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Comment by N_Lens | Hacker News Reader

This is not a 'both sides' issue to anyone paying attention to the facts.

I'm an outside observer (Not American) and I have to say that Republicans are on another level. If Obama had done 5% of what Trump & Republicans have done, he would have been physically crucified.

The Democrats are faulted for not being perfect and fixing all problems instantaneously. The bar for Republicans is in Hell.

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I generally feel similar to you most of the time when both sides stuff comes up but in this case I think you may be projecting based on other times this has come up in bad faith ways. Their claim wasn't that everyone is doing it equally just that it has been appealing enough to Democrats that they would also probably want to keep it. My good faith reading on the comment you are replying to is that it isn't trying to make an argument that democrats use it similarly.

Also a non-American but, when it comes to pardon power, both Democrats and Repiblicans have pardoned close friends and family members (Clinton his brother, Biden his son, for example) and the pardon of Mark Rich by Clinton and Edwin Cox by GWB both appear to have a smell of quid-pro-quo about them. Perhaps Obama stands out in recent history as a president that, while pardoning or commuting the sentences of some controversial people, didn’t seem to stoop as low as blanket/unconditiaonl pardons for family and associates, but this is more than just a Republican or a Trump problem.

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