I think we should all make plans to vote early and then find a relatively safe place to live between election day and Inauguration Day, especially if Trump loses. The men in my rural Tennessee neighborhood are already practicing for the bloodbath. One neighbor shoots hundreds of rounds every week, sometimes at a target shaped like a human. I talked to this guy briefly once, pointing out to him where my house was and that people were present on this side of the creek. He said not to worry. "I was trained by Uncle Sam," he said. That made me more worried.
I am not saying this to scare people, just to alert people to a reality that city people may not be aware of. In most cities, you can't just go out in the backyard and discharge hundreds of rounds with your pistol or rifle. Outside of city limits, you can. So the fact that you have not heard shots in your neighborhood does not mean they are not getting ready.
Another neighbor apparently has a bump stock, because you can hear machine gun fire from his property. I have tried calling the local sheriff's office, but the deputies are afraid to confront these guys. I found one young deputy cruising around after I called about the shooting; he was nowhere near the location of the shooter. And who could blame them? They are outgunned and not paid that well.
My plan is go to to a small town in NC where my family has a house within city limits. I feel safer there. The town is so small that you can hear shots from OUTSIDE city limits, but they are not as loud and not as close. I may be kidding myself that this place is safer, but it's my only option right now.
One of my friends has moved to Maine within an hour of the Canadian border so that she can escape if necessary. We can debate about the merits of "standing your ground" versus fleeing, but right now fleeing makes more sense to me, until this blows over. Other friends on the Left are saying they will shoot back. When I say this will likely make things worse, they just shrug. For the record, the Lefties who are promising to shoot back are men. I haven't heard any women saying that.
This is a disturbing situation, to say the least. Yes, there's no doubt that any number of well armed militia folks -- probably primarily but not exclusively pro-Trump -- are almost eager for an armed confrontation, just to give them more reasons and opportunities to shoot their beloved guns if nothing more. The reality of what this means seems not to have sunk in with them.
A related concern is the extent to which law enforcement personnel have subscribed to the pro-Trump authoritarian agenda. It's not inconceivable that we could witness shootouts between pro-Trump and anti-Trump law enforcement personnel. Which law enforcement people do you call when you're threatened with danger?
We need to be prepared for things to get worse before they get better. That said, however, we cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated! We must not allow goons carrying guns to stop us from voting and from counting and tabulating those votes! This could be our generation's opportunity to stand up for democracy and to storm our own version of Normandy Beach.
I haven't seen any evidence yet of voter intimidation, despite all the guns in my county. Voting seems to go smoothly and peacefully. Of course that could change. A bigger worry is the threats that people in my community have to live with. There was a drag show at a bar, for example, about a year ago. This was a long-standing tradition, but a local church leader got wind of it that time. He called some Proud Boys and other right-wing groups, and they showed up and stood on the sidewalk yelling homophobic slurs. One even waved a Nazi flag around. There was no violence that day, but later, the bar owners were evicted by their landlord because the landlord was receiving death threats.
Another guy who did business with that bar had a hole shot in the window of his place of business. So then HE went to buy a gun to keep at work! (How it escalates.) This business owner went to a gun shop. He had to wait while the background check happened over the phone. The gun dealer was giving his password to the background check agency. His password was A-D-O-L-F.
That sounds totally frightening. A very dystopian situation. I agree with your admonition to find a safe place. I am writing this from a Northern Germany city, where I attended a rally against fascism on Sunday. While everyone else was marching against the AfD (which more and more signs are openly calling Nazis), I was marching against Trump. The news of crime for the weekend was that a man was arrested for exposing himself to people on a train between here and a city about an hour away. There are discussions of drug use and how to provide safe spaces for addicts so that they are controllable. These and theft happen to be the big crime problems being discussed. Not that either is great, but I am not walking around worried about getting shot. Germany had 211 murders in 2022. The year before, 104 people were shot over a weekend in Chicago, my other city. https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/7/3/22561910/chicago-weekend-shootings-july-2-5-homicide-gun-violence
Knifes still pose a real threat in terms of crime, but no one is shooting in their back yard unless they have no one living anywhere near them. Usually if people have guns they go to gun clubs to shoot. There are also shooting club festivals in smaller towns and cities throughout the summer, which are like a county fair, but I have never actually seen anyone shooting at them. People here have to have 1.2 mil Euros of gun liability insurance to own a gun, in addition to some other rules. I am hoping that in the next Biden administration he has the Congress to help get some serious gun control legislation passed.
