The violence at the Trump rallies in Chicago and other places on Saturday night were reminiscent of many other rallies that we have seen over the years, but in each case there are significant differences. In Chicago in 1968 the protestors were howling against an illegal, ill-conceived war, not against any one candidate. In Berlin in 1937 the protestors were screaming against a potential dictator and a demagogue who wanted to: ‘Make Germany great again,” but who left it in ashes. Both bear sinister similarities to what happened in Chicago and other locations across the country where Donald Trump has brought his message of hate.
How did this happen in the United States in 2016? Why does it only happen at Trump rallies? Will it continue? Will it escalate? Unfortunately I don’t have a crystal ball but watching the demographic of the latest crowds entering the venues where Trump extolls his tale of bigotry, misogyny and hatred tat violence is almost an “out bet” to eventually explode again and much more seriously.
Let me be clear, the above statement is based n two very important elements. One is the crowd itself, made of more and more of young people, not the former middle-aged much less volatile gaggle of geese. The Chicago group was young and very volatile. They showed by their body language that they were looking for a fight.
Where does it all come from? There is only one viable answer. From Trump himself. Every ounce of bile that spews from his twisted maw, is aimed at continuing the violence and at encouraging more. Trump’s positive reaction to the asshole in North Carolina that sucker punched a protestor being led from the arena, is typical of all his remarks; claiming the kid had it coming and that he would pay the legal bills for the cowardly freak who punched a helpless kid.
Why is it we don’t see this kind of behavior at the rallies of the other candidates, those on either side? Sure there are protestors at these rallies but they don’t elicit violent reactions the way they do at Trump rallies. Maybe it’s because the other candidates don’t hire gangs of thugs as their security. Trump established this protocol at an early rally where a well-known and respected Hispanic reporter challenged him on his immigration plans. The reporter was roughed up and forced out of the room by a huge thug who actually put his hands on the reporter who was half his size.
It was a move that screamed for a felony arrest but nothing happened. It is Trump, just like it was Adolph Hitler, who is the heart, the soul and the driving force of this violence. For a coward who ran from the draft he is a very violent man. He would be a very violent President and with him in the White House this would be an even more violent nation.
Although I am not a Marco Rubio fan I have to acknowledge that he gave the best interview of his career the day he exposed Trump and his wrong-headed approach to addressing his supporters as being bad for his Party and worse for the country. Rubio was explicit and dead right when he spoke to the dangers of a candidate who supports violence in his fans and then lies about it. Rubio’s main point was that words have consequences and someone who wants to be President has to understand this and conduct himself accordingly, He makes the hard point that Trump has never done this, that he has tapped into a boiling anger in his constituency and fanned that anger for political gain.
Instead of taking the anger of his followers and trying to transform it into hope, Trump, like Adolph Hitler, has fanned it into violence, to use against anyone who isn’t him.. Instead of looking to be inclusive, Trump has been the epitome of divisive. He says he isn’t but he lies… and badly. Remember, anger is not a plan.
Rubio had the guts to go after the media for their soap selling journalism. Rubio pointed out for months, that no one paid any attention to the plans he spoke about to govern, but that as soon as he came after Trump on a personal level all the media gave him more coverage than they ever had before, simply because it was good for their advertising quote. Rubio was right about everything he said in this interview. This blog normally doesn’t agree with anything Rubio says but now that his campaign is almost shot it seems that he has found the guts and intelligence to speak the truth. His remarks are appreciated.