Demise of Our Democracy

I believe in the power of people to create change. I do, however, believe that the people need to be motivated in order to want to create change. And how do you motivate people to take action on their own behalfs Well, you restore their faith in the institutions that

our government says are meant to protect us. Right. Well, here we are with a new administration, with a new Department of Justice and a new leader of said department, Merrick Garland, who has proven over the last ten months that I'm not one hundred percent sure he's up to the job, and by that I mean that he understands and sees very clearly the urgency of the moment that we are in see politics plays too big a part in the decisions that we make for better or worse

in this country. What do I mean by that? I mean that Democrats fall tuly succumb to the whims of Republicans when Republicans will go after them and say, you're being partisan right for wanting to vote down party lines, and you're not sticking to what you told the American people about bipartisanship and collaboration, knowing good god damn well,

that they are not good faith actors, right. We've seen this over the last ten months, but we also saw it over the last four years of the Trump administration that Republicans don't act in good faith. And so when Democrats come out and try to assuage the American people's anxiety about not having a function in government and say that they are going to do everything that Joe Biden is a creature of Capitol Hill and he knows how to navigate the Hill and members of the Senate and

get things done. He is to get things done, guy. That's what they campaigned on. That's why we were told to choose Joe Biden above the newer, more aggressive candidates like let's say and Elizabeth Warren or a Bernie Standards

or dare I say a Kamala Harris. We were told that those people did not have right, They were not held in the same steam and regard as a Joe Biden, that a Mitch McConnell would never dare to do what he did under the Obama administration, to a Joe Biden that he sat shoulder and shoulder within the Senate for thirty fucking years. No, like, these are people that know each other and know each other's heart. Right. That's the

line of bullshit that we were fed. Well, the reality is coming to bear now, which is that the Senate of Joe Biden's yester year, the Senate of the Ted Kennedy's of the world, is long gone. Right, they are

not the deliberative body. We do not have a functioning government, because if we did, right, then the Mother Report would have been enough to persuade Republicans to act not in doing the quote unquote right thing or the moral thing, but in doing the legally imperative thing, which was to remove Donald Trump from the presidency because he proved himself to be unfaithful to our constitution, unfaithful to the oath that he took to protect the American people and to

protect our institutions. He did, in fact, the complete and total opposite. Given all of that, you would think then that the insurrection that occurred ten months ago would be the exclamation fucking point on the entirety of why it is necessary that we wrap up this criminal trump admit illustration, and wrap them up and put them in a federal prison. Because it is not about the partisanship of going of

Democrats going after a Republican. It's supposed to be that our elected leaders would go after and ensure that the sanctity of the office and the preservation of our constitution comes above everything else, and so they would take action regardless of whether or not it would cost them their mid term election, or whether or not it would cost

them some ire from those trumpets. But here we are, folks, ten months into this administration, ten months from the insurrection where our government, our capital building fell to the hands

of white domestic terrorists. How did it fall? Because according to the notes from the sentencing of the two Ohio insurrectionists that were sentenced, folks to forty five days days they were sentenced to, not forty five months, not forty five years for attempting to overthrow the fucking government as traders of our country, but forty five days for a slap on the risk, because, as they tell it, they got caught up in the you know, in the excitement

of the moment. What Glenn Kirshner will help us unpack is that who was responsible for the quote unquote excitement of the moment. It was Donald Trump, It was Rudy Giuliana, It was Moe Brooks, right, it was Don Junior. It was all of the people that stood up on the diets at the quote unquote Stop the Steel rally and told people to march down there and go and take their country back, while pointing to the fucking capital that

it was their patriotic duty to do so. So, if we're looking at this, right, folks, if we're if we're looking at the Trump administration at the Stop the Steel as a drug cartel. Okay, rock with me for a moment. If we're looking at them like a drug cartel, and we're looking at the actions of those people that stormed the capital as drug dealers, right, just pushing the product that the boss told them to push, which was what

the big lie. So instead of the rock, or instead of cocaine or instead of whatever their drug of choice is the big lie, so rock with me. So if they are the low level drug offenders, and if we're using this past former administration as the big pens, then what do you do or what have you seen right in every fucking movie and every courtroom on court TV and otherwise, is that you would use you would pressure the low level drug pushers, the street corner workers in

order to get to the big wig. That's how these things usually work, that you work your way up right, that you build up the evidence that is necessary to

then pin the big case on the big people. But here's the thing, we're not fucking doing that, and the low level drug pushers of the big hopes, of the big Lie are getting these fucking light sentencings, which are signaling to the rest of you know, the insurrectionist dealers, the rest of the big lie pushers, the rest of the Boogoloo Boys and the Proud Boys and whatever other white supremacist nationalist groups are popping up all over the place that forty five days in federal prison is just

