Josh Marshall's TPM debate review: In The Abuser's House

[highplainsdem]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/in-the-abusers-house

I don't think we can discuss this debate as citizens, take stock of it as a country, without noting that this is certainly the first time one candidate has openly threatened to jail the other candidate. Trump said openly that he would instruct the Justice Department to open a new investigation of Clinton and that he'd make sure it ended with her imprisonment. That's something we expect it kleptocracies and thin democracies where electoral defeat can mean exile, imprisonment or death.

Such a ferocious claim, one that puts our whole constitutional order on its head, is not something that can be easily undone. That's the ranting threat of a would-be strongman and dictator The threat itself is like a bell that can't be un-rung. Through the course of what was often an ugly debate, I was thinking a lot of the destructiveness of this entire campaign, virtually all of which stems from Trump's transgressive, norm-demolishing behavior. It's a topic we'll have to return to in the ed blog and one the country is going to need to wrestle with. None of this is going to disappear after November 8th. These are slashing wounds to the country's political fabric that will at best leave tremendous scar tissue we'll still see for decades.

So did that caustic manner matter? It's a little hard for me to figure that out simply because we know Trump is like this. It's hard to see how anyone is going to be surprised. By any pre-2016 standard we know, the entirety of angry, blustering manner would be fatal for a presidential candidate. But we've been living with this guy for a year and a half. We all have a little bit of the trauma of living in the home of an abuser now. We're accustomed to it. To a degree it starts to feel normal. My best guess is that through all the muck of this debate it will matter simply because it confirms what people already know.

The big issue for Trump, as we've discussed endlessly, is that most people think he's not fit, temperamentally and emotionally, to be president. I suspect anyone who has questions on that front will find their skepticism about him confirmed.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. The GOP has always wanted this to happen.

We as a Nation got lucky the last time it was tried. This issue will never go away until the GOP is held accountable for their actions and their players.

[anamandujano]

2. He's a sick man. The enablers in the GOP and MSM are disgusting for pretending he's normal.

[KT2000]

3. and yet it will likely create more

Hillary for Prison signs and bumper stickers.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

4. K&R nt

[Hekate]

5. KnR

[lovemydog]

6. He's a pathological narcissistic bully.

He can't even answer simple questions.

I'm sick of him.

I think most voters are too.

Yes, that threat to jail his opponent is a new low, even for him.

[Cha]

7. "Such a ferocious claim, one that puts our whole constitutional order on its head, is not something

that can be easily undone. That's the ranting threat of a would-be strongman and dictator"

Wonder if one of trump genius advisors came up with that one or trump came up with all on his own?

Probably the latter.

Thank you, highplainsdem

[asiliveandbreathe]

8. HPD - this post caught my eye this morning..may I ask

you to repost this article.. - seems to me it didn't get the attention it deserves..this story is not going to end..and with the congress we now have, we won't see change..we know, as Dems, we MUST make those changes -

Thank you - be well..