Republicans Call For Democrats To Be Rounded Up And Prosecuted

The call for Democrats to be rounded up and prosecuted is becoming an increasingly mainstream Republican position that is the opposite of democracy.

A free press that doesn’t bend the knee to political power is vital to a democratic society. The Daily is committed to speaking to issues that matter to our democracy, and you can support our work by becoming a subscriber.

Lock Them Up Is Now A Mainstream Republican Position

Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash

A normal political party might respond with some self-examination if their leader had been convicted of 34 felonies. There are some logical questions like how our party got to this point and how we should move forward that should be asked.

Political parties are, at heart, supposed to represent organizations of citizens around a common ideology or shared views that represent a form of democracy.

What is happening in the wake of the Trump conviction is the opposite of democracy.

In 2016, the chants of lock her that were led by Donald Trump at his rallies were viewed by outsiders as part of the show. It was Trump deflecting from his own issues by projecting them onto Hillary Clinton.

Even Trump admitted that he had no intention of locking Hillary Clinton up.

However, things have shifted in 2024 after Trump was convicted.

The New York Times explained the current Republican Party mentality:

A central tenet of their argument is that the four criminal cases in four different jurisdictions against Mr. Trump are illegitimate and nothing more than political weaponization of the justice system. They continue to put forward the theory, without evidence, that all four cases are the result of a conspiracy by Mr. Biden — implicitly or explicitly rejecting the notion that Mr. Trump has been charged with crimes based on evidence.

But based on their premise that the charges — and now convictions in the fraudulent business records case — are baseless and were invented for political reasons, they are arguing that Republican prosecutors not only should but can do the same thing to Democrats. In short, having accused Democrats of “lawfare” — or using the law to wage war against political opponents — Republicans are saying they should respond in kind.

Some veteran Republican lawyers have sought to dress up the need for such retribution as a matter of constitutional principle.

The Times noted that the most intense calls for revenge prosecutions are coming from Republican members of Congress and people who are expected to play major roles in a second Trump administration if he returns to the White House.

We’ll talk below about the dangerous door that Republicans have opened, and why these threats need to be taken seriously.