How Grump and MAGA Increase Political Violence

How Fear and Menace Are Transforming Politics, NY Times

Here's a story primarily about the alarming increase in political violence and threats of political violence spearheaded by Trump and his violent fascist MAGA minions but you'd never know that by the headline or sub-heading or by the bothsidesing gestures sprinkled throughout. 

It's a simple story, really. We're experiencing a shocking uptick in political violence or threats of political violence nearly all coming from Trump and the conservative right. If you don't want more political violence then don't vote for Trump or a Republican until he is gone and they, as a party, return to the human family and American democracy and condemn and reject political violence of any kind. But, instead, here we have a story that screams out for such an angle but still actually does everything it can in framing the story so as to obscure such a take. 

It's a problem with corporate and mainstream media. And a problem made worse by the fact most Americans never make it past the headlines. Here are some of the salient facts buried in the story: 

Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, refused to rule out violence if he were to lose in November. “It always depends on the fairness of the election,” he said in an interview late last month.

[Doesn't this obviously, again, violate the Insurrection Clause of the 14th amd?]

But experts describe this moment as particularly volatile, thanks in great part to social media platforms that can amplify anonymous outrage, spread misinformation and conspiracy theories and turn a little-known public employee into a target.

No politician has harnessed the ferocious power of those platforms like Mr. Trump. The former president has long used personal attacks as a strategy to intimidate his adversaries. As he campaigns to return to the White House, he has turned that tactic on the judges and prosecutors involved in his various legal cases, all of whom have subsequently been threatened.

[And so he should be muzzled and/or locked up and his prosecutions expedited, NOT delayed!]

Research does show, however, that recent acts of political violence are more likely to be carried out by perpetrators aligned with right-wing causes and beliefs.

[No kidding?!]

Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah who is retiring at the end of this year, told a biographer that some G.O.P. lawmakers voted not to impeach and convict Mr. Trump after the Jan. 6 attack because they were afraid for their safety if they crossed his supporters. Mr. Romney did not identify the legislators by name and declined an interview for this article.

[Nazi stuff, face it.]

Election officials — from secretaries of state to poll workers — have faced hostility and abuse after Mr. Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election, leading to resignations and difficulty recruiting and retaining staff members and volunteers. Such threats “endanger our democracy itself,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said this week.

[What Garland said.]