It’s nice that a prominent figure in the Washington media has finally made the connection that criminalizing political opposition isn’t so fun when it’s your opponent who inevitably takes power. But unfortunately for the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus, aka Strega Nona, the realization comes a little too late.
Marcus wrote in earnest this week that it’s “time to be very, very afraid” of the likely possibility that Donald Trump manages to get reelected because it’s all but certain he would pursue “a justified tit-for-tat retaliation for supposed Biden-directed targeting of Trump.”
It’s like watching a 15-year-old boy find out that Santa isn’t real (or black). What took so long?
Marcus also sensed an “irony” in that Trump is accusing Democrat prosecutors and Biden’s Justice Department of vindictive pursuit because “selective and vindictive prosecution is precisely what Trump and his allies are now plotting.”
True, Trump and his political associates have made clear that MAGA Presidency Part 2 would, in large part, be a matter of settling scores and circumventing the fascistic bureaucratic opposition that Trump faced during his initial term in office. His administration would retain lawyers willing to argue novel legal theories as they pertain to the power of the executive branch. Why wouldn’t they? And there’s no reason to believe Trump wouldn’t return all of the legal drama heaped on him by Democrats in kind. Why wouldn’t he?
Maybe it ends with Trump, but at least for now, gone are the days that Democrats get to sleep peacefully at night knowing that they can torment anyone and everyone who disagrees with them without consequence. They don’t get to escalate political conflict and then immediately call for a ceasefire.
They rigged the election in large part by hyping up a relatively harmless virus. They intimidated the entire nation with violent race riots for months. They forbid critics from sharing legitimate information. Then, the second they could, they set about throwing dissidents into prison. And that’s just since 2020.
Joe Biden snatched livelihoods from thousands of people who wouldn’t take an experimental drug, then he asked for a “fresh start.” No thanks. An election is around the corner, so now his supporters are scared? Enjoy!
Ruth Marcus found an “irony” in the situation, but irony involves contradiction, an unexpected turn of events. Pushing half the country to its very brink before realizing the same can be done to you isn’t contradictory or unexpected. Ruth Marcus isn’t “very, very afraid of” a cruel irony. She’s afraid of justified retaliation.
