Trump is firing up his followers with talk of how the election is rigged, the Media is engaged in a conspiracy against him, and Crooked Hillary and the Republican Establishment are in cahoots to steal the country away from the Real Americans, and put their foreign allies in place. “We have to do something to take our country back before its too late.”
This message is being showered on would-be Minutemen who collect military-style firearms and fantasize about defending the country from invaders, some even engaging in paramilitary clubs and militias. You’ve seen how these people can materialize out of nowhere, precipitating like ground fog in the tules. Remember the Nevada welfare cowboy, the gunmen taking over a government building because the Feds wouldn’t subsidize their ranching activities?
This fantasy has been around for years, and although its roots can be traced to fears of blacks coming to vent their revenge lust on white wimmen, the paranoia has now morphed into a self-righteous revolt against foreigners and communists invading the homeland with the help of treacherous Liberals, taking over its government, and now, implementing Sharia Law. They’re not just blowing up black churches and government buildings, gunning down abortionists or vandalizing synagogues and mosques, now they are legitimizing their violence by cloaking it in constitutional rectitude, patriotic indignation, free market fundamentalism and homeland defense. And now (how convenient!)they have a real self-defense excuse: a GOP campaign office was firebombed yesterday; although it is not clear if this was the result of left-wing crazies trying to start a fight, or right-wing wackos trying to gen up an excuse to mobilize. Not that it matters. Fighting in the streets, yet another Weimar Moment.
Don’t blame it all on Trump. The seeds were planted decades ago, in the fertile loam of sexual repression, race hatred, wackofundamentalism, economic decline, xenophobia and gun porn. Its a synergistic mix, and the Donald and his ilk are only cultivating a weed that’s run wild for years, but is now starting to spread like kudzu. Breitbart and swiftboating, redneck radio and Fox News, calls of “liar” during the State of the Union, birtherism and the Socialist, Kenyan, Uppity Muslim Makaka who had the audacity to get himself elected President, not once, but twice.
No don’t blame any of it on Trump. Blame it on all those Conservatives who knew better, who knew these yahoos were getting out of hand…and did nothing. THEY never believed the nonsense, but it worked just fine for them, thank you, for their trickle-down and their tax cuts and their privatization and their de-regulation. They looked the other way, winked and nudged, cleared their throats and tied their shoes while this poison was released on the land–all because they thought the idiots might just turn out to be useful. The beast is loose, now.
And they won’t stop at devouring Liberals, they’re already coming after YOU, the Gentlemen of Property.