Trump taking it to the mob. Frenzying them, because they are gullible to Trump/Pence. Doing it via facilitating fellow travelers. Authoritarians unanimous.
The story is Pilate got political, putting his decision to mob decision. The Barabbas story. To free a man of peace or a troublesome provocateur?
That last link, somebody took the time to find eleven biblical Barabbas quotes, with the outcome not entirely worthless, a pair of favorites here at Crabgrass:
Matthew 27:20 --- But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death.
Mark 15:11--- But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask him to release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate had the Pharisees and the Sadducees to deal with, like two Houses of Congress, and the biblical story had him pliant with them via the mob more than with them directly. Adaptable, a go along to get along mongering step from the representative of the powers in Rome, with its own imperial belief set and conduct.
Neither Pilate nor Barabbas drove any money-changer from anybody's Temple.
Pilate was sort of like Bloomberg, representing Rome. But with Bloomberg the Roman move was to reject the insurrectionist, and the crowd was induced that way.
It is hard to keep a biblical analogy intact, as a template for current events. However, in surfing the web for trying to find a template, one interesting item was found, stating at its start:
"One of the most common statements from the "Religious Right" is that they want this country to "return to the 'Christian principles' on which it was founded". However, a little research into American history will show that this statement is at the very least misleading. The men responsible for building the foundation of the United States had little use for Christianity, and many were strongly opposed to it. They were men of The Enlightenment, not men of Christianity. They were Deists who did not believe the bible was historically true or scientifically accurate.
"When the Founders wrote the nation's Constitution, they specified that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." (Article 6, section 3) This provision was radical in its day-- giving equal citizenship to believers and non-believers alike. They wanted to ensure that no single religion could make the claim of being the official, national religion, such as England had. Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention religion, except in exclusionary terms. The words "Jesus Christ, Christianity, Bible, and God" are never mentioned in the Constitution-- not once.
"The Declaration of Independence gives us important insight into the opinions of the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the power of the government is derived from the governed. Up until that time, it was claimed that kings ruled nations by the authority of God. The Declaration was a radical departure from the idea of divine authority.
"The 1796 treaty with Tripoli states that the United States was "in no sense founded on the Christian religion" (see below). This was not an idle statement, meant to satisfy Muslims-- they believed it and meant it. This treaty was written under the presidency of George Washington and signed under the presidency of John Adams.
[... treaty text in accord]
"Most of the Founders were Deists, which is to say they thought the universe had a creator, but that he does not concern himself with the daily lives of humans, and does not directly communicate with humans, either by revelation or by sacred books. They spoke often of God, (Nature's God or the God of Nature), but this was not the God of the bible. They did not deny that there was a person called Jesus, and praised him for his benevolent teachings, but they flatly denied his divinity. Some people speculate that if Charles Darwin had lived a century earlier, the Founding Fathers would have had a basis for accepting naturalistic origins of life, and they would have been atheists. Most of them were stoutly opposed to the bible, and the teachings of Christianity in particular.
This is not the first "founders were Deists" reference found here, via the Internet, and readers are invited to do a websearch = founders constitution deists deism
That said, Nov 3 cannot come soon enough. The resounding 30 sec bullshit barrage will only become worse for TV mavens. Among readers, there is this, a critique beginning with the accompanying image:
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| Brand Commander in Chief |