Photo: donaldjtrump.org
Donald Trump
After a six-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Dec. 18, 2020, described by legal advisers as “the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency,” few nonviolent Americans had any idea what Donald Trump was talking about when he issued a tweet at 1:42 in the morning inviting supporters to a Washington rally on Jan. 6: “Be there. Will be wild!”
But the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and other violent, armed militias around the country immediately knew exactly what Trump wanted from them.
Take it from Salty Cracker. That’s the online pseudonym for one of Trump’s most openly violent supporters. Salty immediately issued a call to arms to his compatriots: “Ya better understand something. Red wave, bitch. There’s gonna be a red wedding going down January 6th.”
For anyone not familiar with one of the bloodiest episodes of “Game of Thrones,” the one about turning a celebratory event into mass slaughter, the overexcited Mr. Cracker followed up with: “You better look out on January 6th. Kick that fucking door open, look down the street. There’re gonna be a million plus geeked up armed Americans” advancing on the Capitol.
Homicidal Rhetoric
In his presentation at last week’s hearing of the Jan. 6 Committee, Congressman Jamie Raskin said almost instantly “the online rhetoric turned openly homicidal and White nationalist, such as ‘Why don’t we just kill them, every last Democrat down to the last man, woman and child?’ and ‘It’s time for the day of the rope. White revolution is the only solution.’” Another said: “We know the rules of engagement. If you have enough people, you can push down any kind of a fence or a wall.”
On “thedonald.win,” an openly racist and antisemitic discussion forum, someone wrote: “I’m ready to die for my beliefs. Are you ready to die, police?” Another added: “Cops don’t have standing if they’re laying on the ground in a pool of their own blood.”
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The same forum promoted bringing body armor, bats, shields, handcuffs, zip ties, metal knuckles and other weapons. It offered maps of the tunnels under the Capitol and tips on targeting members of Congress.
American Carnage
From Dec. 19 through Jan. 6 Trump continued inflaming his violent supporters with lies that it was “statistically impossible” for him to have lost the election. Upset that morning when armed supporters were avoiding his speech because they knew the Secret Service would confiscate their weapons, Trump tried to order metal detectors removed so he could send the armed mob to stop Congress from certifying the election.
The Jan. 6 Committee has now made the direct link between Trump’s violent, hateful rhetoric throughout his presidency and its final bloody event as he was being evicted from the White House.
Raskin recalled the darkest, most violent image Trump used in his inaugural address—American carnage. “Although that turn of phrase explained little about our country before he took office, it turned out to be an excellent prophecy of what his rage would come to visit on our people,” Raskin said. “American carnage, that’s Donald Trump’s true legacy. His desire to overthrow the people’s election and seize the presidency interrupted the counting of Electoral College votes for the first time in American history, nearly toppled the constitutional order and brutalized hundreds and hundreds of people.”
Unfortunately, defeating Trump by the largest vote in American history hasn’t ended the threat to democracy from his violent supporters. We now know immediately after Trump’s failed attempt to overthrow democracy threatened their lives along with those of Democrats, Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy hoped their party was finally rid of Trump. But they’ve now decided they need Trump’s armed and dangerous supporters to win the midterm elections. They’ll worry about being murdered by their own party later.
What makes McConnell and McCarthy think it’s their party anymore? Most Republicans who showed any signs of intelligent life fled the party during Trump’s presidency. Trump continues to attract the looniest new batch of Republican candidates in captivity. Candidates who support any constitutional rights recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court since the 1800s need not apply.
That leaves it up to every intelligent American— Democrat, Republican or independent—who wants to continue living in a democracy to elect a much larger majority of decent human beings to the House and Senate.
It’s not difficult to tell which candidates those are. They’re anyone who supports voting rights, opposes the sale of military assault weapons to mass murderers and supports freedom for women to make their own decisions about their own bodies, their own health care and their own personal and professional lives.
Right now, Democrats are the only major political party supporting all those major issues most Americans care about. Republicans are welcome to rejoin our American democracy and accept the results of free and fair elections whenever their current geeked up armed madness runs its course.
