Don’t take the bait
Half of all smart political activism can be summed up in four words: don’t take the bait. What do I mean by this? Days ago the Trump regime arrested a circuit court judge in Wisconsin for daring to protect an immigrant’s legal rights. This was a horrifically abusive move on Trump’s part, and one that we’re all rightly pushing back against. But it was also a classic case of Trump being too much of a coward to pick on someone his own size.
Trump and his regime arrested the lowest level kind of judge there is, in terms of power. That was intentional. Trump likes to punch down at people who are less powerful than he is. Like all bullies, he’s a coward in that way. But yesterday Trump’s press secretary publicly floated the idea that maybe Trump will have Supreme Court Justices arrested next. This is the part where we don’t take the bait.
Arresting a circuit court judge and then taking about arresting a Supreme Court Justice is like pickpocketing an old lady and then holding it up as evidence that you’re skilled enough to rob Fort Knox. It’s an absurd premise. Trump and his henchmen are doing this specifically to try to convince us that he has the muscle to arrest a Supreme Court Justice. That’s because if he can scare us into believing he might do it, and we cower accordingly, he doesn’t actually have to try doing it.
So while we rightly condemn Trump for arresting the circuit court judge, and while we rightly condemn him and his regime for even floating the idea of arresting the Supreme Court, let’s not fall into the trap of saying “Oh no, he’s going to arrest the Supreme Court.” All that does is give him the leverage he’s looking for. If this idiot Trump wants to try arresting John Roberts, there are a million ways in which that could play out poorly for Trump. It’s why he’s still picking on smaller, safer targets. Bully-cowards always do.