The people I know who have lived in Europe just can't fathom what we live with daily here in the US. . I know of two young men (18 or under) who have died in the past year because a friend shot them. This is just random, stupid, wasteful loss of life: a guy got mad, he had a gun, so he shot a friend, and ruined his own life and the lives of two families.
This is just the non-political stupid violence that is the constant backdrop to life in the US. There are just so many guns. I'm pretty sure I am the only household in my neighborhood that doesn't have one. (Many, many people have told me how stupid this is that I don't have a gun.)
Here is another recent story about the insanity that guns engender: recently I parked my car at the end of our rural cul-de-sac because my driveway was undergoing repairs. Within an hour, three women in the neighborhood had sent panicked texts to each other about the strange car. (I have had this car for over a year, but they "forgot.") They sent one of the husbands to check it out. Naturally, he took his gun, because who could have a benevolent reason for parking their car by a creek in the country? They were sure it was an ax murderer. When he didn't find anybody around, they called another neighbor who told them it was my car. I didn't find out about this until the next day. Good thing I wasn't just taking a nap in my car! John might have shot me.
Now, add the element of political paranoia to the background paranoia about "crime." (I have lived here for 40 years and there has been ONE theft in that time and no other crimes other than drunk driving.) Multiply that by the number of men with guns (at least one per household). That's the powder keg we're sitting on. Don't think they aren't stockpiling ammo too.
My new theory is that the GUNS THEMSELVES make people more paranoid and trigger-happy and angry. Having a gun in your house makes you think you need a gun for some reason, even if you don't. It makes you suspicious. You sort of want a reason to use it.
And there is research that shows that homes with guns have a higher rate of successful suicide by gun. It is truly crazy. I am curious why you are living there, when you clearly do not fit in with the scary norms of your neighbors. I really hope you stay safe. The odds of your not dying from a gun are improved by you not having a gun. Still, it must be frightening to have so many people around you with guns. It was the red line for me about staying in the USA. I wanted my daughter out. So much that in the USA is considered quality of life, like a big home and car, is not even necessary here in Germany a country of mostly renters who are very protected in this status, and still there is quality of life coming from not being in constant fear.
I grew up in TN. I went away for college and came back around 1980. At that time a lot of young people were buying relatively affordable farmland in TN. It was ok then. It didn't matter what party you voted for, or even if you went to church. It was a more tolerant place. The old timers liked the young hippies and had a lot in common with us. Things changed after 9/11 and got progressively worse. Still, most of my farmer friends have stayed, because they own their land outright and it's too expensive to buy/rent land elsewhere. Also, it rains here. The weather is pretty good. The market for small-scale farmers is a lot better than in 1980. There are a lot of reasons to stay. There was NO GUNFIRE AT ALL until about 7-8 years ago. Shooting at targets was considered very unneighborly. Hunting ok, but in that case you fire one shot and the deer run away and the hunt is over. Now it is a one-party state, but that is a fairly recent development.
Gun violence is even worse in Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville.
A good friend of mine went to college in TN. She had a great time and made very good friends who live in Nashville now. I have socialized with them. So, I understand your state has its charms. I just would be terrified to be surrounded by neighbors who shoot guns in their yards.
Re your theory: It is a case of the old saw, "When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." I have no doubt it is at least in part true.
in which a sociology professor from the University of Texas describes studying firearms training classes and concludes, essentially, that such training inculcates the kinds of fear you describe.
Thanks, this was interesting and quite believable. I have lived in Texas (Houston) and this rings true.
