Our situation on the streets of America isn't getting any better with trump actively stirring unrest as a means to win re-election in November. Via Aaron Rupar at Vox.com:
On Monday afternoon, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden addressed unrest in cities like Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon, saying that President Donald Trump “long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country.”
“He can’t stop the violence, because for years he’s fomented it,” Biden added during his speech in Pittsburgh. “You know, he may believe mouthing the words ‘law and order’ makes him strong, but his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is.”
Within hours, Trump proved Biden right, delivering a press conference in which he stoked unfounded fears about “left-wing political violence” while refusing to condemn right-wing vigilantes — including a 17-year-old supporter of his who has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two protesters in Kenosha...
...Not only does Trump habitually refuse to acknowledge that police violence and right-wing violence are problems in the US, but he goes out of his way to justify it.
Asked by Ingraham if he wants his supporters to confront protesters, Trump said, “I want to leave it to law enforcement, but my supporters are wonderful, hardworking, tremendous people, and they turn on their televisions and they look at a Portland or a Kenosha ... they can’t believe it.”
About that teen gunman:
You might think that condemning this type of vigilante-style violence would be an easy thing for a president to do — but not for Trump. Asked about the case during Monday’s news conference, Trump defended the shooter.
“That was an interesting situation. You saw the same tape that I saw, and he was trying to get away [from protesters], I guess, it looks like, and he fell, and then they very violently attacked him,” Trump said. “I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would’ve been killed.”
Never mind the reality that the teenager traveled across state lines with that rifle, never mind the reports that he shot someone first, and the other two were shot trying to stop him from shooting any more people. To trump, the gunman is the hero and the protesters are "Antifa terrorists" (You might notice the Far Right refuse to spell that out as "Antifascist" because the full word makes it damn clear those protesters are the good guys).
Amid all of this, trump and his campaign handlers have been trying to spread the crazy conspiracy that the current round of protests and all the violence - a lot of it caused by Far Right counter-protesters trying to frame the anti-fascist groups - are all coming from "Biden's America" and that's how things will get if Joe wins the election this November. Never mind the reality that all of this is happening today under trump's mismanagement of everything, and under trump's unwillingness to lead a united America.
If there's any good news, it's that the current post-convention polling still shows Biden with a healthy national lead in the popular vote and decent leads in key battleground states for the Electoral College.
The bad news is: trump is going to make things worse because it's the only way he knows how to survive.
Gods help us.
1 comment:
One can only hope that the chaos and destruction writ large in the country, as opposed to the isolated incidents he tries to promote will sour enough voters on him to overwhelmingly trounce him in November.
-Doug in Sugar Pine
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