I’m not the only one who made a mental connection between the terrorist attack on the Black Lives Matter protestors in Minneapolis and the tone of the Republican presidential campaign.
White supremacists are obviously already inclined towards hatred and violence, but in other ways they are just like anybody else. They’re suggestible. They can be incited. They can take cues from political leaders and feel as if those cues grant legitimacy to their beliefs and actions.
So, when a Black Lives Matter protester gets beaten down and choked at a Trump rally and called a nigger and a monkey, and the candidate (who also happens to be leading in the polls) says that he probably deserved this treatment, it certainly seems like it could influence a few white supremacists to show up armed at a Black Lives Matter rally looking for trouble. Sending out racist tweets only strengthens this impression.
It’s really a matter of leadership. Trump has chosen to be the leader of a group that has a lynch mob mentality. I don’t think there is any doubt that he’s been encouraging and condoning this kind of behavior, even if he hasn’t told anyone to start shooting people.
I doubt he cares that things escalated to this point in Minneapolis, but he ought to.
Regardless, he needs to be held accountable for his rhetoric.
The part that rattles me is how Trump pointed his finger and snapped “Get him the hell out of here”…and the crowd complied.
I mean, can you imagine any other politician or candidate ordering a crowd to do something? (Let alone having them comply?)
Who does he think he is? What’s going on here, anyway? He’s not “in charge.” It doesn’t work that way. Not in this country.
Wish you were correct, but apparently that is the way it works in this country, at least if it is GOP candidate doing such things.
Again, it’s about leadership. You order your followers to remove a protestor, they’ll probably do it.
This bit from the Post piece is particularly telling:
There is no question but that he is inciting violence. Of course he knows it. His political currency is racism, anger and fear.
This is what America has become. I feel a little like Cassandra, shouting about the creeping fascism for decades. And then it happens.
Yep, there are more and more admirers of Putin here every day. Fortunately they remain in the minority and hopefully will stay there.
That’s not what Bob in Portland was talking about. By redirecting the thread to Putin you deny his statement without refuting it. I support Putjn’s actions in Syria. Is that all right with you?
Political violence is always present with the rise of Rightwing folk/fascist movements. We will be no different; it’s in the DNA of these movements. They must intimidate to win.
Trump’s refusal to denounce the violence of his supporters–indeed, his incitement of violence by his racist tweets, for example–is just another parallel with Germany’s Hitler movement. As is the attempted killing of Black protesters, and the intimidation of armed “protesters” at mosques.
Social collapse is now occurring, and the weakness of our social fabric will clear for all to see. If the white tribe can’t dominate every aspect of society, they don’t want a United States of America.
When U6 was pushing 50%, U3 was at 25%, and there was no social safety net, and there was 300 lynchings a year. there was no revolution.
Why would there be one now? Facebook?
Several state houses were controlled by a terrorist organization numbering in the millions for several decades around the turn of the 20th century. An only reason why it wasn’t defined as a revolution is because in the sick minds of our stupid and putrid ancestors (and their sniveling, intellectually fragile descendants) this kind of thing was normal, even cherished, as long as the revolution was done in the name of cultural supremacy and didn’t bother the upper classes.
So add all this on top of the stagnant economy for those most susceptible to the social angst and you have an excellent stew for a (successful) fascist leader to finally emerge out of the “conservative” movement, IMO. This was the logical endpoint of their rhetoric.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/20/politics/donald-trump-immigration-boston-beating/
These Right wing leaders are oblivious to what havoc they create. They want to incite panic so their followers will follow them for protection from all the bad guys out there, but they don’t care that their followers will carry out their own violence. It’s not their problem.
The Republicans were happy when the Tea Party came along, excited by their take-charge attitude, their willingness to work hard and build up the party. It was easy for them then to ignore the monsters they created, until the monsters started winning their own elections and took power. Then the monsters started challenging Republicans and now their hare-brained candidates are winning. Look at Kentucky for that little ugly new monster as Governor.
It’s all about winning for them, winning at all costs. So they build up racism and bigotry, they promote torture and religious persecution, they make promises that in a sane world should never be kept. That in itself is loathesome, but what is more disgusting is that their believers will vote them in. And things will only get worse.
To openly pander to extremists gives one cause to question whether the man has a conscience.
“Extremists” are his base. Every politician, or wannabe politician, always panders to his/her base.
I’m not sure many politicians have much, if any, conscience as anyone of the left would defined “conscience.” If they did, all the New Deal regulations, including Glass-Steagall, would have been destroyed. And the US wouldn’t have invaded Iraq.
…..”would have been destroyed”?
Probably should’ve been “wouldn’t”.
“wouldn’t.”
I do try to avoid such errors, but the combination of weak typing skills, equivalently weak proofreading, and a slight bit of dyslexia means that they are all too common. I rely on the kindness of others here to know what I meant.
It need not be stated by anyone on that left that Trump is a loathsome demagogue; however, he is demonstrating how to lead a previously unorganized and unconsolidated mass of people. Doing so without deep or longstanding roots within these nutso US political factions and quickly being accepted not just as one of them but the leader they’ve been looking for. He’s not a politician that has to fear not winning the next election and therefore, it’s not his job to tell his supporters to “cool it” or behave civilly.