About the "I had no choice" argument: recently in Nashville, a man shot and killed a family dog in a crowded parking lot of a popular park. The dog was not on a leash, but it was just approaching him in a friendly way. He fired six times and killed the dog. Luckily nobody else was hurt. There were horrified children and parents witnessing this violence. Then the man calmly called the police and said he had killed a dog in self-defense. Most people there didn't even know that it was legal to carry a gun in that park. There are conflicting laws about that: local laws against guns in parks have been recently superceded by state laws that essentially allow guns everywhere. (Our Republican state legislature is constantly seeking to take away local autonomy when it comes to guns and a lot of other things. It is in a constant war with the city of Nashville over numerous issues, because Nashville is a blue city in a red state.)
I couldn't help thinking that this man who calmly shot a friendly dog might have made the same argument about shooting another human if he thought that human looked suspicious or menacing in any way.
Horrifying scenario, but entirely plausible. I have spoken to a Black security guard who is a rabid Trump supporter. I asked what he would do if he got his wish and Trump came back in power. I reminded this guard that racists favor Trump. “I would shoot everyone!” Another confused Black voter proposes to vote for Micky Mouse!
Like, everyone? Trump people AND Democrats? White people AND black people? This is worse than confusion. This is just sadism. This is the "moral holiday" that the psychopaths among us are craving: permission to murder people.
😢Not surprising with Propaganda that is 24/365 beginning with FOX & amplified various platforms on the Right. Putin’s 🇷🇺 shows effectiveness of Propaganda over a couple of decades. Yet I remain hopeful that together we can bring a couple of folks to the voting mechanism with ourselves & prove collectively we’ll Keep Our Republic. Then we MUST implement policies that reflect the will of the Majority of 🇺🇸NOT an ideology🗽
Recommend reading “Bring the War Home” Kathleen Belew. Many of these milita groups are aggrieved and radicalized online veterans. Others are melding in from White Nationalist groups.
You: "I think we should all make plans to vote early and then find a relatively safe place to live between election day and Inauguration Day, especially if Trump loses." It's interesting you should write that, because just yesterday I reread a Substack post by Prof. Snyder from Jan. 6, 2022, "A dream of power, an awakening to destruction: How the events of last January 6 put the existence of the United States in question," in which he writes about that very subject, but even more alarmingly: "Americans will rush to parts of the disintegrating country they find safer, in a process that looks increasingly like ethnic cleansing. The stock market and then the economy will crash. The dollar will cease to be the world currency. "
I'm not sure that things will have calmed down by the spring, which is why I linked TS's Substack post from 1/6/22. If any of the scenarios he describes come to pass, and my reading of 20th-c history tells me that all of those things are within the realm of the possible, there will be a world-wide reaction. I, too, see the possibility of a collapse of the US, and chaos in Europe and the rest of the world. Opportunity is one of the key drivers of history. When malign actors see an opportunity, especially when other countries have been weakened because of internal unrest, they will take it. Just look at central and eastern Europe between 1918 and 1923, when the collapse of 4 empires unleashed horrendous violence: revolution, counterrevolution, wars between states, civil war, paramilitary violence, mass murder, and political assassination. There are many examples of this throughout history, some of them much earlier. It is likely that there will also be shortages of medicines, food, possibly water, and other supplies.
If you have a chance, please read Robert Gerwarth's "The Vanquished: Why the First World War failed to End, 1917-1923." Professor Gerwarth writes unusually clearly for an academic historian. He teaches at University College, Dublin, and is also the the General Editor of the Greater War series, published by Oxford University Press. This series deals with his main area of interest, which is the so-called Interwar Years, which I described above.
My point here is that we must be prepared for this.
You could be right. I just finished reading a novel by Andrei Kurkhov about living in the Gray Zone in Ukraine. The main character is a beekeeper. Life has fallen apart around him, and he leaves for a while, with his bees, because shelling disturbs the bees. But he goes back. Farmers always go back if they can.
Thanks for reminding me about that book. Just found a Like New copy at amazon for $15.13. Amazon's copies are $43.91. It was described as having "one dog-eared page, otherwise like new."
Talking of novels and poetry often being good historical sources, I shelve works of literature by US and western European writers in a book case solely for literature. But novels and poetry by authors from eastern Europe, Turkey, and the Middle East, are shelved with history. The only exceptions are the works by Russian novelists. So for example, Serhiy Zhadan's "The Orphanage" and "Sky Above Kharkiv," are shelved next to Hiroaki Kuromiya's "Freedom and Terror in the Donbas."
