He knows perfectly well who is to blame, but he's using the situation opportunistically to further his own career.
The issue isn't just that he's objectively and morally wrong, it's that most voters don't see through the grandstanding.
All they see - and all they want to see - is a rich old white dude punching down at some college-educated kid who thinks he's clever enough to have an opinion.
It's not obvious a jury will parse this any differently.
Although I'd hope someone like the EFF would turn up with some heavy hitter experts to add some friction to the self-serving bad take.
This is why it's hard to do politics. While everyone is fact-checking and getting outraged about the reality the political game is being played on a different level with different rules - by people who are often quite good at winning it.
>Although I'd hope someone like the EFF would turn up with some heavy hitter experts to add some friction to the self-serving bad take.
I think having "fact checkers" and "experts" debunk his claims will ultimately gain him support among his constituents. There's a sharp trend towards anti-expert, anti-intellectual sentiment that has assisted him throughout the pandemic, and there's no reason that I can see to believe that it won't serve him equally as well on this issue. We'll see, but I think this movement isn't something that will die out with the pandemic, but something that we will see permeate other areas of discourse.
Is it better to not assume malice, to an action that can perfectly be attributed to incompetence?
Should we assume that elected officials have software engineers on staff or on call? Or assume staffers with software engineering background exist.. in traditionally low-pay positions ("elected official liaison" or "advisor")
I have a strong feeling this will backfire spectacularly.
To any technical or even semi-technical person, the facts of this case are laughable. The Governor thinks that he can steamroll this case through, and is betting that most will not understand the underlying technical details and give into the fear mongering "hacking" narrative.
But the thing is, as soon as this goes to court, there is a 100% chance the EFF or another organization is going to step in. Once the defense can explain the layperson exactly what happened here, the governor is going to go from "protecting the people from hackers" to "dumbass trying to cover his own ass".
The Governor and his cabinet clearly think they have this one in the bag, but I think the EFF or another org is going to step in and hand his ass to him in court.
>> Once the defense can explain the layperson exactly what happened here, the governor is going to go from "protecting the people from hackers" to "dumbass trying to cover his own ass".
losing in court will just feed the GOP victim narrative. from a political standpoint, the Governor's ignorant aggression is a win-win. he can say he stood up to the liberal courts and the tech elite.
but then again, Trump often lies about his losses in courts, claims they were wins, and gets applause from his audience. the GOP is a counter-majoritarian party, which makes counterfactual statements inevitable.
This argument, which I at least partially agree is probably true, always bothered me. If they just want to have their name out in the public often, they just need to to strongly push for any solution. Here, he could have been loud and vocal about how the security of these sites is unacceptable and started handing out public awards to the person (people?) that found the issue.
The fact that one approach was chosen over the other suggests where is more to the reason.
Sure, but that would been one, maybe two press conferences about it.
For the topic to continue to get attention, it has to be rage inducing.
The alternative here would be to claim that the state was going to crack down and prosecute those in charge of building/managing the web site in question. Almost as ridiculous, but without the benefit of pursuing "the media".
Its standard GOP politics we've seen for the last 4 years. Use the legal system to bully people not to make you look incompetent. This is unique because he's using the criminal system and not the civil courts. How many people did Obama sue in office? Compare that to Trump who's gone after family members, the media, etc.
He knows perfectly well who is to blame, but he's using the situation opportunistically to further his own career.
The issue isn't just that he's objectively and morally wrong, it's that most voters don't see through the grandstanding.
All they see - and all they want to see - is a rich old white dude punching down at some college-educated kid who thinks he's clever enough to have an opinion.
It's not obvious a jury will parse this any differently.
Although I'd hope someone like the EFF would turn up with some heavy hitter experts to add some friction to the self-serving bad take.
This is why it's hard to do politics. While everyone is fact-checking and getting outraged about the reality the political game is being played on a different level with different rules - by people who are often quite good at winning it.