Having watched a lot of the people in court, they don’t usually seem particularly political in any way that aligns with anything the rest of us understand.

The normal situation seems to be people who have exhausted all their second and third chances in life. They are facing punishment that they have no legitimate way out of, and they really, really, really look for any alternative.

It’s magical thinking in the same way where somebody with a totally dead phone keeps trying to turn it on because “I have to make this call therefore the phone must work.”