The season of Homeland which spun out the implications of a far right that has access to automatic weapons and fantasies about white supremacy is no longer just a tale for tv. Horrifying!!
From a legal standpoint, isn't praising and promising to pardon people convicted of the crime of insurrection a clear case of aiding, abetting, and giving comfort to insurrectionists? Shouldn't this behavior, in and of itself, render Trump illegible to hold office? If not, what would? I don't hear this being discussed explicitly by experts.
Trump is inciting insurrection, urging insurrection, but maybe he escapes by saying "there will be" calling it a warning instead of a threat which it is. There should be a red line in which this becomes incitement. In fact Trump has been inciting insurrection for the last few years since the last, one continuous insurrection. He answers charges of his crimes with more criminal behavior... like defamation of E.Jean Carroll. All the proof that the 2020 election was NOT stolen seemed to trigger fiercer oppositional behavior. And he has the followers that just drink it up. They love it.
As a people, Americans are, it seems to me, facing a dilemma having everything to do with awareness of the Constitution as necessary and tangible working governance and common democratic process framework (of understanding and practical relationships for democratic government authority).
While I have stated in comments in Thinking About that the majority opinion of the Supreme Court in Trump v Anderson is very inadequate to the real challenges of the evidence of willful insurrection and the explicit intent of 14.3 as viewed in the context of the other 'Civil War Amendments' and, of course, within the framework of the Constitution in its entirety, as a practical matter I have been researching and outlining Congressional legislative action that might address the opinion of Court's majority.
In addition to the information presented to us herein, i.e., by Prof Snyder in Thinking About, on this matter, my studies include the astute writings and other observations of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Because both real social context and challenges and existing legislation and judicial opinion are material, Justice Ginsburg provides useful insights and wordings (declarations and questions) that have merit and potential use here.
There is not any factual question as to whether or not there are and have in recent decades been very visible choices of action made by Americans that would support insurrection as defined in 14.3 or as might be reasonably viewed as an expression in favor of ways to justify insurrection (as well as in other authoritative materials as noted for ex by Baude and Paulsen, "Sweep and Force...").
Though not limited to it, I would recommend coming to terms with the careful logic and expression of the dissenting opinion by Justice Ginsburg in Shelby v Holder (a useful source is at and within the presentations by https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/12-96 ). This is not a 14.3 case; it, of course, is a voting rights case. However, Justice Ginsburg develops context, develops necessary reasonable appraisals of Congressional action, judicial action (including review and remedies), and of appraisal of evidence, of intent, and so forth, together which present compelling analytical tools for constitutional governance.
Have you come across anything? I, too, check in for information from Prof Magliocca.
You are correct about his ongoing incitement, but Unfortunately our cowardly and partially complicit Supreme Court, deciding Trump v. Anderson on Match 4, 2024, ducked its responsibility to hold Trump accountable under the 14th Amendment for inciting and aiding and abetting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
It is very simple. Believe people when they tell you who they are. Trump is not hiding who he is at all. A malignant narcissist with a victim complex, a nihilist with an authoritarian and facist streak who seeks to incite violence because he gets pleasure out of it. We cannot let the media and others normalize him or to make excuses that he really is not meaning what he is saying. That is all gaslighting. Trump is a clear and present danger to all of us and all this country was founded upon.
Another very disturbing aspect of DJTs campaign is that the media is doing shockingly little to make clear to the public the avowed fascism in his speeches. They are focusing on the off-ramps they can take to avoid the needed substantive discussions. Why? Is it because social media’s algorithms draw people’s attention hateful speech and then the print media feels it has to do the same to compete? Is it because any platform seeking to unmask DJTs deeply antidemocractic calls to action reasonably fear reprisal? Is it because these media platforms are so blindly subservient to their algorithms that they haven’t stopped to consider the geopolitical consequences?
