Trump cheered
More openly fascist by the day:
A pro-Trump caravan of trucks drove into downtown Portland on Saturday to clash with Black Lives Matter protesters there, leaving one person, who was wearing the insignia of far-right group Patriot Prayer, dead.
Trump cheered on a caravan of his supporters that rolled into Portland on Saturday as “GREAT PATRIOTS,” even after video showed them driving into protesters, hurling tear gas and shooting them and a New York Times reporter with paintballs.
He did.
Horrifying. Why can’t he be arrested?
A) Because police tend towards conservatism themselves, biasing them towards conservatives; B) because the sustained fury and hysterics of conservatives successfully intimidated many of those that know better. Would be my guesses.
I read an analysis of modern American populist conservatism which emphasized its nostalgia for the “Old West.” Fueled in good part by depictions in movies and television shows, the frontier was idealized as a time when the average man was competent, self-reliant, religious, independent, and strong. There was no Big Government— and precious little government at all. Villains were dealt with through a vigilante justice system which relied on common sense and community. Women, children, and minorities knew their place. Life was clean and pure because they damn sure kept it that way.
This is, I think, an attempt to form a posse — ordinary men summoned by the Sheriff to enforce the law.
America is now only a few steps away from outright fascism. Not in the sense of political insult, but in fact a fascist form of government.
It is. It’s terrifying.
Sastra, the ironic thing about that image is that most settlers in the west relied on the government to maintain forts and send lawmen to protect them. In short, the vision is a movie vision, as you point out, not a real life vision. Real life was, of course, much messier.
@Holms,
These aren’t conservatives. They’re white supremacists. Biden is the actual conservative in this election.
@Sastra,
That sounds like Heather Cox Richardson.
@What a Maroon;
No; Kurt Andersen.
So a right winger got killed by a right winger. A good reason not to wave firearms around in a crowded area.
Following up on that: my gun nut bff says that what evidence there is looks like a professional shot by a protester in with the BLM folks. The “victim” has been arrested at one point for going to a protest with a concealed broken down longarm.
Sastra,
Got it. HCR makes a similar point.