Do you remember the liberal media’s righteous indignation when then-candidate Donald Trump suggested that we should “lock up” Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election? Well, as it turns out, their party is increasingly falling victim to the same naive, authoritarian tendencies that they spent years decrying the Right for.
According to a new poll from the Republican outfit Firehouse Strategies, a majority of Democratic primary voters in the three early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina want not just to see President Trump impeached, but to see him actually put in prison. As covered by Axios, the poll surveyed a representative sample of 1,765 likely primary voters via phone. It found 53% support for Trump’s imprisonment among Iowa Democratic primary voters, 50% among a similar group in New Hampshire, and 54% in South Carolina.
A majority of 1,765 likely Democratic primary voters in early voting states believe Trump should not only be impeached but also imprisoned, per a new pollhttps://t.co/lymV7VCoHa
— Axios (@axios) October 14, 2019
So it’s official: Trump’s “lock her up” chant has come back to bite him. Nonetheless, it’s just as disturbing to see such authoritarian tendencies surging among the Democratic electorate. Locking up your political opponents is authoritarian in the extreme, and in the absence of extraordinary circumstances, is almost never worth doing.
First, what actual crimes has Trump committed that are somehow worthy of imprisonment? Even an impeachment-worthy abuse of power is not necessarily a criminal offense.
The case for “Russia collusion” quickly collapsed and no one ever identified a real crime in that either. The case for obstruction of justice is incredibly murky, but even if Trump did obstruct justice, impeachment — not imprisonment — would be the proper remedy.
As far as Trump’s Ukraine scandal goes, it may very well be that real evidence of corruption or quid pro quo emerges. But in the case of an abuse of power or corruption, impeachment is the responsible path forward. It should take more than some inappropriate conversations or pressure to throw a sitting president in jail — an act that would undoubtedly undermine trust in our government to potentially extreme levels. Imagine a fictional scenario where Trump’s Department of Justice had, after taking power in 2017, prosecuted and imprisoned Hillary Clinton over one of her scandals, say, her irresponsible handling of classified information as secretary of state. Most Democrats would view this prosecution as completely political, and after the imprisonment of their political leader, view the entire government as illegitimate.
Many Republican voters already believe in a “deep state,” an entrenched bureaucracy working against the president. If he were not just removed from office, but literally thrown in jail over dubious criminal allegations as many Democratic primary voters seem to support, Trump supporters would believe their worst suspicions confirmed. And there’s no doubt that Republicans would be sure to throw the next Democratic president in jail over some stupid charge or another. Most politicians are corrupt or ethically dubious enough that there will be something to trump up.
Americans of all political stripes need to take a deep breath and make a political case against their opponents without crossing the line into authoritarianism. If they don’t, we might end up turning the United States into a banana republic.