par for the course if we believe ourselves to be patriots, and that's the least that you could do for your chosen president and your country. Because unlike what our injustice system has done in the past, two other actual low level drug offenders rights, throw the fucking book at them. Oh, you have no redeemable qualities. Is essentially what our injustice system says to low level drug offenders and drug pushers, right, is that we're gonna stamp you out because we have

a war on drugs in this country. So we're gonna give you, low level drug dealer, the maximum sentence that you could possibly get for endangering the public moving illegal narcotics. And each of these charges faces up to blah blah blah a million years in prison. That's what the fuck we have seen, right, because America created a war on drugs for black and brown people, but created a tempest of empathy when it came to the opioid crisis and

those responsible like the Sackler's for the opioid crisis. So here again, here we are now in present day, where if we thought that the Department of Justice was actually doing its fucking job, then what we would see from these recommendations to the judges is not a handful of fucking months in prison that they would actually be going after every single one of these insurrectionists as they would any other fucking terrorist. But this is why we can't

divorce race and class and privilege from these sentencing. This is why our injustice system is working just how it was always meant to be, to look at black and brown people as the problem that needs to be locked away and treated like animals, and given white people as many fucking chances and opportunities to fuck up over and

over and over and over again with very little fucking consequences. Now, Glenn Kirshner will tell you that the initial ask of the Justice Department in this Ohio case was six months, right, He will say, you know, six months in federal prison, Like nobody wants to be in federal prison. And I'm like, well, if I'm a trumper, white supremist, which this is what this mob was, then I'm using this as like a badge of honor. Right. I took one for my president.

I took one for the team. We may have lost this battle for forty five whole days, but the war is still gonna wage on because they caused an insurrection and are facing none of the effects from it. So when I say that, I am ye of little faith because while we know that the Justice Department, any non corrupt justice department, does not talk about who they're investigating or whether or not indictments are going to comm It's

always leaked in some form or fashion. But how they go after these underlings would signal to America that what happened on one six was a serious fucking national security breach and threat to our democracy, and that if we do not put the full force and extent of the law right behind these actions, to signal that anyone else that dare concoct a plan to try and throw a election, a democratic election, you won't see the light of day again. But that, folks, is not what the fucking Justice Department

is doing. Instead, they are just giving these people, these privileged, white fucking people, a slap on the wrist. Oh, they didn't know. They got caught up in the excite ament of beating police officers, of knocking their teeth out of you know, gouging out their eyeballs, of fracturing spines. They just got caught up in the harm that they caused to over one hundred and sixty seven police officers. They got caught up in the millions of dollars with their

damage that they did to the Capitol Building. They got caught up in the chance that said hang Mike Pence. They didn't mean it, They weren't really gonna do it if they caught him. They just got caught up. Coming up next is my conversation with our friend Glenn Kirshner, a host of Justice Matters on YouTube and MSNBC Legal analysts. He is going to walk us through where we are and where he thinks we are headed. That is coming

up next. Friends. You know that every week when we have the opportunity to be joined by our friend, host of Justice Matters on YouTube and on Patreon, Glenn Kirshner, I leave some weeks more hopeful, some not so much. Glenn, two insurrectionists were sentenced, and on your show, Justice Matters, you kind of you walked your audience through what the

prosecution had said, where the doj sits. But I'm telling you that the lengths of these sentencing, the kind of nonchalance that I feel like these judges are having in this proceeding like, oh, everyone needs to be treated as an individual, and you know, we need to take each individual action. When it was a mob, it was a white domestic terrorists mob that over took our capitol building.

And one other thing is that we cannot divorce ourselves of race and racism and how that is playing out in the sentencing and in the coverage of these cases, of these trials. And so talk to us about the two Ohio insurrectionists that were just sentenced and what you were feeling with regard to what was delivered down to them. Danielle, I had to dig deep to find the hope this week, because you know, this week it felt like sun was

setting on the prospect of justice rather than rising. I haven't given up hope, but you know, when I see two insurrectionists, one was named, but I'm not going to accurately remember their name. They came from Ohio. Now, granted they didn't assault anybody, they apparently didn't destroy property once inside the capital, but the government let them plead guilty to a misdemeanor which carries up to six months in prison,

and six months is nothing to sneeze at. Six minutes is nothing to sneeze at, you know, and I appreciate that. And the government ended up asking the judge for four months in prison for each defendant, and the judge, to my disappointment, only sentenced them to forty five days in prison. Again nothing to sneeze at, but you know, it seems that we are failing to recognize the severity of what the goal was of these folks. And let me turn to some of the things that the prosecution said in

