The God Trick: ‘In the Shadow of Justice’
Forgive me if I&#x27;m misunderstanding this particular philosophy outlined in the article...<p>It seems like the argument here is the exact kind of thing that has burned the Democratic Party in recent years.<p>The Democrats should &quot;play by the rules,&quot; treating others how they&#x27;d like to be treated, meanwhile the Republican Party continually demonstrates zero regard for norms that don&#x27;t necessarily exist in law, but are&#x2F;were a part of traditions in government. For example, what happened to the blue slip system? What happened with Merrick Garland? The Republican Party didn&#x27;t care that Supreme Court judges were traditionally elected with at least 60% confirmation vote in the Senate, and they certainly didn&#x27;t care that they were denying a Democratic President his right to appoint <i>any</i> judge.<p>In reality, the impeachment of Donald Trump happened because there was no downside for the Democrats. They knew that there was no chance of conviction, so there was no risk of the destabilization&#x2F;backlash that might happen if the President was actually removed from office. The upside was not only that Congress could subpoena for information, but also that the party could enjoy the political benefits of the impeachment proceedings. Arguably, it was a time-waster for the Trump administration. It aided the <i>perception</i> of those who might lean Democrat or might dislike Donald Trump that the Democratic Party was working to bring about change. In reality, the effort changed precisely nothing and had no far-reaching political consequences besides a few mild upsides for the Democratic Party (at least that I can see).<p>The situation reminds me of instances where vote trading happens, where the political parties strategically trade votes on issues they know either will or won&#x27;t pass. For example, a Democrat or Republican in a weak district might vote against the Party&#x27;s own initiative to give their constituents the perception that they aren&#x27;t really like the other members of their party. For a hypothetical example, you could have a Democratic congressperson in a red state vote against gun control legislation, while the hypothetical bill had no chance of failing due to other congresspeople in blue states voting for it.<p>The idea presented by this article works well for philosophers and intellectuals - but philosophers and intellectuals do not run our government, and politics have nothing to do with such things. It&#x27;s mostly about perception, vote-gathering, and fundraising. Truth and morals don&#x27;t play in at all, and the general populace isn&#x27;t thinking on this kind of deep level in the first place. The Impeachment of Donald Trump now feels like a lifetime ago, and, compared to other aspects of this Presidency, weird to say it but it&#x27;s a footnote.