https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2023/08/03/msnbc-still-pushing-false-claim-obama-had-no-scandals-n2626586

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Jefferson_corruption_case

In referencing the old election cases (eg LBJ), my intent is to point out that Democrats getting away with illegal activities is a long-standing operation; “an obvious prosecution opportunity of a Democrat that the Republicans shied away from” is Nixon’s refusal to challenge the fraud in his loss to Kennedy, which is a long-accepted fact.

For another “old case,” see George Parry’s post that I commented on in another thread.
https://www.thenewneo.com/2023/08/03/roundup-83/#comment-2691891
Consider, for example, the 2000 presidential election and the Supreme Court case of Bush v. Gore. Recall that the election’s outcome hinged on the narrow margin of victory in Florida. In that case, candidate Al Gore refused to concede the election and demanded a recount limited to heavily Democrat counties in Florida. It was anticipated that this would find additional votes for Gore.

I agree that weaponized politically-motivated lawfare is indeed a relatively recent process, but it escalated because Democrats were not penalized for committing politically-motivated crimes in the previous years in any significant fashion. There have been one-off victories against some Democrats occasionally (I remember mostly low-level violations of statutes by a few people handling elections), but there certainly were not any spectacularly memorable ones like the ones discussed above against Republicans (see Frederick’s list at 10:07 am).

Certainly there were challenges to illegal COVID dictates, and to the illegal changes in election procedures in 2020. I read all those posts and commented on most of them.

What happened in-between LBJ and today is where the issues lie, because that’s when the Democrats learned there were no negative consequences for their lawlessness, and many positive ones for pursuing Republicans with or without credible grounds.

I’m still waiting for a concrete example of a time when there was an obvious prosecution opportunity of a Democrat that the Republicans actually pursued.

Serious, not sarcastic.
Are there any? Because I’ve literally never read about one sufficiently important to effect the perception that Democrats can get away with breaking the law and Republicans can’t.

I’m still waiting for a concrete example of a time when there was an obvious prosecution opportunity of a Democrat that the Republicans shied away from – something that didn’t occur over 50 years ago (LBJ etc), that is. Back then, even Democrats weren’t so much into lawfare against the right. I think the lawfare stuff really escalated in the last couple of decades, maybe signaled to start at the time of the Bork hearings, which were in 1987. I’m not exactly sure when it began, but it wasn’t a major feature of my youth, and then it became one.

The argument that Republicans don’t bring such cases even when they could succeed seems like it never contains convincing examples, just the statement that that’s the way it is. For example, I’ve seen it said and written over and over that the right didn’t challenge the voting rules put in place in 2020 because of COVID. But they certainly did challenge them in the courts, and I documented that in many posts on this blog. I refer you to this, this, this, and this. People are mostly unaware of what actually was done, and how hard it was to win the cases, and why.

Frederick is correct that the Republicans don’t fight back when they should, even when they have both the law and the facts on their side.

Examples could be generated easily, but start with the known (even conceded) reality that Democrats have stolen elections at every level of government for decades, and the GOP has never significantly succeeded in pinning it on them, and in far too many cases (if not all) has never even tried. (Nixon vs JFK, Johnson in Texas for some well-known examples, and see prior comments in this thread.)

However, it is against the nature of conservatism in principle to prosecute anyone when one or the other element of a criminal charge is missing, and yet that is what the Democrats do routinely. Indeed, recently, they have neither the law (as enacted, not twisted) nor the facts behind their lawfare.

@ Frederick > “Republicans have to start using the power they have, and they need to do it just as unfairly as the Dems, it’s the only thing that has a chance of putting a stop to this nonsense. It’s not guaranteed to work, but it would work a lot better than what’s been done so far.”

@ Bauxite > (paraphrased for brevity)…”The argument being made against your [Frederick’s] position is not that the right shouldn’t fight back, just that the way that you propose will fail.”…”if right-of-center prosecutors start making up BS charges against Democrats”

— and I believe this is correct.

Going after people for the purpose of deliberate prosecutorial harassment, instead of from a genuine concern for law and order (to coin a phrase), is just not a path open to ethical conservatives.

However, as Janet pointed out (“Corruption charges should have been brought against Kaine. Let the process be the punishment for some Democrats for a change….or even just ONCE.”) —

Republicans do not have to MAKE UP any charges: many, many Democrats have done plenty of things that are illegal, even without twisting the text and intent of the statutes as the Democrats are doing against Trump and others.

(Note that genuine concern can also generate plenty of “process is the punishment” in our sclerotic system, but that is not the purpose, as it is for Democrats in political cases.)

I include statutes such as those against lying to federal agencies or to Congress, and many others, that are seen as mostly political but are wielded against Republicans ad nauseum, and never against Democrats — even by Republican majorities in the House or Senate.

Granted, the current DOJ (including as far back as Bush jr) won’t press charges against Democrats even when they deserve it, but there other legal fora where complaints can be brought, at the state and municipal level.

Frederick is correct, I think, that making the Democrats live by the same standard that they impose on Republicans, whenever possible and ethical, will add up; not all the cases have to be of the prominent top dogs to have a deterrent effect — analogous to the “broken windows” policing that used to keep crime in even leftist cities to a reasonable level.

Are there any objections (philosophical, rather than practical) to using existing laws to prosecute Democrats who have actually broken them?

they still have not charged ray epps, who explicitly urge to enter the Capitol

(Actually, I suspect we’d have Larry Tribe and the rest of the the legal academy high priests assuring us that it’s legal when its done to Trump.)

…which was the script the Democrats used for the 2020 election. (With Michelle oh-so-earnestly warning us about perfidious Republican violence to STEAL that election—I tell ya’, Uncle Joe Stalin got NOTHIN’ on Decent Joe Biden.)
Worked like a charm, then.
So no reason they won’t pull out the same script again…and again…and again…
(After all, they’re STILL using “Russia, Russia, Russia”. Seem to like it, if a bit stale…BUT it’s tried and true…and tested, so why not? As they say, “If it works, don’t fix it!”)
File under: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFUfY9bQMgI