I could go on and on, but one of my observations that keeps nagging at me is the DJT very effectively appeals to those who are listening to ACT. Many of his devoted listeners have personally felt left out of or deprived of the progress of some economic sectors so highly touted in the media. They have felt (for their individual personal reasons) left out of the much vaunted American Dream and worry about the felt consequences for themselves, their families and their friends. DJT is misleading them but he IS speaking to them VISCERALLY (like any good propagandist would do). What are the media platforms doing to appeal viscerally to their audiences so they don’t write-off DJTs deeply antidemocratic plans for our country and for his geopolitical affinity for being in league with the growing network of dictators worldwide?
It is as if the networks are hedging their bets if he is elected. They need to see the facts, that if he is elected it is over for the free press entirely.
Ted, thanks so much for bringing this issue to my attention. As you readily saw, I failed to see the game theoretic advantage the press sees in hedging their bets. But this is even more disturbing because they are still operating from a totally economic basis rather than doing what the US Constitution expects of a free press. So in actuality they too are caving to DJTs world view and abandoning the integral role the free press plays in holding challengers to democracy to account.
It is more than that. Trump stories sell newspapers. It has been so for his entire career: I remember the fawning articles about him in New York magazine in the 1970s even.
When the newsrooms became cost centers as opposed to instruments of public service, the US media began their headlong descent. Ain't capitalism wonderful?
Media makes money on clicks, and salacious, emotionally charged content attracts more clicks and thus more money. The media are becoming drug pushers to those who crave the constant dopamine hit and adrenaline rush, just like big pharma pushing opioids for pain. Truth, data, facts matter not in this framework. Those are boring and do not result in the dopamine and adrenaline rush.
Are you saying that in effect the MSM has been totally algorithmically captured and in the pursuit of money have abrogated their responsibility to fulfill the role of the fourth estate - essential as a check on threats to democracy? If this is what you’re saying, what hope do we have of ending DJT and his supporters capture of the other aspects of the administrative state which are the backbone of our democratic form of government?
Unfortunately that is what I am saying, Margaret. The hope we have is that a majority sees through this along with a few news outlets that remain true to journalism and expose all the bad stuff and call it out.
Trump has, as best as I can recall, beginning when I first read (probably in Barron's) comment on his behavior and choices, a personal and professional history of candidly portraying himself and does so explicitly to invite them to engaging with him, almost to making him a 'role-model'. He markets himself constantly and does so in provocative and disturbing ways in real hope that he will be liked, listened to, followed - how flattering, self-serving, indifferent to the needs and views of others,....
And, as we sometimes clearly see, flattering another is often a way to flatter oneself. Trump understands this reciprocal circus of narcissism. He uses it effectively, including manipulatively and without regard to consequences to others (he has an aversion to consequence and accountability, a preference for self-congratulation).
Why some want to be followers and, therefore, look outward for subjectively attractive leadership qualities in others is a curious behavior. It does not, at least insofar as I can make sense of it, have organic relationship to shared social experience and mutual social accountability.
As we hear from Prof Snyder quite frequently, focusing one's attention on actors, their choices, and the intended and unintended consequences of these choices provide many salient lessons of history.
How do we communicate to others our concern for thus being strung along, deceived, manipulated,..., or is there a way to effectively check ones-self? Can any of us improve such efforts at communication to at least make reasonably interesting and desirable the choice to examine consequences?
Is it a consequence of some over- or exaggerated-individuation tendency that any person might experience when a mutually desirable and socially worked toward future is (or has the appearance of having been) irredeemably substantially contracted and drained of personal influence, meaning and benefit?
In a recent post [ https://joycevance.substack.com/p/frogs-continue-to-ignore-rising-temperatures... ], Joyce Vance observes, "People believe trusted sources: their friends, coworkers, neighbors, and family. So, it’s time for you to share information with the people around you. Tell them what Trump is saying about how he will conduct himself during a second term in office and what his plans are for the country. Give them copies of material to read or read portions out loud to them. Since Trump is committed to violating so many of our democratic norms, there is something to share with everyone, whether it’s withholding funding from blue states and foreign countries, dehumanizing pregnant people, using the military to enforce his plans domestically, or anything else on the laundry list of horribles. Make sure those in your circle understand that Trump intends to transform the country from a democracy into a dictatorship... When people being polled were presented with accurate information about Trump, they understood he was out for revenge and dangerous, even dictatorial. The gains in understanding were statistically significant. It’s one thing to see it in a campaign ad, but another to discuss it with a close friend. There are many voters and potential voters around us who are not firmly wed to Trump but still need facts to be persuaded that he must not be reelected. The information about Trump’s intentions bears repetition and emphasis, and we all have an important role to play....''
