# Predictions on election day related violence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 27, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858 "2016-10-27T16:52:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/21 "2016-10-27T21:45:55Z")
I don’t care to make any predictions, but just speaking for my current home state of Texas, if there’s going to be any violence, they’d better get after it. It appears that more than 10% of the electorate may have voted in the first two days of early voting. At this rate, there won’t be anyone left to harass by election day. I’m voting Saturday. If anyone tries anything with me, I’m fully prepared to give them a reproachful look. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/22 "2016-10-27T22:05:42Z")
I would expect a considerable amount of violence in the event that Trump is elected, and that it will continue sporadically for quite some time, possibly for his entire term in office. ---
**Author:** ![ThisIsTheEnd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thisistheend/32/4713_2.png) [@ThisIsTheEnd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisIsTheEnd)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/23 "2016-10-27T22:07:44Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I would expect a considerable amount of violence in the event that Trump is elected, and that it will continue sporadically for quite some time, possibly for his entire term in office. Well, he did say he’d bomb the shit out of them, so that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/24 "2016-10-27T22:10:18Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I would expect a considerable amount of violence in the event that Trump is elected, and that it will continue sporadically for quite some time, possibly for his entire term in office. I’ll treat this prediction with the same accuracy as your certainty that Trump would “wipe the floor” with Clinton during the debates. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/25 "2016-10-27T22:23:01Z")
Yes, let us hope I’m equally mistaken. 😉 However, 50-odd years of watching the behavior of impassioned/outraged left-wing do-gooders in high dudgeon gives me pause. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/26 "2016-10-27T22:36:54Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Yes, let us hope I’m equally mistaken. 😉 > > However, 50-odd years of watching the behavior of impassioned/outraged left-wing do-gooders in high dudgeon gives me pause. Did the Civil Rights murders, church bombings (and children killed), protesters brutalized by Sheriff Bull Connor, and the like, have a similar effect on you? When you first saw the hose, the dogs, and the batons turned on those peaceful black protesters, what did it make you think? Another way to ask this: in your opinion, was their more violence in the 60s by the liberals in the Civil Rights movement alongside MLK Jr. and John Lewis, or by the conservative Southerners who opposed them? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/27 "2016-10-27T22:42:25Z")
I assume that, regardless of the outcome, there will be little violence. Perhaps an isolated incident or two, but it will just be business as usual after the elections. Then again, I am generally regarded as an optimist. But I really don’t see any wide-scale violence. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/28 "2016-10-27T23:24:06Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Did the Civil Rights murders, church bombings (and children killed), protesters brutalized by Sheriff Bull Connor, and the like, have a similar effect on you? When you first saw the hose, the dogs, and the batons turned on those peaceful black protesters, what did it make you think? > > Another way to ask this: in your opinion, was their more violence in the 60s by the liberals in the Civil Rights movement alongside MLK Jr. and John Lewis, or by the conservative Southerners who opposed them? No, I have to admit my impressions aren’t based on having cherry picked a few instances from 50 years ago, and which were more societal in the main (i.e., Democrats and Republicans both participating) than political anyway. But lefties are all about revolution. And in order to achieve revolution you have to get people outraged over things. And to get them outraged over things you have to villainize the opposition and their supposed motives. And out of that outrage and manufactured villainy you get decades of angry protests, school administration buildings taken over, opposition speakers shouted down on campuses, people screamed and yelled at for expressing (or even appearing to express) non-policially correct words and attitudes, and more recently Trump supporters and their vehicles physically and violently attacked. Thus I have little doubt whatsoever that enough people have become convinced Trump is the second coming of Hitler, only worse, and that they’re going to be furious not only at him but at those who voted him into office, and being on the irrefutable side of goodness and light such as they are, violence will be seen on the part of a certain percentage as the only correct and proper response to such an outrageous turn of events, both because it’s deserved and because to do less would be unconscionable. But we shall see, Trump would have to be elected first ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/29 "2016-10-28T00:10:39Z")
Well, [Ammon Bundy found not-guilty](http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/10/judge_welcomes_new_juror_direc.html) so that disincentive gone. I mean, “Four of the seven defendants are charged with possessing guns in a federal facility.” and found not guilty of that. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/30 "2016-10-28T00:13:23Z")
