You're asking the wrong question. The real question is why Democrats won't acknowledge that prosecuting political opponents sets a dangerous precedent that Trump's now following. They opened this door with Manhattan and Georgia - now they're shocked he walked through it. This is what happens when you weaponize the justice system.

The GOP isn't outraged because this IS the point now. This has been the trajectory since 2016 - normalize corruption, consolidate power, redefine what's acceptable. Jan 6 wasn't a bug in Trump's movement; it was a feature. Anyone who's been paying attention knows that. The pardons aren't lawlessness to his supporters; they're rectifying what they see as a witch hunt. We're operating in two completely different realities, and I don't know how we come back from that.

The premise here assumes facts not in evidence. Trump's pardoning people he believes were wrongfully prosecuted for exercising their constitutional rights at a political rally. You can disagree with that interpretation, but it's not the same as the lawlessness the left engaged in during 2020 - actual arson, assault, and property destruction that went largely unpunished because prosecutors were too intimidated to pursue cases. Where was your outrage then? The double standard is exactly why GOP voters don't care about this. You've lost moral standing to lecture about lawlessness.

I keep seeing people compare this to Nixon, but we never actually let Nixon run again, did we? That was the guardrail. Now we've removed it, and we're surprised the guy's acting like a strongman. The GOP abandoned the rule of law the moment they decided Trump was more important than institutions. McConnell warned them. They didn't listen. This is what Republican capitulation looks like.

This is horrifying to watch as someone who grew up thinking America had stronger institutional safeguards than we apparently do. The pardons themselves might be legal, but they signal something catastrophic - that committing violence for a political cause is now a feature, not a bug. And the GOP's silence is the actual story. They've decided party loyalty matters more than democracy. That should terrify everyone, regardless of politics. We're in uncharted territory now.