The only open question is the size of the nutso factions within the US body politic.
Billmon storify Trump + “Patriots” = fascism
“He’s not a politician that has to fear not winning the next election and therefore, it’s not his job to tell his supporters to “cool it” or behave civilly.”
Then by what you have stated above would this not also clearly bring out that it was “not his job” to encourage radical violent behavior also?
Only if he were a decent human being, which he isn’t.
However, I think you missed my point. Career politicians always have one eye on their next race, hoped for political appointment, and/or political legacy as they shoot for a higher office. Thus, they aren’t inclined to blatantly shoot for the moon as Trump is doing. If Trump loses, sobeit. He still has his job and money. Do Cruz and Rubio want a single bite at the big apple? Paul doesn’t want to jeopardize his Senate seat. The other consideration in choosing how extreme they can go is what the media can do to them if they so choose. Trump is getting away with the proverbial murder because he’s a media figure and is perceived to bring in media dollars. The others don’t have that sort of personal power.
All that has been described here by the comments as well are interesting.
Yet I have a few questions for you all.
If an Average Citizen was in a crowd and verbally condoned violent action against another or others by said crowd. Would not this average citizen at the very least be apprehended and charged for the actions the crowd did and several of the crowd members as well?
If the answer is yes. Then why are Politicians allowed to do it, for they are suppose to be servants of the people not above the people correct?
If no please enlighten.
Depends on if the incitement to violence was directed for or against TPTB and somewhat based on the degree of violence that is fomented.
As far as the U.S. is concerned? Depends on the political bearing of the average citizen and, more pertinently, the target of the violence.
Aaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnd the “F” word is now being, however cautiously, attached to The Donald in the media — by “conservatives”, no less:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/24/politics/donald-trump-fascism/index.html
Hitler campaigned on personal Will.
Indeed, Hitler believed passionately in the triumph of the will. Does The Donald? He certainly doesn’t seem to have any overarching political philosophy, as Der Fuehrer did, merely riding on the loathesomeness and hatred of his forerunner’s tactics.
Hitler was all about gaining power fueled by hate. There was no political philosophy. How is Trump different? Just trust him, he knows how to make America great again.
Hey, Germany circa 2015 is a great country, very modern near the top of the industrialised world …..
After Hitler’s Götterdämmerung was finished;
……………………………….
it just took a complete rebuild of the country to achieve this.
I must respectfully disagree. Hitler had a definite political philosophy, laid out at turgid length in “Mein Kampf”. Despicable, yes, and crazy in its insistence on the myth of Aryan supremacy and the need to cleanse the world of any taint upon it, but it was there.
The Wikipedia (I know) article on Hitler’s political views sums it up thus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Adolf_Hitler
Is Trump an authoritatian? Oh, yes. Is he a white supremacist? He’s certainly riding that pony into a lather, but that could easily be opportunism rather than a firm conviction. Does he have a vision of America congruent with Hitler’s Teutonic fantasy world? I suspect not, but could be wrong.
It will take a little more than Wikipedia to understand Hitler. Hitler was a lazy failed artist, stumbling into a political career only to make money. What he found was a more than hundred year old Thule Society pre-packaged with hatred of the Jewish people complete with all the symbols. You should try to read Mein Kampf because it is unreadable. While he did campaign on family values, the twenty five points he used for his campaign was utter nonsense. What he did find were former soldiers along with himself angry about the German surrender in World War I. The economy was in the toilet because of American and British bankers getting rich from war reparation payments, the real villain, something he never understood. He needed a target for blame so he chose Jews. He gathered around him a collection of right wing nut cases and just let them run wild with whatever they wanted to do including the holocaust. He got into power using his minority in the legislature to obstruct the formation of the parliamentary government until he was finally appointed Chancellor after three elections. German business was afraid of the Communist. Promising to make Germany great again, he was simply a charismatic opportunist politician riding a wave of hate and fear that had always been there. While he used it, he never believed any of that Aryan supremacy nonsense. That does not make a political philosophy but it can gain a great deal of power. After all that, he just made it up as he went along. I ask you, is that happening here with Trump or maybe Cruz leading it?
Actually, I did read Mein Kampf — but that was several decades ago, and it’s all mercifully faded from memory.
Very gingerly venturing towards the “F” wrt to Trump to test-market it. Problem is that one of test-marketers is backing Cruz who is no less a fascist than Trump and probably more dangerous because he has probably spent decades figuring out how to subvert all the legal impediments.
There are minuscule differences between Trump and everyone else in terms of policy.
What makes Trump effective and so beloved by the base, in comparison with everyone else, is that he’s the loud, obvious fascist of the bunch.
So when anyone asks why Trump is still leading or at the top of the polls, the answer is that the base want an authoritarian right-wing fascist to be in charge, and while the rest of the Republican field tries to hide it, Trump is loud and proud.
That’s the Republican base. It’s been nurtured by the fascist propagandists and the centrist enablers for the past 40+ years, and it’s out there.
Pointing it out to the fascist-loving base won’t matter, because of cognitive dissonance and projection. Either you see Trump for who he is, or you’re a brainwashed member of the Tribe who rub shit in their hair (h/t Driftglass).