Forget about what Trump’s supporters are saying. Trump himself says that he won’t accept the results if he loses, and Trump himself has encouraged violence from his supporters. There’s no _tu quoque_ answer to that. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/31 "2016-10-28T00:22:47Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > But lefties are all about revolution. And in order to achieve revolution you have to get people outraged over things. And to get them outraged over things you have to villainize the opposition and their supposed motives. You do realize that the exact same thing can be said about Trump supporters, right? I mean, surely you see the irony there, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/32 "2016-10-28T17:23:56Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I would expect a considerable amount of violence in the event that Trump is elected, and that it will continue sporadically for quite some time, possibly for his entire term in office. Do you mean by lefties? Do you think there was a considerable amount of lefty violence during the GWB era, or is Trump a special case? ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/33 "2016-10-28T17:33:59Z")
I think Trump is a special case (in this regard as in so many others). If you look at the links in post #11, and other stories of that sort, you’ll see there’s already been quite a lot of anti-Trump violence by lefties and I would assume that would have to magnify in the (unlikely) event Trump is actually elected. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/34 "2016-10-28T18:08:14Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Perhaps, but what cannot be denied is that the legitimacy of democratic institutions and the machinery of our political system are faced with a clear and present danger. That was 2000. You’re just now getting the ringing sound in your ear from the alarm bells? ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/35 "2016-10-28T18:20:35Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > And to get them outraged over things you have to villainize the opposition and their supposed motives. Enter the “alt-right,” a movement so well-organized it has no leaders, a philosophy so dark it has no books, a movement so confounding it has… a cartoon… frog… as a mascot??? My my my, those clever white supremacists! This is how they _get you_. But the nearly-perfect union of e-celeb nobodies representing nothing, and apparently invisible and indistinguishable racists lurking around every corner is definitely a surprising turn of events I didn’t see coming this year. > [@](#): > > And out of that outrage and manufactured villainy you get decades of angry protests, school administration buildings taken over, opposition speakers shouted down on campuses, people screamed and yelled at for expressing (or even appearing to express) non-policially correct words and attitudes, and more recently Trump supporters and their vehicles physically and violently attacked. By any means necessary, to hear some tell it. > [@](#): > > Thus I have little doubt whatsoever that enough people have become convinced Trump is the second coming of Hitler, only worse, and that they’re going to be furious not only at him but at those who voted him into office, and being on the irrefutable side of goodness and light such as they are, violence will be seen on the part of a certain percentage as the only correct and proper response to such an outrageous turn of events, both because it’s deserved and because to do less would be unconscionable. I disagree. These are petty criminals who can barely aspire to get out of bed at the same time every day, who think the height of political activism is running around stealing signs from people’s yards. When the election is over regardless of the winner they’ll go back to complaining on twitter, if it doesn’t go out of business in the meantime. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/36 "2016-10-29T02:28:43Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > The first link in the OP [from the “respectable” NY Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/us/politics/donald-trump-voters.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0), is complete and total bullshit! > It’s worse than Fox news. A front page article, full of bias designed to appeal to the emotions of the audience.In this case, the audience is liberals, who have a deep-seated need to hate conservatives…just like Fox news appeals to an audience who have a deep-seated need to hate Muslims… > > Not only is it sensationalist and emotional reporting, —but worse:the basic facts are wrong! > This isn’t reporting, it’s pure propaganda. > > The title of the article is “Some Trump voters warn of revolution if Clinton wins”. > That’s right, it says “revolution”!!! Ooooh,scary!!! Let’s demonize Trump and all his voters!!! > > But the rest of the article reports exactly the OPPOSITE. > Click on the link and read it carefully: > **Nine or ten Trump voters are interviewed, and _each and every one of them_ says “I’m not going to protest the election results”.** > But the NY Times can’t handle that concept, because Trump voters must be eeeevil. So the editors created a totally misleading title for the news article. > > **The people interviewed in the article ALL say that they will respect the vote results** (although , yes, they vaguely hint that maybe, just maybe, but they aren’t sure— somebody, somewhere, won’t be so complacent. But they have no idea who or where.) > \*\* > There are ZERO facts offered as evidence that there will be any type of violence whatsoever. > ZERO evidence.