What will impact be with voters if Trump is forced to take a mug shot?

[Mike M (the other one)]

(09-07-2023, 10:24 AM)Dill Wrote: Couple things here.

1. I'm not sure Trump's coup attempt could have worked, but I give it a better chance than you do. In any case, it's not just about whether it would have worked. Had Pence decided not to certify the valid votes and send them back to the 7 states in question, that would have been "proof" for millions that something REALLY WAS wrong with the election. We don't know what would have happened in those states which had already had valid elections; certainly millions would have demanded more investigations, recounts, or maybe even a re-vote--all that after the system had worked and the votes properly counted.

All democrats would have claimed the fake electors invalid; it's not clear how many Republicans would agree. Lynn Cheney and a few maybe; most would have to know they wouldn't be re-elected. Trump DOES have THAT kind of power. How many Republicans would have agreed that the only way to solve the problem was to "follow the Constitution" and send the election to the House, where each represented state gets one vote, throwing the election to Trump? And if they didn't get their way, Fox (knowing the steal was a lie) and Newsmax would be blaring "stolen" every day. "Dems are preventing us from finding the truth." 

Now we are living in a world in which 50 million+ Republicans believe Trump's lie and want him back in the White House. Polling has him tied with Biden for the moment, so it certainly could happen.

A man who criminally engineered an autogolpe would be back in charge, "weaponizing" the entire government with the backing of millions of misguided followers. That makes me feel "unsafe" in an area where I'm not used to feeling that way--the entire U.S. You don't forsee all manner of divisions, conflicts, firings and resignations in critical DoJ institutions if Trump wins, with all the social fallout that goes with that--protests, paralysis of law enforcement and government, and then more VIOLENT protests?

2. Why do you assume the "rioters" were hurting their cause? I've always assumed that most or all of the rioters were not BLM, but locals taking advantage of the chaos which followed the protests and clashes with police.

By the way, thousands of protestors were arrested, just mostly for violating curfew and failure to disperse orders. But in those few places (percentage wise) where rioters were damaging property, many were arrested and charged. Those arrested for minor offenses were often let go and not prosecuted. But so far as I know, that was not the case with people charged with burglary and property damage.

https://apnews.com/article/american-protests-us-news-arrests-minnesota-burglary-bb2404f9b13c8b53b94c73f818f6a0b7

Trump and Barr wanted BLM members prosecuted to the full extent of the law, that's for sure.
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/20/1029625793/black-lives-matter-protesters-targeted

Let me re-phrase, HARSER PENALTIES. Out of that 10k link you supplied, roughly 700ish were actually involved in the the looting/burning/violence. 

over 550m in property damage, Businesses were shut down for days/months trying to recover. 
So what they disrupted the process of confirming JB's confirmation. It was confirmed the very next day, and had 1.5m in property damage. Big difference there.

Use some common sense, there is NO WAY Trump could have succeeded, maybe pull off a stint for a couple days but not the long run. 
At best, re-counts would have been done in the states questioned and Trump wins, but the reality is, the results likely wouldn't have changed. out of 4.6k elections, only 27 qualified for re-counts, out of those 27, only 3 were overturned (Dems won all 3 recounts) so odds for Trump winning a recount?? 
Now tack on rioting from the General Populace, and Litigation and toss in some corrupt FBI and Trump would have been buried maybe even literally. 

You are giving Trump too much credit, he would have Effed it up somehow. Dude is his own worst enemy. I know you aren't that blind that you can't see that. 

How does it hurt the message? Simple, changes the focus from the message to the violence then guilt by association.