Pardoning the Jan 6 Insurrectionists

So, what I'm about to say is something I'm sure most of you already know. But I wanted to lay it out explicitly anyway.

Trump pardoning the Jan 6 insurrectionists basically means Trump now has a private army which is above the law.

First, Trump himself is basically above the law. Both because of the supreme court ruling and because any future rulings on him going to the supreme court will be ruled on by a Republican majority including his own judges. And impeachment is basically off the table because he has such firm control over his party and the bar for that is too high.

But secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, Trump has now demonstrated to any of his potential followers that he will pardon them if they carry out his orders and violate the law. Even ones he doesn't personally know.

And, of course, there are many loyal Trump militias throughout the country.

In other words, Trump could literally order one of these militias to intimidate a politician or judge he doesn't like, and then pardon them. He likely couldn't be punished for giving the order, and the person doing it would probably feel like they could expect a pardon.

Maybe he wouldn't do that. The Jan 6 insurrectionists achieved almost mythical status among the right-wing and Trump doesn't care about average supporters, so maybe he'd let them rot. But it's at least just as plausible that he would do that and his supporters would believe he'd do that. And regardless, the point is, he can.

There's really no overstating how bad it is.