I am grateful for your comment and would be grateful for other comments and questions from you.
We are witnesses to the ongoing failure of the media to treat Trump not as a normal candidate, but as the radical, brain damaged, dicktator wannabe, national security threat that he is. More than a few have noted that the only reason he is running is to stay out of prison. Now the other reason is that bankruptcy looms. And his need for cash right now would guarantee that he wouldn't get a clearance at any level.
Dr. Snyder is, of course, completely correct in this Talmudically-detailed essay. The violence, mendacity, incoherence, and fascist [I do not use that term casually] terms in which Trump casts the future are clear. His black-and-gold-shirted Proud Boys linearly descend from the SA.
The 'context' in which Trump speaks is that he is the greatest danger the US has faced since the Civil War -- whether liberal, pluralistic democracy will "perish from the earth." It is the earth of Orban, Bolsonaro, Putin, etc. -- he is a world-wide, era-ending threat.
Two points merit inclusion.
First, Trump is demented. This has not been discussed as carefully in the press as it should, and Bandy Lee has taken a beating (from Dr.Snyder's institution, alas) about this. But, leaving aside Trump's vast catalogue of evils and faults, atop it all, his brain does not work. I do not say this casually either, and I know whereof I speak. His incapacity to think, engage with the world, and process information, requires thorough elaboration in public discussion.
Second, Timothy Snyder is a historian. IF there is history being studied and written [for which I have little optimism] 10 or 20 years from now, or 50, or 100, THEN he will be remembered as the one who warned, who blew the bugle, the one who tried to save us from ourselves, the one who knew the better angels and tried to resuscitate them. Timothy did his best. The country (and the world) ignore him at their peril.
Another great essay, Prof. Snyder. "The people who say that the car context rescues Trump ignore the meaningful contexts: history, Trump, the opening of the rally, what he said in the speech generally." In fact Trump does this sort of thing quite a lot at his rallies. He routinely inserts bloodbath-type comments into comments about other subjects. His stream-of-consciousness thinking, with its abrupt stops mid-sentence, allows him to go from one thought to another, so that by the time he gets to the middle of a sentence, he's talking about something else. What is worrying is that so many of his followers can't or won't see this way of talking, even absent the bloodbath comments, as disqualifying.
This morning I put my Biden-Harris yard sign up. The man is dangerous but and it’s time to show as you and Lawrence O’Donnell discussed last night we cannot show fear Stand Up & VOTE-Blue.
Thanks for the reference to last night's Lawrence O'Donnell. The show, and Tim O'Brien's appearance were especially wonderful, particularly the pictures of Navaltny and reminders of his courage. I think we Americans need to be reminded DAILY of what real courage looks like.
I hope everyone will vow to vote and protect his/her vote. That is what Trump is really scared of. We need to provide so many Dem votes that they can't hide, deny or cover them.
As disturbing as the post was, the comments are more so. We who recognize what Donald Trump represents are a substantial majority, and we need to make it plain to Trump and his supporters that we will not be intimidated by threats of violence, nor will we tolerate actions of insurrection on their part. We must make that clear though words and actions, and not by planning to hide away.
We need to identify non-voters and convince them to vote as though their lives depend on it. We need to convince all prior Biden voters that while not perfect by any means, Biden is far better than Trump. When Joe Biden wins the election in November, we need to have large, spontaneous celebration parties nationwide. When the day comes to certify the results, we need to show up in Washington, a million strong, unarmed and peaceful, to shield the Capitol from his thugs.
