“People are angry”
Trump is now openly inciting violence against news outlets, law enforcement, and Democrats.
At his rally on Thursday night in Indiana, President Trump unleashed his usual attacks on the news media, but he also added a refrain that should set off loud, clanging alarm bells. Trump didn’t simply castigate “fake news.” He also suggested the media is allied with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe — an alliance, he claimed, that is conspiring not just against Trump but also against his supporters.
“Today’s Democrat Party is held hostage by left-wing haters, angry mobs, deep-state radicals, establishment cronies and their fake-news allies,” Trump railed. “Our biggest obstacle and their greatest ally actually is the media.”
In case there is any doubt about what Trump meant by the “deep state” that is supposedly allied with the news media, Trump also lashed out at the FBI and the Justice Department, claiming that “people are angry” and threatening to personally “get involved.”
It’s who will rid me of this turbulent priest territory.
Robert D. Chain, who was arrested this week for allegedly threatening to murder journalists at the Boston Globe while mimicking Trump’s language, also connected Mueller’s investigation to the media. “You’re the enemy of the people, and we’re going to kill every f–––ing one of you,” Chain snarled into one employee’s voicemail, according to FBI documents. “Why don’t you call Mueller, maybe he can help you out.”
It’s weird, watching all this. It’s like watching Hitler in March 1933 except it’s different because there are more and stronger constraints on Trump than there were on Hitler. More and stronger, but not infinitely more and stronger. That’s what makes it weird to watch: I don’t feel the stark terror appropriate to watching Hitler in 1933, but at the same time I’m aware that there’s plenty of reason to feel that stark terror.
I’ll tell you one reason to feel calm there isn’t: any idea that Trump is fundamentally different and more innocuous. No, not at all; Trump is every bit the howling moral desert that Hitler was.
I would feel a whole lot more comfortable if those “more and stronger constraints” COUGHIMPEACHMENTCOUGH were actually being used.
Okay, I now have the name for my new rock band. Now I just have to learn to sing and play the guitar, and take vitamins to allow me to jump around the stage for two hours….
I don’t compare Trump to Hitler; I compare him to Franco. This is not a happy thing for those of us who despise the man, though–Franco stayed in power for decades, precisely because he was smart enough to not anger the whole world into attacking and cornering him in a bunker. Meanwhile, he committed purges and abuses of his people in the name of purifying Spain, largely unhindered.
Also, is it weird to anyone else that the ‘Deep State’ has gone so far as to include the FBI? When I first heard the term, it seemed to refer to mostly the NSA, the CIA and the DOD–the intelligence services who were assumed to be up to shenanigans. At the time, the FBI still had the Right’s approval as part of their fetishism of police power.
Actually, Freemage, I think Deep State originally referred more to the EPA, HUD, and anything else that tried to support the welfare of American citizens, many of whom were not white…or male…or straight…or born here…
My mind is well and truly boggled that the President of the United States of America is actually promoting the Deep State conspiracy. It’s almost as though he actually believes that there is such a beast, that he thought being president would automatically admit him as their leader, and he’s thoroughly pissed-off that he hasn’t been invited to join.
Next week: Trump adds unicorns to his ‘enemies of the state’ list because even though he asked Santa for one last year, he didn’t get one. Oh, and Santa’s on the list, too.
It’s like watching Hitler in March 1933 except it’s different because there are more and stronger constraints on Trump than there were on Hitler.
I’m sorry, but I never understand where that idea is coming from. Of course there are lots of differences, including that it seems rather unlikely that Trump would start a war of conquest against the rest of the planet even if he were made dictator for life and Trump’s advanced age at the start of his presidency. But how do the present day USA have lots of constraints on a president in a sense that the Weimar republic did not have on a chancellor?
Germany also had a constitution, division of powers, the usual stuff. But rules and customs evaporate once 30-40% of the population get serious about ignoring them and tearing them down. Meanwhile a US president can simply pardon anybody for any federal crime, like an absolute monarch from the 17th century. And from what I can see from outside they cannot be indicted while in office and there appear to be serious discussions that they may be able to commit crimes and then pardon themselves for that. Maybe it depends on what one is comparing against, but that does seem like a globally unique absence of legal constraint.