Originally Posted by Trollheart

What the hell is wrong with you? I'm not talking full-on fasicsm, blood in the streets, abandoning the rule of law, but Biden has gone in the opposite direction. How many who took part in the insurrection attempt have got more than a year in jail? How many have got anything close to a year? You don't have to start ****ing World War III (panicky rhetoric there) to properly punish offenders against the law. It was sedition. It was treason. It was an armed uprising orchestrated by the Right and by neo-Nazi groups. And the solution is just to let them cool their heels for a few weeks/months and then set them free? Everyone? Nobody is going to serve any sort of proper time?

Republicans may respect little, but strength is one thing they do respect. Sure, if the Dems come on strong they'll whine and moan and use it to try to take back the senate and the House, and they'll NEVER respect the other party. But do you think the lion in the jungle got his reputation by pushing over antelopes or whatever the **** gently? Do you think any enemy or opponent takes the other side seriously if they don't do anything serious? You have to take a stand, say "you broke the law and now you're going to pay". That doesn't bring civilisation or democracy crashing down; in fact, NOT doing it is going to contribute more to its fall than putting the boot in.

You're making a case that there's only two options: go soft and maintain some sort of peace or go hard and kick off a war. There's a middle ground where you show your enemies - and let's be clear, these people are the enemies of your democracy - that they can't **** with you, that you're not afraid to deal with them. In not doing so, you lose any credibility, respect, or, dammit , fear you might have had among them. You show you're weak and indecisive, scared of blowback and they will **** you as soon as they get the chance. They won't thank you for being nice to them, they'll just call you a pussy.

Not a lion.

Originally Posted by Pet_Sounds

But looking for quality interaction on MB is like trying to stay hydrated by drinking salt water.

Originally Posted by Frownland

Capitulate to those ending the world or you'll end the world. Gee I wonder who this mindset benefits.

I prefer machetes and bombs to guns fwiw

Originally Posted by rubber soul

Okay, you're the President of the United States. You want to punish these people without starting all out riots throughout the country. What would you do? BTW, it isn't over yet, they're still prosecuting these idiots.

PS- It isn't actually the Republican Party. Oh, they say it's the Republican Party but the real Republican party was overthrown in 2016 (though admittedly, they did it to themselves by attracting the people that Hillary Clinton once kindly called deplorables). So if we're really serious, the former Republicans, who I may not agree with but still believe in a true democracy, even if they end up in the minority, will join up with the Democrats (and a few have already) and stop the craziness once and for all. Then we can get back to bickering about Social Security and taxes, etc. instead of impeaching someone because he is wearing the wrong tie.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.