https://spectator.org/twelve-corrupt-jurors/

Bawer describes how the plot of “12 Angry Men” was a tribute to the American justice system: although probably overly optimistic even then, its substance was more aspirational than descriptive, and a hallmark of the liberal ideology of the times.
However, there was no twelfth juror in the Trump case, and the plot seems taken from a different literary icon.

It was a story that made the American system of justice, in which ordinary citizens come together to decide the fate of a fellow American, look — at its best — like a noble and beautiful thing. The play, and the movie, acknowledge implicitly that no individual is perfect, but that if a group of responsible, mature citizens come together to evaluate evidence and make a decision about the fate of a fellow human being, their interaction in the jury room can result in an act of justice.

I imagine that in the 1950s, 12 Angry Men appealed to a certain kind of liberal who believed in the promise of the American system of justice and for whom the sort of characters played by Henry Fonda — who was famously liberal — in one movie after another were the very embodiment of the American spirit at its best.

Now twelve men and women who spent weeks listening to sheer nonsense in a Manhattan courtroom run by a staggeringly dishonest judge have emerged from a jury room with a verdict that will go down in history as one of the most appalling betrayals of American justice ever.
…
I was born in Manhattan. I loved growing up in New York. It made me who I am. But I’m delighted that I don’t live there anymore. Who are these appalling people (including, again, two lawyers) who are so full of hostility toward Donald Trump — a fellow New Yorker and a man who (for heaven’s sake) did so much to help the city rise from the ashes after the disastrous mayoralties of men like Abe Beame and David Dinkins — that they’re willing to ignore fundamental notions of right and wrong, of justice and injustice, in order to convict an innocent man of a long list of so-called felonies?

Watching the coverage of the Trump verdict, I thought not just of 12 Angry Men but of another old movie: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), directed by Robert Mulligan and based on the novel by Harper Lee. Set in the 1930s, it tells the story of Atticus Finch, a white lawyer in small-town Alabama who is assigned to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman. It soon becomes clear that Robinson is innocent, and that the all-white jury knows it. Nonetheless, the jury delivers a guilty verdict — because it cares less about the facts of the case than, as Atticus puts it, about the “code” of their society.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, the “code” is about race. In the Trump case, the “code” is about Democratic Party orthodoxy. About being woke. If any of the jurors in To Kill a Mockingbird had dared to vote to acquit Tom Robinson, he would have been given holy hell after returning to his home and neighborhood and workplace. The same goes for the Trump jurors — perhaps especially the two lawyers, who some observers actually believed would vote to deliver justice. Instead, they decided to deliver votes that would make it possible for them to return to their law firms without being savaged by their colleagues.

For the first time, a former president of the United States has been convicted of a felony. Never has a verdict been more political and more unjust. If this ugly situation has a silver lining, it is this: that it has made American patriots even more aware than ever of just how far the American justice system has fallen and that it will make Trump supporters even more aware of just how vital it is to return him to the White House.

https://spectator.org/get-trump-is-backfiring-already/

Filling out a Tweet cited therein, by Scott Adams:

Democrats solved Trump’s biggest political problems.

They proved the legal system can completely control him. No dictator risk.

They proved there is no secret MAGA army waiting to be activated. (You would have heard from them by now.)

And best of all, they generated massive empathy for Trump. “If they can do it to me…” is powerful.

Trump’s campaign funding is solved.

Republican animal spirits have never been higher.

This is the biggest political mistake in American history.

https://commoncts.blogspot.com/2024/05/re-post-get-trump-is-backfiring-big.html

Don’t doubt it originally said “English”, but that was an “always at war with Eastasia” move, because he’d certainly praised the Saxons and identified them with the English as recently as 1911, back when the movement to identify the English with “the Teutonic race” was still in full swing (and criticized by Chesterton).

“My son,” said the Norman Baron, “I am dying, and you will be heir
To all the broad acres in England that William gave me for share
When he conquered the Saxon at Hastings, and a nice little handful it is.
But before you go over to rule it I want you to understand this:–

“The Saxon is not like us Normans. His manners are not so polite.
But he never means anything serious till he talks about justice and right.
When he stands like an ox in the furrow – with his sullen set eyes on your own,
And grumbles, ‘This isn’t fair dealing,’ my son, leave the Saxon alone.

“You can horsewhip your Gascony archers, or torture your Picardy spears;
But don’t try that game on the Saxon; you’ll have the whole brood round your ears.
From the richest old Thane in the county to the poorest chained serf in the field,
They’ll be at you and on you like hornets, and, if you are wise, you will yield.

“But first you must master their language, their dialect, proverbs and songs.
Don’t trust any clerk to interpret when they come with the tale of their wrongs.
Let them know that you know what they’re saying; let them feel that you know what to say.
Yes, even when you want to go hunting, hear ’em out if it takes you all day.

They’ll drink every hour of the daylight and poach every hour of the dark.
It’s the sport not the rabbits they’re after (we’ve plenty of game in the park).
Don’t hang them or cut off their fingers. That’s wasteful as well as unkind,
For a hard-bitten, South-country poacher makes the best man-at-arms you can find.

“Appear with your wife and the children at their weddings and funerals and feasts.
Be polite but not friendly to Bishops; be good to all poor parish priests.
Say ‘we,’ ‘us’ and ‘ours’ when you’re talking, instead of ‘you fellows’ and ‘I.’
Don’t ride over seeds; keep your temper; and never you tell ’em a lie!”

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13085/13085-h/13085-h.htm#page443

It was written during the First World War. Saxony is a region in Germany….doubt that Kipling would have been praising the attributes of the Saxons.

And…somebody put a picture of one up on my FB.

So I guess some besides Hinderaker are wondering if using the usual tools at the disposal of civilized people is going to work. And it wasn’t our idea.

I guess the foregoing is a metaphor.

The Democrats have been a criminal organization since day one, unfortunately. Look at all the machines, all Democrats, and all evil.