I've read a lot of the apologists who have tried to tie the part ot Trump's speech on cars with the bloodbath comment. What they fail to see, either deliberately or in ignorance is that Trump's rants are hardly a coherent whole, but rather a collection of disjointed and often unconnected sound-bytes calculated to do two things only - to prove that he is the victim of a vast left wing conspiracy, and that, contrary to his usually hollering that he is his supporters retribution, he is, rather, counting on them to be his retribution.
The irony, of course, is that he doesn't give a damn about his supporters except as hands to pull voting levers, mindless adoration at his rallies, and deep pockets to pay his legal expenses in order to keep him out of jail.
This is man without a soul, a man so given to his own pleasures and desire for stature that he would destroy the country that has given him so much in order to fulfil his own personal desires. That so many don't seem to comprehend this is the real matter of concern in this whole terrible business.
Thank you Prof. Snyder. excellent...we need an overwhelming vote against Trump. At this point whether or not you have a bone to pick with Biden, a vote for Biden in the general election, and not a third party spoiler, is a true vote against Trump and for continuing our democracy of we the people... as flawed as it may be, as a work in progress as it may be.
We need to reverberate messages like this one about what Trump is saying, repeating, quoting and demonstrating to those who are tuned out, rationalizing that it's just rhetoric, not voting, or voting third party. The choice is binary.
There are so many parallels: Goebels/Mannafort, Goering/Miller, any female FOX news personality/Riefenstahl. Yet, people are still bamboozled with the idea that ANTIFA and a supposedly sympathetic Deep State is the real enemy. A simple high-school class on the history of the 19th and 20th century ought to be enough to curb what's currently taking place. Even a simple Google search or a few Wikipedia citations would provide context but, apparently, the need to have an enemy contextualized in simple terms and a small hint of belonging to a like-minded group is all that's required to complete what is so clearly an illusion. What will it take to divert our elected officials from orthodox and blind obedience to Trump and his self-indulgent, narcissistic rhetoric? When will reasonable people finally say "enough is enough?" When will the people whom have been entrusted with protecting our country and our global reputation finally stand up and say that Trump and his Cadre of sycophants represent a clear and present danger to Democracy?
Chronic Post industrialization chronic problems breeds grievance, enough internet access to view inequality like a firehouse to their pysche, dopamine overload, our most vulnerable populations to radicalization.
Professor Snyder, this essay is a master class demonstrating why humanities education matters. You have shown that context and history always matter and that it is incumbent on us all to do the analytic work. And to vote! Thank you.
The RNC has dropped promotion of early and mail voting. So vote early and/or by
mail but…. Volunteer to serve as a poll watcher for the Democrats if you can. A massive turnout, well-monitored is our best hope. Join the texting, postcarding, phone-banking and letter-writing campaigns, now. Knock on doors and donate to candidates. Wave and post signs. Go to a rally. Show yourself. Wear campaign insignias. Own the streets.
I think we should all make plans to vote early and then find a relatively safe place to live between election day and Inauguration Day, especially if Trump loses. The men in my rural Tennessee neighborhood are already practicing for the bloodbath. One neighbor shoots hundreds of rounds every week, sometimes at a target shaped like a human. I talked to this guy briefly once, pointing out to him where my house was and that people were present on this side of the creek. He said not to worry. "I was trained by Uncle Sam," he said. That made me more worried.
I am not saying this to scare people, just to alert people to a reality that city people may not be aware of. In most cities, you can't just go out in the backyard and discharge hundreds of rounds with your pistol or rifle. Outside of city limits, you can. So the fact that you have not heard shots in your neighborhood does not mean they are not getting ready.
Another neighbor apparently has a bump stock, because you can hear machine gun fire from his property. I have tried calling the local sheriff's office, but the deputies are afraid to confront these guys. I found one young deputy cruising around after I called about the shooting; he was nowhere near the location of the shooter. And who could blame them? They are outgunned and not paid that well.
My plan is go to to a small town in NC where my family has a house within city limits. I feel safer there. The town is so small that you can hear shots from OUTSIDE city limits, but they are not as loud and not as close. I may be kidding myself that this place is safer, but it's my only option right now.
