… with Donald Trump today coming close to suggesting Hillary Clinton should be shot.
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UD thinks it’s time to roll out the term Kafkaesque to describe what this nation will be going through until the beginning of November if the Republican party is unable to figure out a way to replace Trump as their candidate. We are experiencing, for the first time in our history, the presidential campaign of a person who exhibits signs of serious mental disturbance.
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Michael Hayden thinks the Secret Service should interview Trump; UD thinks instead that the relevant security outfit should interview his personal physician. Trump behaves like a person with an opioid dependency. (“He’s almost like someone with an addiction who can’t stop,” [one Republic political operative] said. “Until he gets help and admits it, he won’t be able to change.” — UD would suggest that he may indeed be a person with an addiction…)
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For anyone who cares about the future of American politics, the comment represents a dwindling commitment to politics itself, to the notion that, through rhetoric and competition, we might find a common way as a people. Instead, the Republican candidate made a casual nod to the final force of arms. At this stage, so little that Trump says shocks us, but, now and then, it is worth stepping back and regarding the full damage of it all: the wounds to our fading global image of openness and generosity; the stomping on our admiration for intelligence, eloquence, or honesty; and now the blithe contempt for safe and civil government.
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UD thanks Greg.
August 9th, 2016 at 4:36PM
Don’t waffle. He didn’t come close. He did suggest that Clinton should be shot.
August 9th, 2016 at 4:54PM
Total: I am waffling. I’m not sure why. Denial, probably. I’ll get over it.
August 9th, 2016 at 4:57PM
No great shock. He has been operating out of Fascist playbook from the beginning.
August 9th, 2016 at 4:58PM
He probably stayed just inside First Amendment protection as read by the Supreme Court in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1960). To be outside of such protection:
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“constitutional guarantees of free speech and free press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”
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“Imminent” and “likely” haven’t been fully fleshed out. But at least this should score him an interview with his friends from the J.E. Hoover Bldg. Though come to think about it maybe not. And in any other year, on this or any other planet, it would result in his removal from the nomination and politics. But it seems nothing is disqualifying for today’s core Republicans.
What will Paul Ryan, John McCain and the boys do now. Sometime in the mid-eighties my wife was working for a Democratic Senator. A Republican Senator, thinking he was leaving a committee hearing room, walked into a coat closet and closed the door. It was obvious, even to him, what he had just done. Everyone nearby was laughing. He just stayed there for a few minutes, thinking, I guess, things would improve. I wonder when, if ever, Ryan etc will walk out.
August 9th, 2016 at 9:05PM
I took him to be feeding into the militia-fantasy of armed revolt in general, so many rightwingnut choices to pick from…
August 9th, 2016 at 9:26PM
It was a conscious dog whistle, allowing him (im)plausible deniability. Contempt is the only possible response.
August 9th, 2016 at 9:27PM
Barney: Yes. Contempt.