From the beginning of his political career, Trump has been promoting violence to give credibility to his use of fear, which he sees as a powerful tool to get his way. Posting on his social page a photo created picture of Biden tied up in the back of a pickup truck with Trump's thumbs up in approval truly got attention on March 30. Those who ignore his threats of fear and violence, keep silent, and waive them off as just bloviating are his enablers. They also help unleash the unhinged violent actors and give them cover to carry out the threat on Trump's behalf. Even worse: He gives cover for others who normally would never let exhortation of violence to cross their tongues. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/tom-cotton-s-tweets-about-violence-against-protesters-are-alarming
Trump names and fingers the targets in public of who should be the victims of violence on his behalf, a presiding trial judge's daughter, for example, the day before the vile pickup truck meme. He stands by, or as on January 6, reveling in the TV images of violent acts committed under his banners for hours before calling them off. He calls them patriots and hostages he will release from jail if he gets re-elected. The head of the husband of a political opponent is bashed in with a hammer in his name, and his supporters laugh as he recounts that attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband. Violent acts committed in his name are not considered crimes, or they are ignored or become a joke, like the recent pickup truck meme. Fear his promise of revenge and retribution if he gets re-elected because he is not kidding, which means more power to a "strong leader" his followers hope he will be.
One indelible image comes from January 6 of an actual scaffold and hangman's noose standing by. Pence got the message, yet he bravely refused to perform the coup and will not support Trump in 2024, citing the threat of violence to which he was subjected and blaming Trump for it. Whichever it is. innate, nurtured, or naturally cunning, this country has never had such a person with this behavior profile in the Oval Office until now, and he is trying to get into power once again now that he has learned why and how he failed the first time.
Loyalty to Trump means fear of the consequences if you fail to show it in your words or deeds. Is he just kidding, snarling a threat? Is he just an angry, uncontrolled, unhinged mouth blowing off steam, or is he doing it intentionally to scare an official to behave a certain way or to back off holding himself, Trump, accountable for breaking the law? It is both, but it is more one of intent and conscious use of fear as a tool for power and support of violence that gives the threat credibility. Fear as a tool to better power was admitted to Bob Woodward in 2016 and reported by Woodward in his 2028 book "Fear," based on interviews with staff in the White House. He referenced Trump's statement that "Real power is, I don't even want to use the word, fear."
I particularly relate to threats of violence as a former election official myself. Trump and his minions are still perpetuating the big lie, and it has violent results. It fuels intimidation and attacks on our election processes. It is close to home in Colorado as our secretary of state felt it necessary to go public and the high profile given the recent ballot issue initiated by GOP and independent never-Trumpers. Here is what it means. It is an attack on democracy itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5iMjxrIN-8 Violent threats increase 600%, and she will not be intimidated. How many profiles of courage like that are out there? Jena Griswold Sees 600 Percent Spike in Threats Since Trump Challenge (rollingstone.com)
For his use of violence as a political tool in Trump's past, and documented, go to https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2020/08/trump-fans-flames-of-violence-yet-calls.html
Trump uses fear in another way. " Fear what I tell you to fear "even though you probably never met an immigrant, for example, or never was a victim of a crime committed by an immigrant. "You could be" is enough for the paranoid and those hateful of others to fear them. "They bring disease, will contaminate your blood, and rape your daughters. And they are so foreign they don't speak English or some language..." These are simple messages that appeal to those who do not indulge in thinking objectively or care about facts and data. (Violent crimes are down under Biden, for example, and cities filled with migrants actually have less crime) .https://www.thebulwark.com/p/biden-won-the-war-on-crime in general
The use of law and order to control his threatening, violence-supporting behavior has failed to keep him in check. Law and order are only respected if they serve their purpose. In MAGAland, killing Blue, who put up the resistance on Jan. 6 by those committing the violence on Trump's behalf, does not count as breaking the law. It just makes them patriots, not perps, in Trump's openly expressed view. Holding up the death of a cop at the hands of an immigrant means all immigrants are like that, so that is an example of fear of them and calls for more law and order.
Attempts to hold him accountable for inciting Jan.6 standing by for hours before calling them off are explained away to his followers with judges who rule against him because they hate Trump, are corrupt, are black women, family members are never Trumpers, etc".It is not just a life-long bully speaking and channeling others' support of violence. He is the instigator, and he knows there always will be those who will pull the trigger or deliver a threatening message in his name.
The kind of power wielded by Putin is so admired so often by Trump, and a knot of Putin-loving GOP House members needs to be firmly rejected in November. Democracy is at stake. It is not the soothing kind of dictatorship Orban has constructed in Hungary, the darling of CPAC and entertained last month in Mar-a-Lago by Trump himself. It is a violent one based on fear of retribution and the use of the executive branch and the Department of Justice as its weapon of implementation. Political violence is a Trump's approved and promoted tool of enforcement. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/whats-difference-between-orban.html It is closer to the Putin model, and alarming is Trump's attempt before the Supreme Court now to get total immunity for any crimes he committed or will commit while in office. It is that kind of a dictatorship for which he lusts. In his anger over his frustration in trying to overturn the 2020 election, he proposed to rewrite the Constitution. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4168261-trump-called-for-termination-of-parts-of-constitution-in-december/
Some personal notes:
I have to admit I have a particularly strong revulsion to dictatorships of any kind, fascist or communist. Few have ever had hands-on experience with dictatorship where fear of revenge or retribution backed up by actual physical violence or fear of it permeates all society, but take it from me, I have. Been there and done that firsthand. It not only affects high-level dissidents like Navalny, it dictates a way of life for ordinary people living daily, watching their tongue, scared to complain about wrongdoing, for fear their co-workers and neighbors will report them, and they will lose the next promotion at best, a backing for political office or a chance to become a medical student (as it happened to my husband to be when he was a student), or at worse, the knock on the door at night with government operatives searching for a long-gone family member (as experienced by my husband as a teenager). He knew they had the power to cart you off to "interrogation" and conduct a warrantless search while the paddy wagon waited outside. The rule of law or civil rights protections were nonexistent in practice, though they existed, useless, on paper. All arms of government power, legislative, judicial, executive, and police, were dedicated to Drug (Comrade) Tito, and positions were only filled with loyalists. It is not unlike the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/why-trump-only-needs-to-be-dictator-on.html Ideology is different, but the result is the same: control of the levers of power
A true story about how fear works and a true trauma. 1972, Yugoslavia, Split Airport. Dictator Tito was still following much of the Stalinist governing model, though moderating a bit, so we had taken a chance to visit my husband's mother, whom he had left behind nearly 15 years before, and introduce her to the grandchildren. He was an emigre from that dictator-run Communist country; we met in Berlin during my junior year abroad, and he was now a US citizen, an MD in private practice, residing in the US. As we were on the plane to leave after a happy visit, my husband was yanked off the plane with three wailing children, and an equally frightened me were left in their seats as our bags were searched on the tarmac. They found nothing threatening. Safely back in Italy, my husband had a nightmare in which the police gave him the choice of being shot in the front or in the back. Fear is a powerful emotion.
I fear in my soul that some ignorant fools want to trade democracy in for an "autocracy" as a way to get their agenda implemented.
https://siepr.stanford.edu/news/mythical-tie-between-immigration-and-crime
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/15/us/border-migrants-crime-cec/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trumps-claims-crime-rates-clash-police-data-rcna145353
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/after-four-futile-years-of-trying-to.html
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/trump-paul-pelosi-gop-18404812.php
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