The drama being played out in Chicago over the handling of the Jussie Smollett case gives us a good insight into the developing battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic party going into 2020. The fight in Chicago has very little to do with Mr. Smollett and everything to do with the internal battle between two factions of the progressive/socialist movement in the left-wing party.The prosecutors in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, who are from the Alexandrea Ocasio Cortez (AOC)/Green New Deal wing, are butting heads with the police leadership and Mayor Rahm Emanuel from the more “moderate” Clinton wing. Mayor Emanuel wants to see Smollett pay up to the tune of $130,000 to $390,000 for what is, in his opinion, a false report. Mr. Smollett’s intent will never be known as he cannot admit he filed a false police report, and after the plea deal worked, out never will.
The AOC Socialist hard-core left will not admit the attack never happened; indeed, Mr. Smollett’s attorney is now maintaining the attackers may have been the two Nigerian brothers named in the case while they were in white face makeup. The file has been sealed by the Cook County’s State’s Attorney’s Office, so the truth may not legally come out.
The truth of the report matters not a bit to the AOC wing, as they felt the assault COULD have happened and was very possible. They feel that all the Make America Great Again (MAGA) President Trump folks are a bunch of ignorant, racist, homophobic, toothless hicks who are all capable of such an attack. The Mayor Rahm Emanuel more mainstream wing of the Democratic party believe the MAGA folks could have committed the attack, but need some semblance of proof before they believe it.
The Cook County State’s Attorney Ms. Kim Fox recused herself until former First Lady Michelle Obama entered the case; Ms. Fox is now saying she never truly recused herself. Ms. Fox admitted to influencing the outcome of the plea deal only after her role was revealed.
This case boils down to the end justifying the means. The racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted, white folks who wear a MAGA hat could have done this crime, so it does not matter if it truly happened — they want to believe it so they do. They now have the technically legal ability ( after the legal coverup of the truth) to say it is a stone-cold fact, Mr. Smollett was attacked. Mr. Smollett was attacked by homophobic racists who hung a noose around his neck and made pro-Trump comments.Truth, facts? We don’t need no stinking facts, we have the law. If this does not scare you it should; using the law to legally claim something happened that never did, is not scary but terrifying.
According to the letter of the law and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, Mr. Smollett was attacked, a legal fact not to be debated. Once again, the end justifies the means and even if not true, it could be, so it has become a legal fact. Scary? You bet it is. Using the end justifies the means, the left came up with the assertion that President Trump is a Russian sleeper agent, an asinine thing to say, as asinine as Mr. Smollett was attacked by people in white face.
To a true believer the truth is fungible, the facts are malleable, the end justifies the means. The Democratic party needs to sort out just who and what they stand for. The extreme minority in the Democratic Party, the socialist left, are flexing their muscles. They are finding out that the media, charged by the Constitution to be the watch dogs of government, are becoming the attack dogs of the Cortez/Green New Deal wing of the government.
The media is over 90% in support of the Democrats and a large portion are radically left. To believe that the President is a Russian sleeper agent, Mr. Smollett was attacked by people in white face, and the Green new deal is logical makes a person a true zealot.
AB, through all this hype over Jussie Smollett, it never occurred to me that this was a left vs. right controversy. I have viewed it, sadly, as another lie vs. truth incident. You are totally correct that none of us will ever know all the details or what is true vs. fabricated. The one thing I feel fairly certain about is that a young, gay, black man is a troubled soul. Was he motivated by money (thinking he deserved to be paid more for his role on TV?), or a need for attention? Only he and a professional mental health counselor will ever know for sure. There is certainly an element of race involved, which creates the potential for inflammatory reaction to the disposition of the case in Chicago that has riled so many in their city government and police force
I choose to let this one slide into my file of “I don’t care.”
Ms. Mandaville,
It is not a left vs. right thing this is a left vs. further left thing.
Thank you for the comment.
Ms. Mandeville,
Certainly you cannot be this obtuse in your comment. Mr. Smollett, certainly a troubled person, described his attackers as MAGA hat wearing white men who attacked him verbally and physically, and put a noose around his neck and poured bleach over him. And you exclaim, it is a lie vs. truth situation and not a left vs. right — no political situation at all?
Your reasoning is devoid of any common-sense thinking. It was probably one of the biggest political statements of this young year of a liberal activist blaming supposed Trump supporters for the harm he said was done to him. The Chicago PD investigated and found two black men were involved in the ruse staged by Smollett.
If you don’t see the political implications in this, you really are naive.