Prior to COVID, I thought Trump stood a good chance of being re-elected since I felt that the Democratic field was so weak. Post-COVID I was initially much more sanguine about the Democrats’ (now Biden/Harris’s) chances of defeating him because he bungled the response to the pandemic SO egregiously.
After the George Floyd protests, I felt at first that these protests would be helpful for mobilizing Democrats, as would Trump’s blatant and relentless pandering to police and to all the white Americans to whom police essentially represent one side of a battle where the other side consists of scary minorities. (No, not all supporters of the police think this way by any means, and I am in no way an advocate of “abolishing the police” or “all cops are bastards” but I recognize the truth of the situation.)
However, now that there has been prolonged civil unrest dragged out and now reaching what looks like a peak in Wisconsin, I’m seriously starting to worry. Wisconsin is a crucial swing state, but the fears of civil unrest, of burning buildings, of mobs of rioters throwing bricks, of everything that comes with severe civil unrest that necessitates calling in the National Guard, can be extrapolated to the industrial Midwest generally. As this continues to go on, I do feel that many potential Biden voters are going to be swayed into Trump voters because of how hard he plays up his “law and order” message.
This could not possibly be happening at a WORSE time for the country, and I am getting a horrible, sickening feeling - echoed each time I look at the news and see that the coverage of riots have pushed COVID, the Democrats’ big issue, out of the headlines - that we are going to have four more fucking years of you-know-who. I just can’t shake it.
I hope I’m dead wrong. Indeed I hope someone here can actually convince me of it, so I could sleep a little easier, give my nicotine vape a little break, get this goddamn ball of dread out of my stomach…that would be great. But I’m getting the feeling that it’s going to be a very nervewracking two months.
And the cops will keep killing unarmed black people to keep the civil unrest high so that white people stay in a state of fear and vote for the authoritarian to protect them.
We’ve already slid pretty far down the road towards totalitarianism, and it will take all the efforts of those of us who prefer a democratic form of government to preserve it.
Do what you can. Talk to your congresscritters and local office holders. Talk to your friends and neighbors. If there are demonstrations you can get to, join them, if only for a little bit, to show your support.
Donate what you can to campaigns or to advocacy groups.
If you do join in with demonstrations, do not engage in violence yourself, obviously, but work to avoid others doing so as well. If you see violence, document it and out the violent members of the demonstration.
Tensions are high, and not everyone who shows up to a demonstration is there to rationally state their case.
We are in a very precarious situation, but hope is not all lost, not yet.
These riots are happening under Trump’s watch, and Trumpian policies (confrontation, racism, and bluster) are making them worse. I suppose it’s possible that the catastrophically stupid could blame them on the Democrats, but this isn’t like 1968 – in '68, Nixon blamed the Democrats for riots happening with a Democrat in the White House. It doesn’t seem as likely to be effective for Trump to try and blame the Democrats for something that is happening under his watch, and that his rhetoric and actions are making worse.
Indeed. Of course this being America, it’s entirely possible that the riots will help mobilize more Trumpists, but it would be deeply ironic since Trump bears much of the responsibility for them. He’s emboldened the fascists and bigots in police departments the same way he’s emboldened a minority of them in Customs & Border Protection, ICE, and throughout the government where he’s installed his corrupt and zealous cronies. Quite a few other recent presidents have been divisive, but Trump, as with everything else he does, is so insane and completely over the top that he seems to be literally laying the groundwork for another civil war. And if that helps him stay in power (and out of jail), you can damn well bet he’ll be all for it.
Hey, that’s what has Don Lemon worried as well. Death, mayhem, millions of dollars of vandalism and arson damage, looting, disregard for other people’s safety and civil rights got him concerned? No. It’s poll numbers…
You must be missing Trump’s big campaign point. It’s Biden’s America where you’re going to have crime and riots and shootings and not be safe anymore.
But seriously, I don’t know how Trump and Co can keep describing everything that’s going on today, but call it Biden’s America.
If Trump has this magic ability to stop all the rioting, now would be a great time to use it.
At least Hitler had the decency to pretend that he wasn’t responsible for the Reichstag fire.
Trump is out pouring gasoline all over it, pointing out what a big magnificent fire it will be, and when he lights it, people will turn on the Democrats for blame.
More national guard? They’ve been deployed. I saw something today saying Trump is going to send the National Guard to Kenosha, WI. Our governor already called in 125 the first night and an additional 125 the second night.
I guess the question is, what is he saying he’ll do differently after the election that he can’t do now?
While I’m sure there’s no actual plan for anything, my fear is we’ll end up with a few hundred dead protesters after he’s a lame duck. He can’t have the moderates voting for Biden if he starts shooting people before the election.
Don’t forget the importance of the cops allowing right-wing people to commit lots of the violent acts. AFAICT, it’s mostly right-wing types committing the violence.
Yes, which seemed odd (this is all local to me). Between the mask mandate and the NG, I can’t imagine how much pressure he’s getting from both sides right now.
I’m puzzled why no leaders on the left are calling out the protestors to switch to non-violent MLKJ type protests and sit-ins. If they did you’d likely see the fence sitters start leaning left.
Instead, they try to justify the behavior. It looks bad.
The thing is, at this point I am not sure there is anything that Biden and Harris CAN DO to ameliorate the bad optics of the riots. I have doubts that any attempt they make to try to compartmentalize the violent rioting from the peaceful protesting will even DO anything to calm the fears of the white voters in the swing states.
Also, I’m starting to wonder if even the peaceful protestors aren’t being…I don’t know, kind of selfish for continuing to engage in protests that inevitably draw counterprotestors who inevitably escalate the tension, requiring further escalation from the police…don’t get me wrong, I am a supporter of BLM. I attended one of the major George Floyd protests myself. But now I feel like…the only way I can describe it is the same way I feel about the Bernie Sanders people. It’s like they’re putting their grievances ahead of the nation’s long-term well-being by holding protests that could potentially lead to violence that could potentially influence the election in Trump’s favor. I’m fully aware that most of the violence does not COME FROM BLM, it comes from either right-wing counterdemonstrators or from people rioting and causing chaos for its own sake, not in the name of the movement. But none of that shit would be happening at all if there were no protests to begin with.
I know it’s asking the impossible for people NOT to protest when something like the Blake incident in Wisconsin occurs, so I’m really not trying to issue some kind of ethical condemnation against the protest organizers. It’s more like the “devil on my shoulder” wants me to blame them. But if that’s how it is for someone like ME, how must it be for the many, many voters who are far less sympathetic to the protesters’ concerns?