Donald Nieman, Binghamton University, State University of New York
By focusing on the facts, the public can avoid being distracted by baseless allegations about the Trump verdict that undermine institutions designed to ensure – not weaponize – justice.
The New York conviction of Trump is unlikely to end the legal saga, which could quickly be appealed and possibly rise to the level of the US Supreme Court.
Both sweeping immunity and overzealous prosecutions of former leaders can undermine democracy. But such prosecutions pose different risks for older democracies like the US than in younger ones.
The intersectionality of hate, which combines racism, antisemitism and misogyny, leads the white heterosexual male to believe that he is a victim of the “minorities” he must resist.
Closing arguments tell the jury why the evidence is believable or not, how the facts are linked or not and, most importantly, why their decision to either acquit or convict is moral and just.
Since 1992, Michigan voted reliably for Democratic presidential candidates. Then Donald Trump won the state in 2016, followed by Biden’s 2020 win in the state. Michigan is a ‘battleground state.’
Is Donald Trump the poster boy for the Dark Triad personality type? Or will his social bonds — if he has any — save him, and the world, from his worst instincts.
Ardent segregationist Lester Maddox became governor of Georgia after earning the admiration of white voters by refusing to integrate his chicken restaurant.
Professor in U.S. Politics and U.S. Foreign Relations at the United States Studies Centre and in the Discipline of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney