The GOP's "lock her up" chant isn't about winning. It's about delegitimizing Hillary's Presidency. [View all]

[Cali_Democrat]

Donald Trump completed his takeover of the GOP last night, officially securing the nomination — on an evening, fittingly enough, that was ostensibly about the economy but devolved at times into angry chants about throwing Hillary Clinton in prison.

Such talk is common among Republicans and GOP-aligned media elites, of course. Much of the time it’s mainly about supplying care and feeding to a GOP base. But this time, the chants of “lock her up” hinted at something more. Tellingly, they came amid increasing signs that Republicans think they are going to lose this election, which suggests that this might also represent an effort — perhaps only intended at this point in the dimmest of ways — to delegitimize Clinton’s presidency in advance, should she win.

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A variety of investigations have failed to produce evidence of criminal behavior on Clinton’s part. In the context of these “lock her up” chants, then, this sort of assent from the convention speakers (seen in a more subtle form from Christie last night) comes across as an effort to keep hope alive — hope that, if necessary, can be sustained into a Clinton presidency.

But the rub here is that Republicans might not be able to make the case that Clinton shouldn’t be elected without jumping the shark. The New York Times reports today that leading GOP stars are already eying the 2020 election, and are using the convention to position themselves for it to an unusual extent. Why? Because party leaders are “openly skeptical” that Trump can beat Clinton.

As Brian Beutler argues, you can draw a line directly from Trump’s birtherism about Obama to the “lock her up” chants about Clinton. Both are about denying the fundamental legitimacy of the opposition’s electoral victories, or electoral viability, or even political aspirations. In this case, though, the de-legitimization is taking place in advance of a Clinton victory that many Republicans themselves now believe is likely.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/07/20/the-gops-rousing-chant-on-a-night-about-the-economy-lock-her-up/