Absentia wrote:I had a pleasant thought this morning: he might have avoided jail time, but at least the pardon is drawing lots of national attention to just how much of a piece of scum Arpaio is. And while I suspect the man himself is beyond the ability to feel shame, maybe the fear of having his dirty laundry all over the news will deter the next guy who wants to run his own little medieval fiefdom under the guise of law enforcement.
This kind of thing is really the core of what's kept me somewhat optimistic this year. Most of the time, Trump's actions themselves really do very little. They either fail, or they're essentially meaningless. The responses from the opposition, on the other hand, are fantastic. This goes back to literally day one. His refugee ban hardly did a thing (especially at first) to prevent immigration from those countries, but the loud, angry opposition had the wonderful effect of showing many in the Muslim world, who previously believed Americans hated Muslims, that Americans in general had no problem with them, and even considered dislike of them as un-American.
Same thing with the Paris climate treaty. What was essentially one more meaningless self-congratulatory circlejerk of national leaders all telling each other how much they were going to do for the environment, before going home and doing fuck-all, transformed into many countries and US states/cities not only starting on some of those climate goals, but (at least for now) planning to go above and beyond.
It's amazing what we can get done when we're all united in our overwhelming hatred of a man with a orange skin and hands so tiny he can't hold a comb.