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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 12, 2026

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"lock her up" was a presidential candidate. I am not sure who is saying "lock them all up and be grateful we aren't having them all industrially executed" (the SJ left is generally not too fond of gas chambers, I think). If it is Newsom, I will grant you that it is worse.

I am sure that some politician somewhere is saying that a Democrat administration will be going over the conduct of Trump's ICE with a very fine toothed comb, and prosecute any agents who violated any departmental regulations which were on the books at the time.

I do not see this as particularly bad. Trump is running the DoJ as a weapon against his enemies, so turnabout would be fair. Sadly, I am also convinced that it won't be happening. Having federal agents who enforce your ideas with impunity is useful to any administration, and establishing a precedent of them getting persecuted by subsequent administrations would end this. This is also why we will not see a court martial over the bombing of shipwrecked sailors.

I am sure that some politician somewhere is saying that a Democrat administration will be going over the conduct of Trump's ICE with a very fine toothed comb, and prosecute any agents who violated any departmental regulations which were on the books at the time.

With the same creative and novel legal theories they used against Trump, I'm sure. Going to be amazing watching the gerontocratic Dems "discover" that enforcing laws they themselves wrote and passed decades ago is domestic terrorism or something.

The most prominent example I'm aware of is Hakeem Jeffries calling ICE a lawless organization engaged in state violence, and vaguely threatening to prosecute them in what very much looks like an attempt to intimidate federal agents.

I haven't seen anything that extreme from real '28 Democrat contenders, but let me ask you this. Remember the clip about giving free healthcare to illegal aliens, where every single Dem candidate raised their hand? Imagine the following question: "If you win the 2028 election, will you commit to prosecuting the fascist Trump administration and it's supporters to a level comparable to the Nuremburg trials?"

Which 2028 Dem candidates do you think would say "no"?

Having federal agents who enforce your ideas with impunity is useful to any administration, and establishing a precedent of them getting persecuted by subsequent administrations would end this.

Which is exactly why I would expect the Dems to throw anything at the wall to force out, if not jail, every fed and ICE agents who supported Trump.

I do not see this as particularly bad. Trump is running the DoJ as a weapon against his enemies, so turnabout would be fair.

If turnabout is far, then what he's doing right now is fair, and any retaliation would just be a new aggression.

The way I see it, the Obama administration weaponized the DoJ to harm Trump. Biden (or whomever was calling the shots) certainly leaned on the DoJ to make sure that the J6 crowd was prosecuted harshly, without the leniency afforded to BLM rioters.

In his 2nd term, Trump doubled down on the politicization of the DoJ. Blanket pardons for all J6, withdrawing the security clearances of law firms who had offended him by representing his opponents (at least until they kissed his ring), starting an investigation into Good's wife (but not in the shooting), pardoning one Latin American president who was convicted of drug trafficking while at the same time kidnapping another one on likely much flimsier evidence of the same, pardoning people who bribed him by buying his shitcoin, etc pp.

I think that the politicization of the DoJ is bad no matter who is in charge, and I will grant you that the Dems started the circle, but clearly Trump drove it to new heights.

Are we just gonna skip over how Trump ended up with a mugshot being taken, and "muh 34 felonies"? If you're including pardons, why ignore Biden's signoff pardoning Faucci, his son, and a bunch of other people for anything they could have possibly been charged with, before any accusation was even made?

I think that the politicization of the DoJ is bad no matter who is in charge, and I will grant you that the Dems started the circle, but clearly Trump drove it to new heights.

That's a reasonable position, but I don't know if you can derive "turnabout is fair play" from it.