those two sentencing hearings. That is where I found at least a little bit of hope the prosecutors. Their rhetoric is strong. Their rhetoric seems to appreciate how dangerous these crimes are. Unfortunately, their sentencing asks I think are too low. They're just too low. Ye. So here's the rhetoric that they used. They said that, you know, if you incite a riot and if you contributed to the environment of

terror that day, their quote will be consequences. They went on to say that if you incite a riot and you intend to improperly influence the democratic process, their quote will be consequences. So who is it that incited a riot to try to influence the democratic process? It was Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani and Don Junior and Mo Brooks and John Eastman, the people who whipped up the

crowd into the angry weapon that they became. So when the prosecutors say to the judge in open court, and by extension, say to the American people, if you do these things, there will be consequences. Okay, DJ put up or shut up, you know, bring charges against the people who incited the riot in an attempt to improperly influence the democratic process. Because here's where I am, Danielle. Every day the Department of Justice fails to punish Donald Trump.

The Department of Justice is punishing the American people, and you have to take sides. Are you gonna side with the American people? Are you going to side with law and order? Are you going to side with a healthy democracy? Or are you're going to keep siding with Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Moe Brookston Junior, John Eastman and the others. I don't understand this, daniel I did a two minute condensed video out of frustration that I posted first thing

this morning on my YouTube channel. I swear you give me three hours in front of one of my beloved DC juries. I will secure a guilty verdict of Donald Trump for inciting a riot and yes, an insurrection, because the evidence is just that clear and compelling. And that's why my frustration is mounting and it's reaching a boiling point because DJ better explain to us what the heck is going on, because right now insurrectionists are being treated

with kid gloves. And as you say, if this was a BLM protest that erupted into that kind of violence against our elected officials, against our you know, our nation's capital, against our democratic process, you think we'd see forty five day sentences. No, we would see life in prison. And like, this is what is continuing to trouble me, Glenn, is that all these sentences are signaling to these criminals, right, to these terrorists. Is that just plan better next time?

Is that you know, there are casualties that happen in war. And if I need to spend forty five days in jail for doing what I think is right in terms of trying to overthrow my government, then so be it, because I'm going to see myself as a soldier. That's what these people are telling themselves. That's what they are telling the community of white supremacists, trumpers that are saying, look, you may you be sacrificed, but the greater good is that, no,

we won't have any more free and fair elections. The greater good is that these people who we don't see as Americans won't be able to vote. And our Department of Justice is sitting there and these judges, these federal judges are sitting there and saying, oh, well, they didn't really mean it. You know, I just got whipped up in the frenzy, which reminds me of cops saying, well, I feared for my life. So it's never anybody's responsibility for the actions that are taken by rageful, angry, racist

white people. There is just oh, they didn't mean it. Oh they didn't understand it. Oh they were caught up. And I just at this stage in where we are in the tipping point to the demid eyes of our democracy, my boiling point is going over. And you know, whipped up in a frenzy, I tried cases for thirty years. Whipped up in a frenzy is not a defense to your criminal conduct. It may provide motive, it may explain why you decided to break the law, but let's take

that at face value. That a lot of these you know, Donald Trump supporters, were whipped up into a frenzy, who whipped them up, righted them, who encouraged them to attack the capital. That just highlights these statements being made by these insurrectionists. I was whipped up into a frenzy. I got carried away. Okay, I'll credit that. That makes Donald Trump even more criminally culpable for what happened. Let me

turn to something Judge Sullivan said. Judge Emmett Sullivan, for whom I have the utmost respect, I appeared before him. I was a prosecutor at the US Attorney's office in DC. He is the one who called out Mike Flynn for being a traitor to his country in open court. I sat in the courtroom that day. I got patriotic goosebumps when Judge Sullivan said those things. Here's what Judge Sullivan

said recently in one of the insurrection cases. He said, I don't understand how otherwise law abiding citizens, and let's give it to most of these insurrectionists. They didn't have criminal records, so I'll give them that. How otherwise law abiding citizens turned against their government and Here's how I would reframe that question. I wouldn't say they turned against their government because who was the leader of their government

when they were told to attack the capital. Who was the leader of their government who lied to them and told them their vote was stolen, election was stolen, their president was stolen. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country. Go down there, kick ass and take names, have trial by combat, Go go go stop the steel. Jesus. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel. I take that. I take that back. But that proves that Donald Trump incited the insurrection and

is criminally responsible. Present that day case to a grand jury and a trial jury, and Donald Trump goes to prison. That is it for today's Woke After Daily podcast. To hear more from today's show, including my full interview with Glenn Kirshner, support me on Patreon at patreon dot com. Slash Woke a f Power to the people and to all the people. Power, Get woke and day woke as fuck.