‘We have never been here as a country’: Historian Heather Cox Richardson puts Trump immunity ruling into perspective

25 comments

1. I cannot properly put into words how much that I miss the relatively boring years of my life prior to 2016.

2. “This is a coup.”

3. If you want nuanced, illuminating, and intelligent exploration and explanation of history and its relevance to politics and our life today, you owe it to yourself to check out the writings of Heather Cox Richardson. I subscribe to her free newsletter, and it’s one of very few emails that I happily open.

4. The majority of actual Americans are letting the minority Christian Nationalist terrorists take our First amendment rights away.

5. All those “good Christians” throwing away the nation for a child rapist named Donald Trump…

6. Thank you, OP. I can’t tell you how much it means to have my thoughts and feelings confirmed.

7. Just talked to my conservative Dad about this today and conservatives truly don’t understand what this means for the country. My Dad thought it was just reaffirming our existing laws, that Presidents can’t just do whatever they want, and that Supreme Court justices were non-partisan. They have no idea what’s happening in this country right now because they’re being told that this is normal politics. If you want to convince people that Trump is a serious danger to the country, you literally need to spell it out to them. Explain exactly what the new ruling says, explain what Project 2025 is, and explain how much money conservative Supreme Court justices are receiving from billionaires. You’ve got to talk to people one on one and continue explaining what’s happening

8. Eh… if it’s whether or not democracy is at stake, people have thought that a few times in the past as well. As was recently asked on r/askhistorians.

   https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/xVSwqAj0W1

9. I can’t believe that people thought January 6 wasn’t a sign of a dictator.

10. Newt. He still is a major scum bag.

11. Someone has to have already made this connection, but I can’t help but think of Nixon’s response to David Frost: “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

12. Yeah we may need to arm ourselves.

13. White Americans have never been here

14. Great video. Thanks for posting, I do have a quibble though. The historian claims that the voters have spoken, by casting their votes for Biden in the primary. And that’s a bit disingenuous.

    If the D’s had had an open primary, with their best electoral college talent running…

    There’s no evidence Biden would have garnered the most votes. Personally, I think it’s fair to say he wouldn’t have.

    Also the analogue to 1968 and that switching candidates doesn’t work… that’s also a bit disingenuous.

    The D’s would have won that election easily if Sirhan Sirhan didn’t kill RFK.

    Just wanted to chime in that the history of an unpopular 1 term president stepping down and making way for another candidate from his party to run… is not this “historically proven to fail” concept.

    And, again just me personally, I think it’s a an intelligent tactic if a party’s goal is, solely, winning the presidency. If that’s a party’s goal… there will be plenty of historical evidence that it is a – necessary – tactic (if it’s allowed to play out and that data established).

15. Her face tells me she’s a liberal

16. Yep

17. The immunity ruling is part of a two-pronged power grab by the judiciary. The reversal of Chevron was more consequential, and if it had come second people would realize what the combo means. The judiciary said lower courts have to give broad presumption of immunity. But that just means the SC gave the heavily stacked appellate and supreme courts total control over whether a president can be prosecuted. Combined with “only the courts can say whether a regulation counts” they gave two decisions in a row that looked like rebalancing powers of the branches heavily in favor of one of the other two. But both gave the Supreme Court the ability to fuck anyone’s shit up if it doesn’t fall in line with Federalist Society horseshit.

18. r/wearesofucked

19. The framers of the constitution wrote that they built the republic on a foundation of virtue. They expected it to collapse as soon as kindness, goodness, honesty, integrity, love, etc…, but primarily the virtue of placing the public good above one’s self interest, slipped from where it was at the time. Adams writes that commerce corrupts, working its way above selflessness to corrupt personal relationships as well as the nation. They seemed disappointed that they couldn’t come up with a system that didn’t require virtuous people to participate in good faith, but, report that they did their best. And, they were terrified of the alternative. For example, Washington would have just retired after the war, or his 1st term if he thought he could farm for a while without being interrupted by the sudden and rapid decline of the republic in less-virtuous hands. When he warns of political parties, the hinge is that they introduce opportunities for a degradation of virtues, a chance for people to elevate their self interest and narrow-mindedness, with people placing single issues, even valid ones, above the republic. And, none of them were particularly virtuous. But, they were serious about getting the constitution to work, considered it very carefully over a comparatively long period of discussion, and participated in good faith. And, they were generally pretty humble about their own extensive failings and shortcomings in the process and in their personal lives. And, that humility and persistence really paid off. And, maybe they were just lucky to get leaders who were as virtuous as they were. If there is a way to maintain a republic through a spell of morally corrupt people who place their self-interest above the common good, then we’d better find it soon.

20. Does this historian not know of the many insurrections this country has had

21. How does impeachment work if the president has immunity??

22. As a non American, it’s pretty crazy seeing all the pro America, July the 4th freedom posts on Twitter today. I didnt want to ruin peoples fun but really wanted to tell people your country literally became an autocracy over night, the goons just havent been put on the board yet.

23. America was here as a country, under King George.

24. And CNN is “helping” by reporting nonsense stories like, “Biden privately wants to give up” and “Biden decides he needs to go to bed by 8pm.”

    After they help Trump back into office, I hope they’re happy because they’re one of the first news media outlets that Trump is going to put behind bars.

25. Absolutely not true! We have been here as a country for along time. Here’s the truth about the Supreme Court’s ruling:

    [https://youtu.be/FM0tAVPEIFE?si=7CZB7w1Q7960sfoN](https://youtu.be/FM0tAVPEIFE?si=7CZB7w1Q7960sfoN)