John F. Kennedy’s funeral, November 24, 1963. Less than five years later, Kennedy’s brother also will be dead. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
It’s all so predictable. As Democrats, liberals, and all responsible people hasten to condemn political violence, the worst type of Republicans rush in with yet more violent rhetoric to blame Democrats and liberals and thereby — knowingly and intentionally — to encourage more political violence, as they have been doing for years, because they understand very well who it is who benefits from chaos.
Though some Republicans did respond with the usual “thoughts and prayers” after gun violence, from others it was hell fire and damnation.
“Biden sent the orders,” said a Republican member of the U.S. House from Georgia. I cringe to imagine what other conspiracy theories are flooding right-wing social media right now.
J.D. Vance, who hopes to be Trump’s candidate for vice president and who obviously hopes to profit from what happened, said, “Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Frank Pavone, a right-wing activist and former Catholic priest, said, “We recall the words that President Trump always says to us: It’s not that they are coming after him,” Pavone said. “They are coming after us — all of us — he’s just standing in the way.”
We already were in a state of chaos because of the media’s feeding frenzy over Biden’s age and mental state. The powerful images from the Trump rally in Pennsylvania will amplify the MAGA lust for scapegoats and for retribution for their loss in 2020.
I have no idea where things stand now. In such a state of chaos, few things are predictable other than the likelihood that nothing good will come of it.
Trump already tried the Munich putsch, now he has his Reichstag fire.
Hi Chenda: Most Americans don’t know any history, which is a big reason we are where we are today. “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” I think, is one of the most important books ever written. I just finished watching an excellent six-part documentary on Netflix based on William Shirer’s book, with some amazing film from the period.
If only Americans could see that Trump’s methods are just the same as Hitler’s. The most benign thing I can say about Trump is that I don’t think he contemplates war (yet) and genocide (though some of his followers would love to be rid of certain kinds of people). I think what Trump wants (for now) is absolute power in an oligarchy in which all the resources of the U.S. could be divided up and exploited with impunity, as in Russia.
It’s clear that Trump is aligned with the global plan to kill off the democracies with a (no doubt temporary) alliance of authoritarian regimes. (Orban just came to visit Trump in Florida.) But such an alliance could never be stable with an authoritarian American oligarchy. If we imagine the United States going under, then it’s not hard to imagine what comes next — either Europe and Canada against the oligarchies, or the oligarchies turning against each other first. Canada is increasing its defense spending and seems to understand its role in the arctic, which will become hugely important in a warming world. Russia understands about the arctic, as do China, Finland, and Sweden.
One could easily imagine that the worst people in the world are thinking years and decades ahead, while most of us can barely summon the nerve to think beyond the next American election.
It’s behind a paywall, but I highly recommend a piece in the July Atlantic by my old friend Jonathan Rauch: “The World Is Realigning: An emerging Axis of Resistance confronts the Liberal Alliance.” Jonathan is too conservative; he puts too much faith in think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute that care about wealth rather than people. But mostly Jonathan gets it. It’s a scary time to be young, and maybe fortunately I’m not young anymore.
Chenda, one more thought. Anyone with a head for political calculus would realize that there would be nothing to be gained from assassinating Trump. We’re only days away from the Republican convention. With Trump Senior gone, the convention would be a coronation for Trump Junior, who is more reckless and ruthless even than Trump. Pure horror would follow.
I can only say I knew after I heard the news, the right would blame the left. When it was a registered republican boy of 20, with a rifle who missed and his head explodes by the retaliation of Trumps security service. Many memes are floating around, all sad, some true. I wish the 2nd Amendment had been erased before all the “patriots” decided it was their right to bear arms – of course the courts haven’t helped one bit, by upholding a vague right. Even though it happened many years ago, when my wife and I were visiting Scottsdale Arizona, I noticed many people in the restaurant all had sidearms attached to their bodies – I was curious to know why, but I then recalled my Maga brother quoting to me, how he has a gun ready when the time comes – what time?
Hi Henry: I’m sorry to hear that you have a MAGA brother. I hope he doesn’t troll you. A key part of the fascist playbook is keeping the population divided so that collectively people are weakened and manageable, with anyone who resists added to the list of scapegoats. It’s how they keep the wool over people’s eyes — by training people through propaganda to blame and fear each other (“They’re coming after us!” as that defrocked priest said) and to see right-wing power figures as their protectors and saviors. The suckers who fall for it hero-worship the very people who are exploiting them and destroying the social fabric. The propaganda conveniently instructs the suckers on the language and methods with which to harass the scapegoats, always prepping them to tolerate, and some of them to inflict, violence against the scapegoats. There is no effective way to deal with it other than to keep away from them. The cost to families and the social fabric is devastating. Several generations of American families and communities will never recover from the damage that Trump has already done. But of course you already know all this, as does any normal human being who has dealt with Trump’s suckers, or who has paid attention to history. Please pardon my going on like this, but my optimism about the survival of the American democracy just took a serious hit.
2 actually ☹️
Thanks for the recommendation David. I agree, and Trump will likely only benefit from this unfortunately.