Ok, BG but did Nixon ever extol political violence as Trump does with his supporters during rallies? Huh? Did he?
As much of a Mussolini impersonator Trump is, Nixon in fact encourage hippie punching in a fairly literal way. Elizabeth Drew, 3/9/2016: [INDENT]it was Richard Nixon in 1968 who enshrined it in a doctrine, the “Southern Strategy,” which he aimed at blue-collar workers as well as Southern whites. Nixon dubbed these people “the silent majority,” including in particular people who weren’t demonstrating against the Vietnam War. But the term came to stand for a more amorphous collection of people described as “going about their own business” and not demanding government handouts—unlike the you-know-who’s.
The silent majority wasn’t just anti-black, it was one side in a class war against people of more privilege, mainly kids of college age and their weakling, leftist professors—as Nixon saw it. (As it happens, wages were stagnating then, as they are now.) This came to a head in 1970, during a hard-fought midterm election in which, like now, control of the Senate was at stake. In May, construction workers were encouraged by the Nixon White House to beat up anti-war demonstrators in lower Manhattan. Afterward, Nixon was presented with a hard hat, symbol of the construction workers, by the union president, Peter Brennan, whom he later made secretary of labor. How Did This Happen? | Elizabeth Drew | The New York Review of Books [/INDENT] Trump remembers Nixon.
I think the Trump campaign violence deserves its own thread by now. This is truly sickening. I hope the guy in NC gets prison time for this- maybe for assault with a scrawny weapon. I know all of followers aren’t fascist sociopaths, just those that come in contact with protesters. Incredibly, instead of condemning the violence he says it’s justified.
Trump just had to cancel a rally in Chicago, right before it was supposed to start. Protesters showed up and things started getting heated between them and the Trump crowd. CNN is showing it right now.
Well, I don’t know about that. Given the number of protesters inside the arena, there’s no way Trump could have held that rally without it descending into chaos.
Apparently a rally in St. Louis earlier today saw similar disruptions, with 32 or so arrested. Not sure of the proportion protester/Trumpites.
As some commentators are saying, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for Trump to run these things the way he prefers, going forward. He might still have chance if he can somehow dredge some hint of diplomacy out of his bloated carcass and get folks to cool down, but given his penchant for extinguishing fires with gasoline, I’m not optimistic.
Unfortunately, I’m beginning to think it’s only a matter of time before a fatality or two occurs.
I’m honestly torn over this. On one hand, the Trumpers need to see just how much the rest of us hate them and their vile racism and bigotry. On the other hand, I don’t want to cede the moral high ground and let them claim victimhood. Plus, this has the potential to get way out of control and somebody is going to get killed.
I think this will be the new normal- people will organize before his rallies in major cities and disrupt his events. I believe the prudent thing for him to do is scale back the size of his rallies to much smaller venues.
Naturally, as the rallies continue to draw protests from multiple sides, the Trump supporters will need a way to reliably identify those who are on their side. Something easily visible in a crowd. Something the supporters can get themselves before coming to the rally. Some kind of improvised uniform. Maybe just a shirt to keep it simple.