Samuel Alito just stepped in it
On days like yesterday, I reluctantly turn on cable news in the background in case something major breaks. That included yesterday evening, during which time I couldn’t help notice that every primetime cable news show was following the same pattern. They talked about how the Trump trial verdict wasn’t in yet, and then quickly pivoted to how Trump’s allies are just going to spin a conviction into a conspiracy anyway, before moving on to absurdly lengthy segments about the Alito flag scandal.
It was obvious that these programs were expecting a Trump conviction yesterday, and they were planning to immediately pivot to how Trump’s conviction is somehow magically going to help him politically, and how we should all feel helpless outrage about Alito. Apparently the media’s next big doomsday narrative is that Alito’s upside down flag is somehow going to allow Trump to “get away with it all.”
But even as absurd as these cable news blocks were, they unwittingly touch on something that’s going to end up mattering. Up to now, Samuel Alito had been a nameless, faceless villain. No one, outside of those who follow politics closely, even knew his name. Even most of the people who are outraged at the Supreme Court over Roe v. Wade still had no idea who Alito was. After all, he’s not someone whose persona has been out there front and center for decades, like the ever-scandalous Clarence Thomas.
Samuel Alito has now become a very public figure, even among those Americans who don’t follow politics on a daily basis. Not because he’s a corrupt extremist monster and perverted weirdo who gets off on taking Americans’ basic rights away, but because he was stupid enough to flaunt it with a flag. Alito’s big mistake is that if you want to get away with corruption, you’re supposed to stay just under the radar, not literally put a flag over your head to signify the corruption you’re committing.
This means that the Democratic Party and liberal activists everywhere can (and will) use Alito as a rallying cry in this election cycle. The Senate will hold high profile televised hearings about Alito, whether he participates or not. And while those hearings will start off with the superficial flag scandal, they’ll quickly pivot to the real problem with Alito: he’s a psychotic extremist.
