Except what happens if/when Trump loses the election next year, declares the results invalid, and orders the armed forces and federal law enforcement to protect him from the attempted coup?
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I see an unofficial, “No Blood for Cheeto” rule probably exists even among the most ardent Trumpie. They are more than willing to commit violence against others using him as a pretext. We already have that going on with various “law enforcement” types (ICE, CPB). Because violence and abuse of others without consequences is a draw for miscreants and bullies.
But I don’t see or can picture people willing to give their lives or suffer in his name. His own inner circle is more than willing to dump him when it becomes inconvenient or personally hazardous.
The military loathes the guy and will look for ways to disobey his orders. They have always been creative at telling him to “get bent”.
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I think you’re talking about law enforcement types commiting violence under the cover of their jobs without “going rogue”.
Well, there are people that would. The hope is just that they’re sufficiently few in number or ability to organize others.
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“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
I would say more like a war of Independence. . .
Who are you suggesting would be fighting to be independent of whom?
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In that extreme scenario – which would require the leaders of the armed forces (who he has repeatedly screwed over and thrown under the bus) to obey his every whim without question of breaking federal law – I’m sure that some local backyard commandos who fetishize the 2nd Amendment’s ‘well regulated militia’ wording will see it as a call to arms.
But that’d be a far cry from a “civil war” and would require people to miss Fox News and crab-leg night at the Golden Corral buffet.
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Exactly. The ICE and CPB agents who are abusing people with support of a government deliberately looking the other way or encouraging violence as policy.
If he was willing to sacrifice himself, he would have tried to be a suicide bomber, not a mass shooter. He undoubtedly expected to be excused or defended by his fellow white supremacists.
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I dunno, man. I think we count on our institutions to kick in and return to some kind of status quo, and I’m just not at all sure the institutions and norms we’re counting on are up to the task. If Trump refuses to concede next year, we’re further into uncharted waters than we’ve been for 150 years, and none of us know how the military or police or any other faction will actually react.
To be clear, I don’t think actual violence in the streets is probable, but I think it’s much, much closer to being probable than I would have ever predicted ten years ago.
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I think you’re being a bit too optimistic about this guy. This wasn’t a cop figuring that he’d get away with shooting a suspect. It was a guy planning to assassinate political leaders, a crime with a pretty low likelihood of a faraway retirement, even when done while white.
For people who convince themselves they’re soldiers in a cause, “willing to die” or “willing to sacrifice themselves” doesn’t mean they’re into guaranteed suicide, it means they’re willing to be violent in their aims in a way they seriously risk death. That’s this guy.
My point is that the number of people willing to die for Trump is probably not zero, but is hopefully at lest as rare as guys like this.
You are absolutely right that people would treat him less seriously as a threat, in that I think he might be walking the streets right now. I just don’t think a person becoming a mass shooter thinks they’re not profoundly risking their life for their cause while doing it.
ETA: Hey! Looks like he’s still being held pre-trial. Good! : Link
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So, Yellowstone then?
Once they tear down those tyrannical gubmn’t signs stopping them from taking a dip in the lovely hotsprings, maybe a few of them will go for a dip. Man attempts illegal soak in Yellowstone acidic hot pool, is reduced to wallet and flip-flops - Boing Boing
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Most mass shooters don’t seriously risk death unless they are trying to get themselves killed in the first place. Its pretty easy for one to surrender when cops come. Some do. Most of the ones who don’t commit suicide at the scene end up being subdued prior to arrest.
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Hey, now, some of us in VA would not approve. I might remind you, we voted blue in 2016.
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OK, these guys are fuckstick-bananas, but still, I’m tempted to respond with logic…
And the Right has ZERO trust or respect for anything the left is doing. We see THEM as illegitimate too.
Believe “the left” is illegitimate all you want…what does that have to do with keeping Trump in office, or protecting him specifically from being impeached? Nobody is impeaching Trump for being right-wing, racist (though, come on, WTF?), a libertarian, or anything, just for being corrupt. Why get your powder wet for that bullshit?
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This guy (from his writings) thought he was going to war. I don’t think we can assume he thought he wasn’t putting his life at profound risk by plotting out how to assassinate political figures he considered “too powerful”. I think it points in the other direction. YMMV.
There are probably other guys like this one, and I hope they are absolutely rare.
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So you’re going to side-swipe a perfectly wonderful experience of eating as many crustaceans soaked in dreamy, dreamy butter to make a political point? Shame on you! Once the Trumpers started crowding my local Golden Corral I had to move over to Applebees just to avoid the red hats. What’s next? Am I going to have to slum it and hit the '99?
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WTF?
Virginia is on the good team now!
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This deserves some deconstruction. What are the right-wing-nutjobs so mad about? They hate everything left. Everything. All the inclusion of different people, free health care and college and a belief that government can be made to work for the good of all. They see it as a direct threat to their existence because they’ve been told, and believe, that corporations are god, and God himself has granted his power to Donald Trump. To them, the left represents everything they hate.
So, their hatred is what keeps Trump, specifically, in office.
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I apologize profusely. That was not a well versed comment.
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