\*\* > And nothing that hints of the “Revolution” which the NY Times so desperately wants to invent for its readers. > > This is not just a terrible piece of journalism…it reveals a lot about the liberal mindset, which so desperately needs to set up a boogeyman to be afraid of,so that they can feel smug about their own superiority. > There will be no more violence on Nov 8 than on any other election day in recent history. > > But the Times will report it all , in vivid detail, on the front page. > Hide under you bed! Which article did you read? The statements I have bolded in your post are demonstrably false. > [@](#): > > Jared Halbrook, 25, of Green Bay, Wis., said that if Mr. Trump lost to Hillary Clinton, which he worried would happen through a stolen election, it could lead to “another Revolutionary War.” > > “People are going to march on the capitols,” said Mr. Halbrook, who works at a call center. “They’re going to do whatever needs to be done to get her out of office, because she does not belong there.” > > “If push comes to shove,” he added, and Mrs. Clinton “has to go by any means necessary, it will be done.” Holbrook says nothing about accepting the outcome of the election and predicts violence. > [@](#): > > “It’s not what I’m going to do, but I’m scared that the country is going to go into a riot,” said Roger Pillath, 75, a retired teacher from Coleman, Wis. “I’ve never seen the country so divided, just black and white — there’s no compromise whatsoever. The Clinton campaign says together we are stronger, but there’s no together. The country has never been so divided. I’m looking at revolution right now.” Pillath says nothing about accepting the outcome of the election and predicts violence. > [@](#): > > “You go through any neighborhood and see how many Trump signs there are and how many Hillary signs there are, and I guarantee you it’s not even going to be close,” said Bill Stelling, 44, of Jacksonville, Fla. “The only way they’ve done it is by rigging the election.” Stelling says nothing about accepting the outcome of the election. > [@](#): > > “Unfortunately, I’m not a man of vigilante violence,” said Richard Sabonjohn, 48, of Naples, Fla. “I’m more of a peaceful person. But I do think there will be a large amount of people that are terribly upset and may take matters into their own hands.” Sabonjohn says nothing about accepting the outcome of the election and predicts violence. Later in the piece, the reporters imply that the following speakers would accept the outcome… > [@](#): > > Even some of his supporters who say they would peacefully accept Mrs. Clinton as the next president fear that the nation will take a violent turn — especially if Mrs. Clinton tries to infringe on Second Amendment rights. But… > [@](#): > > But Mr. Swick, by his own estimation, also owns “north of 30 guns,” and he said Mrs. Clinton would have trouble if she tried to confiscate the nation’s constitutionally protected weapons. > > “If she comes after the guns, it’s going to be a rough, bumpy road,” Mr. Swick said. “I hope to God I never have to fire a round, but I won’t hesitate to. As a Christian, I want reformation. But sometimes reformation comes through bloodshed.” Threatening revolution. > [@](#): > > “I am not going to take my weapon to go out into the streets to protest an election I did not win,” Mr. Weegens said, “but I think that if certain events came about, a person would need to protect themselves, depending on where they lived, when your neighborhood goes up in flames.” Predicting violence. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/37 "2016-10-29T03:11:34Z")
Homeless woman tries to defend Trump’s new star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Mob assails her with vile language, orders her to leave (“Get yo’ ass outta here, bitch/muthafucka”), tears up her signs, trips her and makes her falls (maybe knocks her out), etc., etc. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njN75nJdCAk) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/38 "2016-10-29T03:30:49Z")
[quote=“Starving\_Artist, post:37, topic:769858”] Homeless woman tries to defend Trump’s new star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Mob assails her with vile language, orders her to leave (“Get yo’ ass outta here, bitch/muthafucka”), tears up her signs, trips her and makes her falls (maybe knocks her out), etc., etc. [/QUOTE] What was it her signs said, exactly? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/39 "2016-10-29T04:21:21Z")
What possible difference does it make? Have we at last reached the point in this country where free speech is an anachronism and it’s okay to assault people and destroy their property if they say things we don’t like? And would it still be okay if conservatives began to act that way too? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858/40 "2016-10-29T04:51:09Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What possible difference does it make? Have we at last reached the point in this country where free speech is an anachronism and it’s okay to assault people and destroy their property if they say things we don’t like? > > And would it still be okay if conservatives began to act that way too? _Begin_ to act that way? Nobody told me this was a joke thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-on-election-day-related-violence/769858.md?page=3)