Most ruthless and dishonest campaign

Digby, who writes the blog Hullabaloo, starts off a Memorial day post with a comparison of Germany of about 1930 with America today.

Then Digby goes on to something I mentioned a couple days ago. I had quoted Sarah Kendzior talking about Democrats:

They've refused to hold impeachment hearings and thus opened the door for show trials.

The obvious thought would be show trials of Democrats, perhaps Hillary Clinton about whom people at nasty guy rallies still chant, “Lock her up!”

Digby quotes Michael Tomasky’s article in the Daily Beast titled, You Think it’s Bad Now, Wait for the Show Trials.

From Tomasky’s article:

I’ve been trying to tell people, with varying degrees of success, that next year’s campaign is going to be—by far—the most ruthless and dishonest campaign that any living American has seen. Some people take me seriously. But most say something along the lines that it can hardly get any worse.

Oh yes it can. It can get a lot worse.

In my recent post I wrote that Attorney General William Barr had been given a free hand to determine what classified material about intelligence agencies can be declassified. The agencies had launched a probe into shady dealings within the 2016 nasty guy campaign.

It is these agents who might be the target of the first show trials, targets such as James Comey who was head of the FBI until the nasty guy fired him, James Clapper who was Director of National Intelligence, Peter Strzok who was the head of the FBI Counterespionage Section, Andy McCabe who was a long time FBI agent and its Deputy Director, and Lisa Page who was a colleague of Peter Strzok. And if they can, they’ll indict any Democrats they can get dirt on. One possible target is VP Joe Biden. The trials will probably start next spring – in time to make a big splash for the 2020 election.

Tomasky:

So take this seriously. On Friday, Trump accused Comey, McCabe, Strzok, and Page of “treason.” For investigating a presidential campaign. Treason is aiding an enemy during wartime. And is punishable by death. Trump used the word specifically to signal to his attack dogs that anything is fair game.

So yes, next year’s campaign will be a nightmare beyond the imagination of any novelist who has yet tried to capture and describe totalitarian, hall-of-mirrors horror, from Koestler to Orwell to Kundera or anyone else. They were all describing how a regime gets away with it in a totalitarian state. But these people will be getting away with it in a democracy.

Others supporting nasty guy’s authoritarianism have also taken up his chant. One of them is Liz Cheney (yeah, *his* daughter) who recently used the word “treason.”
https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/so-you-think-trump-is-one-off.html

Digby closes with:

Even if they don't have a majority of the population, they are showing they have a total willingness to win by any means necessary. That is not far-fetched at all. After all, there was a huge investigation showing that the Trump campaign welcomed the cheating and have been working feverishly to ensure that nothing inhibits such cheating in the future. Now they are engaged in an Orwellian propaganda campaign to say it was the other side that committed the crimes they themselves committed.

The Democrats winning in 2020 is anything but assured, even if Trump goes into the election with a 35% approval rating.

Leah McElrath tweeted a summary:

Just to be clear: A Republican elected official introducing the word “treason” into the dialogue is introducing the threat of execution of FBI agents for doing their jobs.