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I dare call it treason! [1]

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Date: 2025-01-31

A little while ago, I read Thom Hartmann’s article, “The GOP’s 60-Year Conspiracy to Kill Our Democracy: None Dare Call It Treason—But I Will”, and had the displeasure of reading a comment which dared to chide Hartmann because he hadn’t cited anything from 18 US Code §2381 to justify calling it treasonous. I wrote a response there, and decided shortly after that I needed to do more than just write a comment few will even see.

You’d think after decades of Republicans essentially throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks, we’d have learned by now that this isn’t about what we can “legally” justify. The point of those accusations was to put Republicans into the position they now find themselves in: Having a president who is legally immune to almost all forms of criminal prosecution for any actions taken in office.

He can’t be prosecuted while in office, due to the OLC memos of 1973 and 2000. He has absolute criminal immunity for official acts under core constitutional powers, and presumptive criminal immunity for other official acts.

And remember, this isn’t the first time they tried this. Nixon, similarly, was willing to bend the laws into a pretzel if it meant getting what he wanted, the difference being that the Republicans hadn’t yet had the chance to undermine the nation’s laws and subvert the court system, and as such when his lawlessness came to light he was forced to resign (and, oh so coincidentally, pardoned almost immediately by his Republican VP so they couldn’t actually prosecute him for anything).

And despite five decades of Republican bullshit culminating in a man who feels himself entirely above the law, because he got away with his lawlessness — even in the one criminal case where they successfully convicted him, he was sentenced to “unconditional discharge”, literally nothing at all — we still have people trying to argue that we can’t call something treason unless it fits the legal definition. As if we were lawyers debating what is and isn’t legal, instead of citizens trying to stop the Day One Dictator from slaughtering everything good about our country so he and his vultures can engorge upon the corpse, and us at the same time.

So yes, I do dare call it treason. So should you. Because if we don’t dare call it treason now, at this late hour, then when will we? After he deports millions of immigrants and citizens? After he enacts Jim Crow II, except across the whole nation rather than just in the South? After Gaza is “cleansed” of the Palestinians so they can build a beachside resort there? After he makes being anything but cishet a mental illness again, and builds insane asylums for those who can no longer hide? After he withdraws us from NATO and starts trade wars with our closest allies over his insane idea of how tariffs work? He’s long since crossed the Rubicon, and we need to stop arguing about whether he has!

I don’t give a shit if what he and the Republicans have done and are doing fits the legal definition of treason as defined in 18 US Code §2381, because at this point, this isn’t about whether we can legally charge him and them with treason. I care about keeping him from eviscerating our country any further than he already has.

And so should you. At some point we have to act, not simply wait patiently in silence for the perfect opportunity.

Here’s a few other things that we can do:

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