Downplaying the Bad

I STILL REMEMBR my Trumper friend at the senior center, telling me that in his opinion, all the fuss made about the capitol insurrection was "overblown". Just a little rowdiness, no big deal. I have increasingly come to realize that this is among the prime strategies of Trump supporters, of conservatives and Republicans in general. There are many words for it: understate, downplay, overlook, attenuate, mitigate...It really hit home the other day when an ostensibly halfway intelligent Trump supporter posted: "I am no fan of Trump's antics, but when he was president, he did everything right." Evidently, trying to blackmail the president of Ukraine and alienating our allies is "right". Trying to steal the lost election with a violent insurrection? Mere "antics". I instantly thought, and think,I know what the gentleman meant by the word "antics" relating to Trump. I suspect everybody does, anybody would. All of the blatant lies, insults, threats, lawsuits, attacks, crimes....you know, all that, reduced to a single, half serious descriptor: "antics". In other words, Trump, just being Trump. Just doing his usual antics. No big deal. By bundling all of Trump's proven acts of criminally insane behavior and comments, including his big election lie, attempted insurrection, stolen classfiied coduments, all these seriously treasonous felonies, into a broad, dismissive, category with a harmless name, it all becomes less serious. And Trump, rather than a serious criminal, becomes a "character", at whom we shake our head, maybe share a good laugh about, and move on. Its been more than three years since Trump engineered the whole plan of stealing the presidency from Biden, and overthrowing the government violently, and very nearly succeeded in implementing it. More than three years since Trump stole thousands of top secret documents when he left the presidency, hid them in his home, perhaps sold or gave them to America's enemies, and refused to return them when ordered to do so by the government and law. More than enough time, with fair and impartial justice under law, for Trump to have been indicted, tried,and convicted of treason, insurrection, and espionage, and given the death penalty, execution by firing squad, for example. Arguably, if Donald Trump had been and were being treated justly by the justice system, he would no longer be alive. Instead, he may once again be elected president. Hell, his bust might appear on Mt.Rushmore, with the fab four. Meanwhile his supporters treat all this as if its nothing more than some humorous "antics", overblown by the media, politicized and weaponized by his opponents, enemies, haters. Similarly, the dozens of criminal indictments and impending trials for Trump? All that is nothing but politics, a witch hunt, a political campaign to destroy Trump with false accusations. This has resulted in enabling Trump, and placing us on the precipice of freely electing to the nation's highest office a clearly criminally insane character with a long list of crimes already commited, with more likely to come. Trump's supporters would gladly elect him, and let him grant himself pardons for all alleged crimes. His future crimes as president would also have their approval.