their biases in order to compensate for them.
And in the House and Senate (Legislative Branch) there are numerous committees having varying degrees of oversight and power to ensure politicians are following the rules of the game. The members of these committees are Republicans or Democrats so partisan bias should be expected but is virtually immeasurable. These committees certainly have value. If nothing else, they force more transparency of decision-making.
CRIMINAL AND CIVIL JUSTICE WILL END TRUMP’S REIGN OF CHAOS
Criminal Justice Deals With the January 6th Insurrection
From Politico https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05/30/january-6-arrest-sentencing-00099158 :
“As of 5/30/2023, it’s been about two years since the Jan. 6th riot. Here are the results of the criminal justice efforts.
More than 1033 rioters have been arrested.
About 485 have received sentences.
Two-hundred twenty-seven have been sentenced to jail.
The longest sentence [18 years] was for the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, for the sentence of seditious conspiracy.
Another member of the Oath Keepers was sentenced to 12 years of jail time."
Civil Justice: Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Counter Suit Against E. Jean Carroll
Former president Donald Trump typically denies any wrongdoing. After E. Jean Carroll successfully sued him for rape, Trump counter-sued her for defaming him. A federal judge dismissed Trump’s counter suit and clarified that: the verdict “established, as against Mr. Trump, the fact that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her [.]” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/judge-tosses-trumps-counterclaim-e-jean-carroll-finding-rape-claim-sub-rcna98577
Some Politicians Are Exemplary American Heroes
I mention these politicians as heroes for quickly providing American citizens the truths about the 2020 election, the seriousness of the insurrection, and for their excellence in guarding our democracy. These are a few of the many heroes: Mike Pence (Trump’s VP), former representative Liz Cheney (leading the Jan 6th Committee investigation), George Conway (early on predicted Trump’s dangerousness to democracy), Attorney General Bill Barr and Senator Mitch McConnell (Republican Congressmen) who immediately and publicly stated (Biden won and Trump lost in a fair election). And, of course, Senator Mitt Romney who was the first to boldly on prime time TV describe that Donald Trump was a fraud and did not have the character to be suitable as a president. I also mention President Biden, who had the self-confidence to successfully campaign for President and has honorably served as President. He has been a key player for avoiding greater damage to our country—he beat Trump and his personal strengths for effective collaboration were critical for restoring stability.
Republican George Conway Continues to Warn Everyone About the Dangers of Trump
Attorney George Conway since 2016 has accurately predicted the damage Trump would do to America and the Republican Party. The expert political writer Bob Woodward has detailed the damage in his book, Fear: Trump in the White House (2018). Conway recently said the Republicans have “addicted themselves” to Trump and Conway referred to the Republican Party as “gone.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-conway-donald-trump-supporters_n_64d35837e4b0fa822c0ca9c8?ncid=APPLENEWS00001
Two-thirds of republican voters still believe Biden’s 2020 win was illegitimate!
Many recent polls shows that about two-thirds of republicans believe that President Biden’s election win was illegitimate. So, Trump has managed to delude both the Republican Party and two-thirds of republican voters.
But in recent months I have observed that the media, which used to present Trump and counter-Trump statements in a neutral manner, now suggest by well-selected words and nonverbal expressions that Trump’s ideas are not accurate—that they are part of a bold and dangerous conspiracy theory.
From CNN’s Harry Enten (2023): “GOP candidates and the Republican Party apparatus have allowed Trump to sell what is factually a fantasy to Republican voters. These voters have eaten it up and, in return, rewarded Trump with a large primary lead.”
Trump Claimed Election Fraud in the 2020 Election, But . . .
. . . Trump was the originator of fraudulent plots to keep himself in the presidency. Only in the last month or two have most of the details become public. For example, recently prosecutors in Michigan have charged Trump operatives with felonies related to wrongly accessing voting machines. Read more on this at: https://apple.news/AEbACxKUDRLa_xoUfKYiZNw
The 2020 was fraud free. No legitimate organizations or speakers alleged there were any voting irregularities which would change the results of that election.
The Most Important Summary of Trump’s Fraud and Dangerousness
“Why McConnell’s 2021 speech about Trump is suddenly relevant anew” (Benen, 2023).
The speech Mitch McConnell delivered after Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial was important at the time. It’s even more important now.” Trump could win the republican nomination and could win the presidency!
Find it at:
I have the highest regard for Senator Mitch McConnell as a very conservative Republican who is loyal to America, and to the Republican Party. He is a man of few words, but he has been one of the most powerful men in the Congress.
McConnell in his speech said, concerning the January 6th siege of the Capitol that:
“There is no question – none – that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. No questions about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on the planet Earth.”
I encourage everyone to click on the above link and read Senator McConnell’s speech. Back in 2021 he said that the “criminal justice system” should be the road to holding Trump accountable.
Never before in American history has a president ever been indicted. But former president Trump has been indicted in four cases as of 8/16/2023:
· The Jan. 6th Insurrection (4 felony counts)
· The Georgia Election Interference Case (13 counts)
· The Classified Documents Case (40 felony counts)
· The Hush Money Case (34 felony counts)
· TOTAL COUNTS: 91
From Politico: https://www.politico.com/interactives/2023/trump-criminal-investigations-cases-tracker-list/
CONCLUSION
The rule of law has been reinvigorated and is more in charge than misinformation, conspiracy theories, and chaos. Out of the many hundreds of offenses, each conviction is an effective lesson to the public on the rule of law.
America has a serious problem. Two thirds of Republicans still believe Trump won in 2020 and President Biden’s win was illegitimate. World history includes many centuries in which false belief systems controlled the minds of the majority. In the past there was a lack of scientific knowledge. Now we have plenty of scientific and political factual knowledge. But a large percentage of citizens are preferring misinformation and conspiracy theories.
I’ve read several authoritative opinions that the public’s preference for misinformation and rabid partisanship didn’t start with Trump; instead, it has increased over a couple different presidencies. I tend to believe this. Regardless of when it started, I don’t believe anyone has a good solution to this serious problem.
WORKS CITED
Benen, Steve. “Why McConnell’s 2021 Speech About Trump Is Suddenly Relevant Anew.” MSNBC. 8-2-2023.
Enten, Harry. “The big reason Trump leads the GOP field: Republicans think he won the 2020 election.” CNN. 8/5/2323.
“Judge tosses Trump's counterclaim against E. Jean Carroll, finding rape claim is 'substantially true.'” NBC News, 8-7-2023 ug. 7, 2023, 1:17 PM CDT By Adam Reiss and Dareh Gregorian.
Moran, Lee. “George Conway Says 1 Brutal Thing Needs To Happen To GOP.” Huffington Post, 8-9-2023
“Tracking the Trump Criminal Cases: A definitive guide to the key players and legal risks in the four criminal probes of Donald Trump.” Politico 8/13/2023. Updated 8/16/2023.
Woodward, Bob. FEAR: Trump in the White House. Simon & Schuster, 2018.
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