Quit Your Stalin

It’s morally repugnant to compare the January 6 hearings to show trials.

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Dear Reader (excluding those of you in a romantic relationship with a fence), 

So, I emerged from recording a solo podcast to the news that the Supreme Court has overruled Roe v. Wade. While I have lots of opinions about this, I’m not going to write about any of it today. Here are my reasons: 1) I haven’t read the decision—which I gather is very similar to the leaked draft from February. 2) I can’t follow the reactions and write about them at the same time. 3) It’s not like there will be a shortage of pieces out there about this. 4) My views haven’t changed since I last wrote or podcasted (yes, that’s a verb) about abortion, Roe, Dobbs etc. 5) Everything I could rush to say today will be less considered than what I can say when I know more. 6) I don’t feel like it.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about show trials. What is a show trial? The Britannica dictionary has a pretty standard definition: “A trial in a court of law in which the verdict has been decided in advance.”

This is a fairly clinical definition. It leaves out the moral horror of how show trials actually work.

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  1. Andy

    Would it matter much if we said the Jan 6 commission was “show-y”. I mean what do you call an investigation broadcast live on network TV? We will certainly see a number of “hearings looking into intelligence agencies actions related to Russia-gate or whatever if/when the GOP regains the house/senate. I’ll bet dollars to donuts the networks will not be broadcasting these live during prime time.

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  2. Ed Kilburn

    Thanks Michael. It is disingenuous to suggest that putting two Trump haters on the Committee provides any balance. I'm with you on being disappointed in Liz Cheney, and I won't be surprised if it costs her her Wyoming seat.

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    Dr. Livesey

    "Last week, Eric Greitens, a sociopath Senate candidate in Missouri,"

    — Wait, there are more? How many sociopathic Senate candidates do they have in the Show Me state? I may have to drive through there at some point. Sure, I'll lock my doors, but I'm going to have to make pit stops.

    Maybe get one of those "Motorman's Friends," but only if I have to.

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  4. Michael

    Victimhood runs like a river through our culture. We have heard for 6 years that Hillary was a victim, despite the evidence that indeed she and her campaign indeed lied to subvert the laws, the election and by extension the Constitution. Groups of all flavors vie for the "honor" of having been the most victimized. Hyperbole also runs like a river through our culture on both sides of the aisle. "Show Trial" may be hyperbolic but Kabuki Theater in regards to the impeachment proceedings and the Jan 6 hearings would not be. I am not a MAGA man. In fact I am a confirmed RINO and I don't disagree with you that we are not faced with Stalinism, but in the political environment we are currently living in you may rightfully be accused of being a pedantic nag.

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    Bono Vox

    On this given sabbath, this is perhaps the hardest G file I have ever read. To have to make the case that anything other than the January 6th hearings trump clown show trial is based on the truth, and nothing but the truth, that Donald J Trump, speaking of a clown show trial gone wild, is America’s Biggest Sore Loser and January 6,, 2020 is an atrocity a shameless,mendacious, narcissistic, megalomaniac comma has yet to answer for inciting…. has yet to be drummed into the likes of a formerly likable Mollie Hemingway thick skull who’s now like a whipping boy like gin soaked Guilianni….makes for a Peter Bizzaro world where I plead guilty to having voted for a crony capitalist pig for POTUS not once, bit twice….like Jordan Balfour reincarnated as a movie star. For f sakes, when is the GOP Crasher stranglehold on my beloved party and country going to finally end. #REMEMBERASHLIVBBABBITT She died for a complete fing lie uttered over and over and over by a POTUS. INDICT TRUMP!!! Oh, we the people live in an idiocracy where Nancy Pelosi is still speaker of the House Gotta run on. Peace through superior mental firepower

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  6. Monty Brown

    You are right again. I often do not dwell on all that crosses my field of vision. And I have litttle hope of making a difference on most issues. And there are some things that seem more important than that I recognize and comment on the many failing aspect of our economy. But some things stand out in my mind.

    In the 1960's a court decided that allowing religions to use Chicago school space to teach about their faith, the ones involved were minority religions in the area, the SCOTUS banned it. That isn't in this discussion but the institutions purveying moral codes from religions. We have lost any sense of a national moral code due in part to raising individual freedom above community norms.

    Pelosi with her show trail trashes due process. So I am concerned; this is bedrock for the nation. Once we had an international reputation for our adherence to law, our faithfulness in providing fairness in our many processes of governing. So yes, I don't spend a lot of time on the many manifestations of this failure.

    I worry that we losing our sense of being a nation. we have abandoned our southern border which is now controlled by cartels which charge individuals from hundred plus countries to pass. Once here our government provides food, lodging, transportation and settlement to any who come without more. We once had a nation but nations have borders and decide who comes and goes, and how they fit in to the nation's life. Our current leaders toss this out and assume that everyone who comes acting on their personal desires will be a net positive for what the country? We have lost or losing this sense of nation.

    On congress working these days? What is their dilly dallying worth if we lose our most precious national character, our adherence to fair process? The congress is wasting time and money... not just what we can put up now but more than we can do in another generation. Put up with this and treat it merely as how we do things these days and accept that?

    That John is the end of the nation I have cherished and the won I served on more than one occasion. Could my voice make a difference? Probably not, but I won't pretend that things are ok. They are not ok and most people seem satisfied with going along since that seems to be the trend.

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  7. Francis Allocca

    800+- words to say very little, we did get a condensed history on Russian justice in Stalin's reign... but the average voter has seen various levels of 'anti Trump' rhetoric and still see many in the media and Washington doing whatever they can to poison the political atmosphere so he can never run again... The Jan 6th committee is just the latest. What you label their existence is secondary, it is truly only being staged to accomplish one objective..Destroy Trump. I personally hope he doesn't run as he has lost the support of most thinking voters.
    The " moral repugnance" is trying to convince Dispatch readers that this is not a 'show trial'

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    Lawrence D'anna

    “ It’s like saying a 5-year-old is going “full Hannibal Lecter” if he bites his sister. “

    i laughed so hard i literally did a spit take

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  9. CandS

    Wow Jonah, laser accurate takedown of the complete and utter moronic MAGA crowd. It's more than merely disturbing, it's frightening. Will they ever dissipate and go away?
    And Ol' Tucker? Someone needs to call him out for the shameless traitor he truly is and the perpetrator of dangerous lies.

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  10. enGage

    Yes Jonah, it is a show trial!

    It is true as you state: "It has zero power to punish Donald Trump or even charge him with a crime", but that's not what the"show" is about. It was staged to energize the "base" prior to midterm elections. The "punishment" is less of a shellacking in the fall.

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