WaPo Defends Hillary’s Banana Republic
Anti-Clinton sentiment at the RNC is anti-democratic, says The Washington Post.
If there’s one thing that summarily defines this week’s Republican National Convention, it’s a strong anti-Hillary Clinton sentiment. This was on full display during Tuesday’s speech from Gov. Chris Christie. At one point the stadium joined in a “Lock her up!” intonation, demonstrating the degree of frustration in the Clintons’ uncanny ability to skirt the legal system. Meanwhile, “Hillary for Prison” clothing is a hot commodity, and understandably so. Yet in the eyes of The Washington Post editorial board, this anger is not only unjustified, it’s akin to a mob mentality of some anti-democratic third-world nation.
The Post, in a piece titled “Memo to Republicans: Democracies don’t lock up political opponents,” says, “Mr. Christie, a former prosecutor and would-be attorney general, presumably knows that the U.S. legal system is meant to be insulated from politics. He should know better than to weaken that all-important separation.” Ironically, and evidently unbeknownst to the board, politicization is exactly what’s fueling Republican angst and what they strive to interrupt. The Clintons have spent decades getting away with gross negligence, including the FBI’s recent decision not to recommend charges against Hillary. And the Post wants to lecture us on how “the U.S. legal system is meant to be insulated from politics”?
The Post goes on to argue, “Even if FBI Director James B. Comey had recommended she be charged … there is essentially no chance she would have seen conviction and jail time.” If that’s the case, it’s because the system is rigged. As National Review’s Kevin Williamson argues, “Mrs. Clinton couldn’t get indicted if she tried.” Meanwhile, try telling Rick Perry and Tom DeLay that politics had nothing to do with their indictments.
On a final note, the term “democracy” is a favorite leftist talking point, so let’s not miss the Post’s erroneously conflating America’s form of government. (We’re a republic.) The editors conclude, “When the critique of political opponents becomes so disproportionate and divorced from reality, democracy, which requires goodwill and compromise, cannot function.” As columnist Ben Shapiro writes, “This is the whole point of the Constitution of the United States. There are certain rights that are inviolable, even by a majority. … [M]orality doesn’t follow the majority.” America has lost its way. The fact Clinton isn’t sitting behind bars is all the evidence one needs.