The Legal Dictionary defines guilt by association as: "The idea that an individual is guilty of a crime simply because of his association with the person who actually committed it."
The dictionary traces the origin back to the mid-1500s.
The modern left defines guilt by association as anyone who supports President Trump.
Due to last week’s unrest there is now a GPS addition to the rule.
Anyone who supports Trump and was in or near the Capitol when the riot broke out is also guilty.
Guilt by association is different from being an accessory to a crime.
An accessory to a crime is someone that actively assists another in the commission of a crime. Police states under the misrule of Stalin and Hitler were great advocates of guilt by association.
Friends, relatives and even neighbors of an accused person were all rounded up and sent to the concentration camps to make sure no one escaped the authoritarian net.
Our modern left is enthusiastically using guilt by association to come after Trump, Trump supporters and Republicans in the wake of the Capitol riots hoping the public will mistakenly assume the accused are accessories.
That makes the exclusion and punishment (no camps, yet) appear to be just and the result of an identifiable offense.
That appears to be what Nancy Pelosi is hoping as she begins what RedState calls an "Insane gambit to expel GOP House members."
This is in addition to the warp speed impeachment she has going on a parallel track.
Pelosi is using the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to power the expel movement, "Pelosi is now looking at the 14th Amendment as a way to expel Republican members of the House for supposedly taking part in an 'insurrection.'"
The relevant part of the Amendment reads: "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress [who] shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
Pelosi either doesn’t know that the 14th Amendment was passed to grant citizenship to former slaves freed by the war Democrats caused. The "insurrection" referred to is the Civil War.
Her pretzel logic (an offense to pretzels everywhere) is that since President Trump questioned the ballot counting in the recent election, and Trump hosted a rally for supporters, and some of those supporters lost their mind and stormed the Capitol (the "Insurrection"), then any Republican member of the House who also expressed doubts about the fairness of the election is guilty of supporting an "insurrection."
In the interest of brevity, we will overlook the fact that if this had been a real "insurrection" the mob wouldn’t have given the Capitol back.Instead we will observe this is the latest effort by the left to turn a political disagreement into a crime.
And it’s not just politicians like Pelosi. Fellow corporate travelers like Citibank are now "pausing contributions" to House members who objected to the vote.
Something Citibank and the rest did not do in 2016 when Democrats objected.
Pelosi’s lunatic constitutional revenge fantasy is a literal dog whistle to corporations, academics, government at all levels and the media to actively go after Trump supporters by denying them jobs, reputations and access to the financial system.
This is authoritarian and its dangerous.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with addedhumor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.