With delays and depositions and the like, it would take years to get a conviction. By that time, the administration is over. Best to do it as a civilian. Nixon resigned before it got to that part and Ford pardoned him so this would be uncharted territory that I don't necessarily think we want. And who is going to be the person charging him anyway...

One other thing that perhaps forestalled for a very long time this sort of reaction (e.g., the great white unwinding of democratic norms) as opposed to when some space alien observer might predict it -- far closer to the original triggers -- in say 1968 or 1973 in the midst of the oil crisis or something, or to have it arrive with Reagan in 1980 -- is the great menace of communism and recent memory of notorious violent left-wing revolutions and purges probably did a lot to keep American elites in check and respecting norms that were ultimately servile to middle class interests. That is to say, lots of elites took some of the big-picture Cold War propaganda to heart and assumed the interests and economic security of the middle class was a buttress against the appeals of communism and violent leftist revolutions, which they could imagine might seep into the American political zeitgeist if they really put the screws to the American middle class. They saw the success of the American middle class as a compromise against strident leftist movements which were upending Asia (e.g., China, Vietnam) and which they had seen go through peaks in the US from the 1880s through WWII. The post-WWII concessions that elites made to labor and the middle class were just as much about what they saw as self-preservation (e.g., keep the communist menace at bay) as it was some sort of operating set of patriotic principles and genuine concern.

The threat of communism is now distant, almost comical. And the nakedly self-serving posturing and political agency of the elites is now basically unbridled. They ain't got much to fear and aren't going to sacrifice much if they can help it.

So we have an example of some outside global forces and phenomenon which perhaps really confuse and muddle the ultimate cause of the unwinding of our political norms. The mass migration of racial minorities (coupled certainly with things like automation, the rise of the economic power of women) triggered whites into reactionary political movements but the system cobbled together a consensus for a long time -- so long as the communist menace cowed the elites into pluralist compromises. Once that went away, so too our consensus. Put simply: The triggers are probably deeper in our collective past but were papered over for a while. I think it's really important to understand that, that revanchist and resentment politics of the white middle class seen all over Fox and in Trump are not at all recent but long gestating and percolating.

I've written about similar phenomenon in history too, where big cultural and social forces would have you predict a big violent fight that was forestalled for generations. That is, white America has been feeling wounded for 50 years but only now are outwardly embracing these super nihilist and revanchist political movements AND elites are playing along. An example I've pointed out is the English Civil War (where ~5% of the English population died and huge atrocities were carried out against the Irish) was basically a very long delayed, long brewing reaction to the English Reformation almost 100 years earlier rather than some sort of nascent, early arriving Enlightenment revolt like the French Revolution. English leadership (e.g., the success of Elizabeth) plus a large, long-lasting economic boon during the late 16th century was able to keep the violence and chaotic disputes in check, but once a bit of that rolled back and you got mediocre leadership instead of great leadership -- the bloodshed arrived.

I love how the fate of American Democracy now rests in the hands of people like Marco Rubio, Jeff Flake, Ben Sasse, and John ****ing McCain.

Like Chris Hayes says, "If your life depends on Marco Rubio having a spine, you're already dead."

Surely a coincidence. President Trump fired Comey because of how poorly he treated former First Lady, Presidential candidate, Secretary Hillary Clinton. He was being nothing but extremely chivalrous and is being accused of all sorts of nefarious deeds.

The media is trying to portray this as some evil cover up conspiracy instead of a gentleman doing the right thing about a power hungry rogue government employeee who directly harmed his well respected adversary.

https://twitter.com/ericgeller/statu...79215404097541

I was never in the "fire Comey" boat, his hand wringing in October seemed genuine. Too bad he's gone after the Intel Committee is through with him.

I think Comey's hand-wringing was genuine and I thought he was put in an impossible no-win situation.

But he did lose his credibility. He should have been fired, just not with this timing and not for his investigations into Trump-Russia connections.

Fox and Friends is the ruling tribunal. The rest of Fox News are just pieces of the support organization.

All he had to do was wait like two weeks to finish the damn investigation and see there were NO. NEW. EMAILS.

How are you guys defending this?

Plus, FFS they were backups and like a relatively small number of individual emails. That **** should be processed within hours, not days.

This is a hot take if hot was a synonym for dumb.

Did he kill American children in Yemen?

there is no such thing as an independent. those are actually republicans. they will continue to go trump.

jesus man this is dumber than any of the idiotic posts from the deplorables. congrats.

It's bizzaro land when you find yourself wholeheartedly agreeing with the likes of Painter, Frum and Beck.

TIL why people voted against Hillary ..... zzzzzzzzz

You seem to have 100% missed the point of my post, so I wont bother to repeat it.

To the extent there's any truth to people voting for Trump because they're tired of rank hypocrisy, it's because they're naive gullibillies brainwashed by social media propaganda and entertainment "news" on Fox, etc.

Comey planned to expand FBI's Russia probe before Trump fired him

Kellyanne Conway is at the end of her ropes.

No, he's a freedom caucus guy who trump targeted over the health care thing. It's just revenge, not him growing a spine.

It wouldn't be any kind of crime, serious or otherwise.

So, uh, when does Comey go public with the dirt? Dude has zero incentive to stay quiet, right? Maybe lithium poision or however the Russians are killing people these days?

If there isn't yet a smoking gun, he may stay quiet to avoid compromising an ongoing investigation

Preet Bharara, still GPOAT.

I enjoy the claims of hypocrisy from Trumpkins. While I don't have high expectations for any politician, Trump has to have set a new level. Trumps pre-President tweets are one of his harshest critics.

Eh, Amash is willing to break from the pack on establishment consensus issues (very anti-NSA surveillance, has proposed ending marijuana prohibition, etc.). He's more of an idealistic libertopia type (so will still be LOL on economic/health care stuff).