Why Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders draw so much support:
We cannot get Hillary Rodham Clinton in handcuffs. We can get James Meyers in handcuffs, though, no problem. ...
Meyers, a North Carolina man, rented a copy of Freddy Got Fingered, a very stupid movie made by Tom Greene. Bad taste is not a crime. But apparently failing to return a copy of Freddy Got Fingered is a crime, if you let it go long enough. The video-rental company, long defunct, had filed a complaint against Meyers. Under state law, failure to return rented property is a criminal misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $200. Meyers had gone about his life blissfully unaware that any such case had been brought against him, until he was pulled over dropping his daughter off at school with a defective brake light. The officer citing him for the traffic violation had the good sense not to slap the cuffs on Meyers — he’ll probably be disciplined for that — but when Meyers came to the police station to sort things out, he was handcuffed and arrested.
How is it even possible that the statute of limitations hasn't expired on such a trivial matter?
If you can wrap your head around the notion that this is something to be arrested for in the first place.
Hillary Clinton has squadrons of lawyers to tie the legal process up in court and bully accusers into silence or humiliation. That's One Percent Privilege, if the Left wants to really look at it closely given how many of the wealthy support Democrats.
And Mr. Meyers was arrested. For a video tape.
At this point parents should be consulted to explain what those were. (And yes, I'm old enough to remember renting a big red VCR to watch one of those tapes.)
We'll see if the publicity prevents Mr. Meyers from being ground through the gears of mindless "justice" that others without the money to resist would be subjected to.
I wonder if this arrest is related to this news from North Carolina that will have police citing drivers for going even one mile per hour over a speed limit?
So Meyers might be the victim of a too-big government desperate to squeeze revenue for anyone that runs afoul of the most trivial offense.
And so another Sanders or Trump voter is quite naturally born. Who can blame them?
UPDATE: Why my ire is focused on Trump (yes, he's a clown) and not his supporters--so many of Trump's enemies are clowns, too, and hateful:
When it comes down to it, the anti-Trump protesters think his supporters are either racist, or plain stupid. ‘People who support Trump are uneducated’, said postgrad student Sally. ‘They don’t have broad minds about what’s going on. I think it’s intelligence.’
For all the talk of ‘making America hate again’, the people who were really being smeared or scapegoated at this rally were Trump supporters – working-class voters who dare to support someone who strays from the PC-politico script. Indeed, the only harsh words thrown at immigrants emanated from the designated free-speech area: as a group of Latin-American men walked past, heading to the rally, a gaggle of college students screamed ‘You’re on the wrong side!’.
There are plenty of reasons to dislike Donald Trump. He’s a crass opportunist, who, for all his talk of sticking it to the freedom-squishing status quo, has more than his fair share of authoritarian tendencies. But this protest in a sleepy New York suburb, and the wretching that Trump has sparked among the cosmopolitan classes nationwide, isn’t really about him. It’s about his supporters: the dumb rednecks who, Sally and Co tell us, know not what they do.
Trump may not go the distance at the Republican convention in July, but this fear and loathing of the masses is here to stay.
Tip to Instapundit.
Trump's supporters have a reason to be mad. I sympathize with their worries and their desire to stick it to those who've ignored the problems.
I just wish they'd picked a better candidate to do something about that rather than a man who hasn't a clue about governing.
And yes, that sentence went two words too long.
But that failure to respond to the worries that fuel Trump is an indictment of the leadership class, too.
UPDATE: Related. It may not be quite sane to think Trump is the solution, but it is very sane to believe that doing the same things that got us here again and again (and more!) will finally work.
UPDATE: This (via the Instapundit Borg) is late but related:
A judge told a Michigan couple they could land in jail for up to 93 days and face a maximum $500 fine for failing to return a novel and a Dr. Seuss book borrowed from the local public library.
Cathy and Melvin Duren of Tecumseh, Michigan, appeared in Lenawee County court on Thursday to each face a misdemeanor charge of failure to return rental property. They owe about $35 in late fees for “The Rome Prophecy,” borrowed in April 2015. They lost a Dr. Seuss book their teenage son borrowed for their granddaughter in July 2014. ...
Although the couple admitted they were negligent in returning the books, they think it’s unfair to each be charged a $105 “diversion fee” to the Lenawee County Economic Crimes Unit in addition to fines owed to the Tecumseh Public Library, WXYZ-TV reported.
Fees on top of penalties for the actual violation to fund the criminal justice system.
How is that fair?
