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sulam | on: Trump wins presidency for second time
I don’t think the conviction’s effect on his support was lost on anyone who was paying attention. He was convicted for breaking the law by a jury of his peers. Should the case have been brought to trial? That’s debatable, but he clearly is a felon. Not the first felon to run a country, as it happens.

Btw I would argue the assassination attempt did far more for him than the felony conviction.

lolinder | parent
The assassination attempt certainly helped, but it just solidified his ability to cast himself as a victim. That started with the politically-motivated prosecutions.

> Should the case have been brought to trial? That’s debatable, but he clearly is a felon.

I do not believe that the case would have been brought to trial had he not been Donald Trump, and that's a major problem. We can't have selective enforcement of the laws against political opponents.

I voted KH anyway because I think Trump really is a terrible person, but speaking from inside a deep red state: it's hard to overstate how much his conviction riled up his base and persuaded moderates to flip.

sulam | root | parent | next
He’s far from the first person to have been tried for something that is unevenly enforced at best. Talk to any black men in your community, it happens all the time. More relevantly, prosecutors have to decide which cases to pursue and that calculation seems to often involves factors like the notoriety of the individual and the likelihood of obtaining a conviction. Famous people are routinely prosecuted for things that regular schmoes don’t even get arrested for. The latest example is probably Jason Kelce, being in the public eye means you get more legal scrutiny.

Btw I’m not saying I think this is particularly fair, but it’s been happening as long as we’ve had laws and likely will continue as long as we have some sense of privacy and humans running things.

It’s also not surprising to me that it amped up his supporters. As I said above it was completely predictable. Asking Alvin Bragg to think about the election when choosing whether or not to prosecute would be wrong whichever direction you think it should have been decided.

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Sohcahtoa82 | root | parent
> it's hard to overstate how much his conviction riled up his base and persuaded moderates to flip.

I don't buy it, tbh.

I truly do not think that is conviction gained him any votes. I just don't think it lost him any. Anybody that claims "I'm voting for him because he's being charged with crimes for political reasons" was already going to be voting for him to begin with.

Moderates that vote Trump are simply low-information voters.

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