Categories
ideological culture insider corruption national politics & policies

Ineffectiveness, Please

“I’m into effectiveness,” Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) told an audience last week at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.

Maybe effectiveness isn’t what we want from government, after all.

Recognizing that, in the next Congress, Democrats are unlikely to have the votes to remove President Trump from office by impeaching him in the House and convicting him in the Senate, Slotkin called for an alternative strategy: pursuing aggressive criminal prosecutions in what she called “signature cases” of the people who have “enabled” President Trump. 

Calling for the prosecution of someone who has committed a crime — I mean a real crime, not simply working for one’s political enemy — is not very controversial, of course. But Slotkin’s stated reasoning is.

“I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration?’”

She imagines them thinking, “‘Like, that sounds fun, I might get an opportunity.’” 

But opportunities for young conservatives need to be effectively squelched, dontcha know . . .

“I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems I don’t want and so let me avoid participating in that,’” explained the senator.

“I want that deterrence message sent,” she concluded.

Yes, more lawfare is coming . . . in the name of “effectiveness” . . . to chill political participation. 

Slotkin presents herself as a moderate Democrat. Really?

Even moderates are now in favor of using the judicial system to prosecute political opponents . . . the better to frighten and intimidate young people . . . who might be looking for a job with those political opponents?

That’s not change. That’s more of the same.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


PDF for printing

Illustration created with Grok Imagine

See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
See recent popular posts

Categories
crime and punishment litigation

An Anti-Lawfare Law Firm

We witness lots of lawfare, so we need lots of anti-lawfare. 

That’s why former Trump administration official Jeffrey Clark, a victim of lawfare himself, is opening a new law firm.

Democrats went after him because, he says, “I am a strong Trump supporter and thought Georgia investigating its election in 2020 at a deeper level was worth doing.” As part of this vindictive campaign, the DC Bar has been pushing to revoke Clark’s license to practice law.

On the X social media platform, Clark says that the firm, which he is leading, will combat all kinds of weaponization of the law, “but especially abuses of congressional and state legislative branch oversight, perversion of bar discipline processes, and . . . bogus criminal indictments.”

He is looking for help. “We already have a small team of dedicated lawyers with Article I, Article II, and/or Article III branch experience at the federal level and state government experience as well. You would join them and me in this important effort to turn our country around.”

He links to a page on itsyourgov.org describing the positions.

There you’ll learn that your duties would include “preparing rapid-response filings and ethics defenses for attorneys facing bar complaints, representing clients in constitutional, administrative, and investigative proceedings, and pursuing strategic litigation — including civil suits and possibly counter-complaints — against entities abusing legal and regulatory processes.” 

So if you’re an ace lawyer who finds this project exciting and worthwhile, and think you could help, you know what to do.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


PDF for printing

Illustration created with Nano Banana

See all recent commentary
(simplified and organized)
See recent popular posts