Violent confrontations caused the campaign to cancel a Chicago rally at the last minute tonight. He’s trying to act like the reasonable person citing safety concerns, but Rachel Maddow has done a good job laying out how Trump himself has been the chief provocateur. Protesters at many rallies have been roughed up and now a reporter (Breitbart of all media) has filed a criminal assault complaint against his campaign manager. Trump supporters say they like him because he says what they are thinking. So in that spirit I will now say what I’m thinking – the only other people whom I remember having goons beating people up are Hitler and Mussolini (sorry, Godwin).
Obviously, we have nothing like that on our side and I’m proud that our candidates have been pretty civil, but in light of this I would like to issue my proposal to the BMG community that I often have during contested primaries. That is, let’s see if primary posts can be supportive of our chosen candidate rather than tearing down the other. There’s no question that either Clinton or Sanders will be worlds better than the GOP candidates, of which only Kasich IMO actually looks like a President. This country would have survived and has survived other GOP Presidents and candidates in my lifetime, but I have never felt so strongly that a likely GOP nominee CANNOT become President!
…he became officially scary for me in September when I attended a Trump event in Rochester, NH (maybe it was August) and someone a knew was getting punched and shoved after making critical comments about Trump…
Nope, things have been officially scary for a long time.
…but this is the first time it shut down an event.
…a criminal case could be made against Trump for speech inciting a riot, which I believe is considered a first amendment exception?
I’m not a legal scholar but isn’t that what the ‘Instigator-in-Chief’ is doing ?
Fred Rich LaRiccia
George W., Dick Cheney, John McCain, Sarah Palin and many others have made similar, and indeed even worse, statements than those made by Donald Trump. This has been going on for some time. The only difference is that Dubya, Cheney, McCain, Palin et al, said them only to supporters: they never addressed a crowd that had willing protesters in it. It has long been the practice of GOP candidates to screen protesters at the door.
Mitt Romney and his 47% proves that they’ll say even worse things behind closed doors…
That’s the only difference. Donald Trump has not bothered to screen protesters at the door. The meeting of pro-Trump and anti-Trump has enraged the pro-Trumpers beyond control: The focal point of visible (and righteous) protesters has unleashed the long smoldering anger of the whites who’ve been fed a steady, several decades long, diet of fear and smear.
In a way, this is a good thing. Not in and of itself, but good that solid and righteous Americans are still willing to launch themselves into dark places for freedom and show the rest of us what goes on there…
It gives me hope.
….that any of the names you mention ever used violent rhetoric direct against their opposition. I just can’t imagine Bush, McCain, or Romney telling anyone they’d like to punch someone in the face or winking and nodding that they would pay legal fees. Romney’s 47% remark was obtuse, but it wasn’t at all violent so hardly worse than what Trump is saying.