If you haven’t seen it yet, make a point of reading through Tom Friedman’s powerful column in the NY Times (“Trump’s Wink Wink to ‘Second Amendment People’”).
Friedman gets right to the point, drawing parallels between the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and Trump’s comment seemingly inviting direct action by ‘Second Amendment People’ to stop what he referred to a Hillary Clinton’s intent to abolish the Second Amendment.
Seen in context of the Times video that compiled the violent racism and sexism of some Trump supporters at campaign rallies, this is dangerous and threatening language indeed.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin got assassinated.
His right-wing opponents just kept delegitimizing him as a “traitor” and “a Nazi” for wanting to make peace with the Palestinians and give back part of the Land of Israel. Of course, all is fair in politics, right? And they had God on their side, right? They weren’t actually telling anyone to assassinate Rabin. That would be horrible.
But there are always people down the line who don’t hear the caveats. They just hear the big message: The man is illegitimate, the man is a threat to the nation, the man is the equivalent of a Nazi war criminal. Well, you know what we do with people like that, don’t you? We kill them.
And that’s what the Jewish extremist Yigal Amir did to Rabin. Why not? He thought he had permission from a whole segment of Israel’s political class.
And this strikes another historical chord.
Some of you might remember the flyers circulated in Dallas, Texas, right before the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963.
According to an entry in Wikipedia:
This flyer, around 5,000 copies of which were distributed around Dallas in the days before President Kennedy’s November 22, 1963 visit, accused Kennedy of a range of offenses, from being “lax” on Communism, to “appointing anti-Christians to Federal office,” to lying to the American people about his personal life.
General Edwin A. Walker, a Texan who served in World War II and the Korean War, had resigned his Army post in 1961 after a Kennedy-ordered investigation found that he had violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity on the job, by distributing John Birch Society literature to his troops. Walker moved to Dallas and became a leader of right-wing activity in the city (more on the full range of that activity here). The ex-General led resistance to James Meredith’s 1962 enrollment at the University of Mississippi and unsuccessfully ran for the position of Texas governor.
So I’m with Friedman in the conclusion of his column:
People are playing with fire here, and there is no bigger flamethrower than Donald Trump. Forget politics; he is a disgusting human being. His children should be ashamed of him. I only pray that he is not simply defeated, but that he loses all 50 states so that the message goes out across the land — unambiguously, loud and clear: The likes of you should never come this way again.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The GOP plowed the ground for Trump, and now we all have to live with him and his hatred. God help us if he gets elected.
Poll Date Clinton (D) Trump (R) Spread
Bloomberg 8/5 – 8/8 50 44 Clinton +6
Economist/YouGov 8/6 – 8/9 48 41 Clinton +7
LA Times/USC 8/3 – 8/9 45 44 Clinton +1
NBC News/SM 8/1 – 8/7 51 41 Clinton +10
ABC News/Wash Post 8/1 – 8/4 50 42 Clinton +8
IBD/TIPP 7/29 – 8/4 46 39 Clinton +7
McClatchy/Marist 8/1 – 8/3 48 33 Clinton +15
NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 7/31 – 8/3 47 38 Clinton +9
FOX News 7/31 – 8/2 49 39 Clinton +10
Reuters/Ipsos 7/30 – 8/3 43 39 Clinton +4
CBS News 7/29 – 7/31 47 41 Clinton +6
CNN/ORC 7/29 – 7/31 52 43 Clinton +9
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html
CONSPIRACY! RIGGED! FRAUD! WHERE’S MY GUN! (picks up chair)
Clinton’s got this election in the bag, if the polls are correct. But that groundswell of support for her sure seems rather passive, judging the meager sized crowds that will attend her rallies. It’s gotten so bad that even liberal-friendly media have resorted to photoshopping and other optical tricks to hide sparsely attended events, like this one in Florida, exposed by Snopes.
http://www.snopes.com/2016/08/09/politics-sites-mismatched-clinton-rally-image-goes-viral/
Just a thought. Maybe write-ups that give people (esp. millenials who supported Bernie) reasons to vote for Hillary rather than articles that fear-monger over Trump would be more effective at energizing Clinton’s support base.
https://youtu.be/iy4Y1lrreBc
Or maybe, the sad truth is that you have no other argument to vote for Hillary other than being the lesser of two evils. I don’t know if that argument alone will be enough to sway those who believed in the Sanders revolution.
i think i posted this link before but i will post again. i like Sanders and he will remain an excellent Senator but his “revolution” is a flash in the pan, just like the Tea Party.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/25/the-democratic-convention-is-chaotic-the-democratic-base-isnt/
Hillary will win. the only question now: Will the Senate go Democrat? the GOP would implode. GOP certainly will keep the House but that’s like second servings at this point. GOP can kiss the Supreme Court goodbye if the Dems win back the Senate. which Berners should cheer, not obfuscate.
Thanks for sharing Ian – I had missed this article.
It makes my skin crawl.
In case y’all missed it, two other pieces that reflect the sorry state of politics today:
Read at least to “the harm he does is real” (and this ISN’T in reference to Trump).
My night out in Cleveland with the worst men on the internet by Laurie Penny
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/26/my-night-out-in-cleveland-with-the-worst-men-on-the-internet
– – –
“Trump’s campaign has already shown how much damage can be done by one man—and how easily extremism can be marketed, and accepted, as mainstream.”
Donald Trump and his followers could destroy America even if he loses by Sarah Kendzior
http://qz.com/751320/donald-trump-and-his-followers-could-destroy-america-even-if-he-loses/