Last week, Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin took part in a University of Michigan Institute of Politics event where she discussed what Democrats should do to restore constitutional checks and balances and trust in the government if they retake Congress in the midterms. She warned against only “going after Trump,” although impeachment should be on the table. Beyond that, she noted that Trump wouldn’t have gotten away with high-profile outrages and corruption — like his lawless demolition of the East Wing of the White House, for just one of one million examples — without the help of his loyal underlings.
Slotkin pointed out that while the Supreme Court gave Trump a Get Out of Jail Free card for any crimes he commits in office, “the people around Donald Trump, who are doing his bidding and enabling this, have no such immunity,” so they should be held accountable. She went on to say that bringing Trump’s enablers to justice is a vital part of “Trump-proofing” the government “so that no president, of any party, can abuse the system the way he did.” She noted that under Trump, Americans have learned the painful lesson that “a lot of the stuff we thought were laws were actually just norms, standards, habits, expectations” that a corrupt administration felt free to ignore. We used to think shame would be enough to prevent bad behavior, but Trump and his people have no shame, so we need laws with teeth to ensure real accountability.
After a brief digression about impeachment, Slotkin returned to the theme of holding the enablers accountable, to send a clear message to young people entering careers in government: Don’t do crimes, and don’t help the politicians you work for do crimes.
Nothing terribly inflammatory there, but that didn’t stop rightwing shitlords from snipping a few seconds of video out of context and spinning it into a frightening example of “Leftist fascism”: That monster Elissa Slotkin is vowing to weaponize government to threaten young conservatives away from careers in public service! When can we put her in jail???
Why yes, it’s the very same playbook we’ve seen a million times. The rightwing propagandasphere seizes on some fairly unremarkable comments about holding bad actors accountable, spins them into a plot to persecute Republicans for their “views” (even — or especially — when Republicans are in power), and then they keep banging on about the supposedly horrifying remarks until mainstream media covers the “controversy.” Virtually all coverage takes the rightwing framing as the starting point, and all too often, the bad actors get away with it.
Slotkin herself has already been through the cycle once herself, with Donald Trump threatening the death penalty for Slotkin and other Democrats who reminded members of the military that they took an oath to only obey lawful orders. And this week Trump is again calling for government to be weaponized against Slotkin for her “dangerous statement.”
Hey, you know how Slotkin said we can no longer rely on shame to keep politicians from doing horrible things? Shame him all you want for making actual threats about a political enemy; he doesn’t care. In fact, you’re the enemy, and you will soon be next on the list.
Note especially that Trump claimed that Slotkin’s call for making sure that “no president, of any party, can abuse the system” was in fact a vow to prosecute young people who want to work in “the Trump administration, or any Republican administration.” And then the dismissal of Slotkin as a “lightweight, a stupid person.”
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OK, let’s look at the facts and the bullshit, shall we? Here’s the relevant part of the U of Michigan interview, cued up to Slotkin’s full answer, which is worth watching for context. (Yes, we know, America doesn’t do context anymore.) It’s not long; just the bit from 27:21 to the 33-minute mark.
Out of that six-minute discussion of how to bring some accountability back to government, the Professionally Outraged Influencers seized solely on Slotkin’s remarks warning people — again! — that they shouldn’t expect immunity if they help their bosses commit crimes. Here’s the bit that went viral as a “threat” to destroy the lives and careers of nice young people who only want to make America great again:
“I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration?’ I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that.’ I want that deterrence message.”
The sputtering in response to the 26-second clip was intense. Slotkin had declared war on everyone who supports Trump, and she openly admitted that Democrats want to scare young people from ever voting Republican!
Habitual liar Mike Lee (R-Utah) declared it was “absolutely disgraceful to threaten young Americans for participating in politics and serving their country.” (Slotkin said midlevel Trump staffers who committed crimes should be prosecuted.)
Creepy rightwing slug Mike Davis went even farther, with a casual call for stochastic terrorism to anyone who might be interested in killing a commie for Trump:
“If Elissa Slotkin deploys these fascist tactics, like illegal arrests and political persecutions to intimidate young Americans with opposing political views, she will learn why we have the Second Amendment.
”Fuck her and her CIA tactics.”
In another tweetpoop, Davis forwarded a New York Post story that lied “Sen. Slotkin urges Dems to use prosecution to make young people afraid to serve in Trump admin” with a more direct (but still not actionable) suggestion that someone should rid us of this turbulent lady senator, writing, “Try it, @ElissaSlotkin. Learn about the Second Amendment, sweetheart.”
This is all very familiar and very stupid, and it’s endemic in our politics. It’s not even especially new. When the FBI warned in 2008 that violent rightwing groups sought to recruit soldiers returning from the Forever Wars, the rightwing blogosphere went ballistic with warnings that jackbooted thugs were coming for Republicans and patriots, Janet Napolitano meekly apologized, and the neo-Nazis kept right on recruiting. They still are.
In the years since, the Fake Outrage Cycle has only been accelerated by Trump and by rightwing social media, and it’s gonna be a hell of a challenge to resist. Happily, Slotkin is standing firm and is calling the bullshit campaign what it is: “Manufactured outrage.” She told CNN Monday, “The truth is, if you commit a criminal act, if you use taxpayer dollars in a way that violates the law, you should be held accountable, no matter who you are,” and noted that Republicans are trying to make her the issue to take some of the attention off their painfully bad polling in midterm races.
Elissa Slotkin is doing it right. She’s on Team Fight, and she’s not going to apologize.
[New Republic / NYT (2009) / ABC News4 / Off Message]
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Every time I read about this shit that the regime is doing, I'm just as angry with the voters in 2024 who either stayed home, or voted third party, or voted for Dipshit because they didn't get a pony from Biden or from Harris, as I am at Dipshit and his enablers. WTF did they expect from a convicted criminal, a rapist, a liar, a narcissist, and a traitor?
”Fuck her and her CIA tactics.”
The CIA, historically, has always loved holding right wing juntas to account and bringing the justice system to bear against fascists.