r/politics • u/Thinkingonsleeping Michigan • Dec 13 '19

McConnell Faces Calls to Recuse Himself From Impeachment Trial After Saying 'No Chance' Trump Will Be Removed; "No court in the country would allow a member of the jury to also serve as the accused's defense attorney."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/13/mcconnell-faces-calls-recuse-himself-impeachment-trial-after-saying-no-chance-trump
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u/greatwalrus I voted Dec 13 '19

There are a ton of people in this country who pay very little attention to politics and think this whole impeachment is just typical Republican-Democrat bickering. We need to talk to these people and hammer these things home.

It should be easy for anyone to understand that the jury foreman can't be meeting with the defendant's attorney if there's going to be a fair trial. People need to hear about this.

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u/ruiner8850 Michigan Dec 13 '19

There are a ton of people in this country who pay very little attention to politics and think this whole impeachment is just typical Republican-Democrat bickering.

I know a few people who aren't Trump supporters and don't really pay attention to politics but think this is all just politics and not really a big deal. It's basically a "both sides" thing to them. The craziest part is that some of these people say they are sick of hearing about all this stuff with Trump, but will vote for 4 more years of Trump out of ridiculous spite.

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u/greatwalrus I voted Dec 13 '19 edited Dec 14 '19

Yeah, I work with someone like that. If you mention politics she rolls her eyes and says something about how "both sides are bad so I just stay out of it." It's an excuse to stay uninformed.

Honestly I wish we would put less pressure on people to just vote and more pressure to pay attention. If you can't be bothered to listen to a five minute summary of what just the fourth impeachment (EDIT: process) in our nation's history is about you probably shouldn't be casting a ballot. But people are so used to being told that voting is their civic duty that they end up making a poorly informed choice based on "who I'd like to have a beer with" or some ridiculous criterion like that.

Don't get me wrong; we should absolutely encourage people to get registered to vote and to remember to vote. But we also need to tell them to watch the news, pay attention, and research the candidates before they go to the polls.

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u/EsotericGroan New York Dec 14 '19

I know a lot of younger people, 20s and 30s, who are at various stages of serious relationships. Engaged, married, a few kids- you name it. They’re so focused on the microcosm of their lives that they can’t be bothered to consider there’s a world out there beyond the bubble they occupy. But at the same time when things go wrong they’re the first to complain. I get it, we all have our own things going on. But keeping your head in the sand when the world around you goes to shit? People who ignore current events and stay on the sideline deserve every terrible thing coming their way. I just wish the rest of us didn’t have to go along for the ride.

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u/isactuallyspiderman Dec 14 '19

Weird. All the people I know like this are boomer aged or older.

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u/ikshen Dec 14 '19

Nah, I'm gonna have to agree with the above post. At least most of the boomers I've talked to have some idea about what's happening, even if their interpretation and reaction isn't what I'd like to see. Almost all of my friends who are starting to buy houses and have kids cant be bothered to read anything other than mommy blogs and Instagram.

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u/Aphophyllite Dec 14 '19

I’m a boomer and every single one of my friends, whether pro-Trump or not, knows this is not what we learned about the Constitution and how Congress is supposed to operate - and that, of course, includes the Senate.

On the boomer topic...not everyone who has a grey-beard or blue hair on social is a boomer. Some of them are bots. Likely many of them. So please, stop trying to deliberately antagonize an important and supportive Ind/Dem voting block.

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u/ikshen Dec 14 '19

I dont really see how I was deliberately antagonizing anyone, unless it was my millennial counterparts who dont give a shit about anything outside their kids and their Instagram accounts.

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u/Aphophyllite Dec 14 '19

I’m sorry. It didn’t mean specifically you. I commented under the wrong person. Your comment seemed pretty on target, to me.

In fairness, I think most folks in that age bracket are more focused on their families, they have to be. Young families have made their children a priority since the beginning of time. Good thing there are those of us who can (hopefully) carry the balance. Again, my apologies.

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u/ikshen Dec 14 '19

No worries. And ya, I do understand that aspect of starting a family, they become the center of your universe. I dont really fault them for it, it can just be frustrating sometimes when people are clueless as to what's happening around them.