The deniability really isn’t all that plausible
Aaron Blake on Trump’s semi-veiled threats:
Trump’s public comments are often more strategic than his critics give him credit for. He will routinely suggest something without technically saying, “This is what I want.” And he will generally lather himself in plausible deniability. “It would be very bad” and “I hope they stay that way” allow him to say he doesn’t actually want this thing he’s hinting at to happen.
Not really. It’s so obvious that he’s lying that it’s probably worse for him to say it than not to say it. Nobody is dumb enough to think he means it when he says “I hope they stay that way.” He means it only in the sense that he hopes the threats will be sufficient.
But it’s clear from these comments, and the repetition of this formula, that he’s suggesting his supporters from the military, law enforcement and even bikers could be tempted to rise up if things don’t go Trump’s way. He’s at the very least toying with the idea that things could become violent.
In other words he’s threatening us with violence. Can we please not talk about it as if it were maybe slightly alarming but still normal? Even if he’s not likely to go through with it, even if he can’t go through with it however much he wants to, it’s still not normal. It’s not normal and it’s not ok. The fact that he muses aloud about the police and the military and biker gangs going to war against all of us who want him gone is not normal. Beware of what we get used to.
[E]ven if a coup seems patently ridiculous, that doesn’t mean there couldn’t be unrest, and it doesn’t mean that Trump isn’t proactively wielding that possibility for leverage against his opponents. Hinting that efforts to remove him from office — either via the 2020 election or impeachment — could be met with this kind of violence serves notice to his foes that they better play nice . . . and maybe investigators should back off.
The idea that anything like the scenes Trump is describing would ever happen is difficult to believe. But that’s not really the point. Musing about this kind of thing is a great way to plant a seed in certain people’s minds, and the fact that Trump keeps fertilizing that seed shouldn’t escape notice.
The fact that the president likes the idea of soldiers and bikers rioting against the populace is a grotesque horror.
He did the same thing before he was elected. “It’s a rigged election! If I lose, there’ll be violence!”
The only good thing to come out of this shitshow of a presidency is that lefty parties are going to move to the left and stop trying to win over the votes of conservatives, because there is no fucking point. Medicare for all, abolish guns, fair pay and employment, abortion rights, addressing pollution. Conservatives have well and truly shown who they are: and it’s appalling. There will be a massive turn to the left among conservatives who don’t want to be tarred with Trump’s brush.
I was just wondering if the section of society classed as “bikers” would inherently be Trump fans. A quick google shows there is a Bikers Against Trump Facebook group, so that’s reassuring. Many fine bikers on both sides, I suppose.
Catwhisperer, I do think a lot of people think of bikers as tough conservatives, which is interesting, since when I was young, bikers were often thought of the other way.
My father is (or was – I’m not sure with his back problems if he can ride his hog now) a member of a Christian biking group that used to counter-protest Westboro Baptist Church (though not until they began picketing military funerals; when they were only picketing gay funerals, he was down with that).
Catwhisperer, there is a Bikers for Trump group, he’s hosted them at the White House. A very middle class, middle-aged, clean-cut group of bikers they looked, too. Trump thinks they’re the real deal, though, bless his stupid, solitary little brain cell.
I grew up near the sea, and there were two ice cream shops in our part of town. One was very well known, more pricey, and to my young mind, a bit snobby. I might have been biased, I lived almost next door to the other until the age of 8 and it feels like it was part of my everyday life. Anyway. In the summer, the local Hell’s Angels would descend en masse on the posh place, on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. They would clog up the surrounding street and pavement with their bikes, occupy every seat, table, bench, whatever else they could perch on, and enjoy a nice bit of ice cream. That’s the image I get in my head whenever bikers are mentioned. It was hilarious and terrifying at the same time, like going into your kitchen to find a tiger lapping milk from a saucer.