One of my friends has moved to Maine within an hour of the Canadian border so that she can escape if necessary. We can debate about the merits of "standing your ground" versus fleeing, but right now fleeing makes more sense to me, until this blows over. Other friends on the Left are saying they will shoot back. When I say this will likely make things worse, they just shrug. For the record, the Lefties who are promising to shoot back are men. I haven't heard any women saying that.
This is a disturbing situation, to say the least. Yes, there's no doubt that any number of well armed militia folks -- probably primarily but not exclusively pro-Trump -- are almost eager for an armed confrontation, just to give them more reasons and opportunities to shoot their beloved guns if nothing more. The reality of what this means seems not to have sunk in with them.
A related concern is the extent to which law enforcement personnel have subscribed to the pro-Trump authoritarian agenda. It's not inconceivable that we could witness shootouts between pro-Trump and anti-Trump law enforcement personnel. Which law enforcement people do you call when you're threatened with danger?
We need to be prepared for things to get worse before they get better. That said, however, we cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated! We must not allow goons carrying guns to stop us from voting and from counting and tabulating those votes! This could be our generation's opportunity to stand up for democracy and to storm our own version of Normandy Beach.
Forward!
I haven't seen any evidence yet of voter intimidation, despite all the guns in my county. Voting seems to go smoothly and peacefully. Of course that could change. A bigger worry is the threats that people in my community have to live with. There was a drag show at a bar, for example, about a year ago. This was a long-standing tradition, but a local church leader got wind of it that time. He called some Proud Boys and other right-wing groups, and they showed up and stood on the sidewalk yelling homophobic slurs. One even waved a Nazi flag around. There was no violence that day, but later, the bar owners were evicted by their landlord because the landlord was receiving death threats.
Another guy who did business with that bar had a hole shot in the window of his place of business. So then HE went to buy a gun to keep at work! (How it escalates.) This business owner went to a gun shop. He had to wait while the background check happened over the phone. The gun dealer was giving his password to the background check agency. His password was A-D-O-L-F.
That sounds totally frightening. A very dystopian situation. I agree with your admonition to find a safe place. I am writing this from a Northern Germany city, where I attended a rally against fascism on Sunday. While everyone else was marching against the AfD (which more and more signs are openly calling Nazis), I was marching against Trump. The news of crime for the weekend was that a man was arrested for exposing himself to people on a train between here and a city about an hour away. There are discussions of drug use and how to provide safe spaces for addicts so that they are controllable. These and theft happen to be the big crime problems being discussed. Not that either is great, but I am not walking around worried about getting shot. Germany had 211 murders in 2022. The year before, 104 people were shot over a weekend in Chicago, my other city. https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/7/3/22561910/chicago-weekend-shootings-july-2-5-homicide-gun-violence
Knifes still pose a real threat in terms of crime, but no one is shooting in their back yard unless they have no one living anywhere near them. Usually if people have guns they go to gun clubs to shoot. There are also shooting club festivals in smaller towns and cities throughout the summer, which are like a county fair, but I have never actually seen anyone shooting at them. People here have to have 1.2 mil Euros of gun liability insurance to own a gun, in addition to some other rules. I am hoping that in the next Biden administration he has the Congress to help get some serious gun control legislation passed.
The people I know who have lived in Europe just can't fathom what we live with daily here in the US. . I know of two young men (18 or under) who have died in the past year because a friend shot them. This is just random, stupid, wasteful loss of life: a guy got mad, he had a gun, so he shot a friend, and ruined his own life and the lives of two families.
This is just the non-political stupid violence that is the constant backdrop to life in the US. There are just so many guns. I'm pretty sure I am the only household in my neighborhood that doesn't have one. (Many, many people have told me how stupid this is that I don't have a gun.)
Here is another recent story about the insanity that guns engender: recently I parked my car at the end of our rural cul-de-sac because my driveway was undergoing repairs. Within an hour, three women in the neighborhood had sent panicked texts to each other about the strange car. (I have had this car for over a year, but they "forgot.") They sent one of the husbands to check it out. Naturally, he took his gun, because who could have a benevolent reason for parking their car by a creek in the country? They were sure it was an ax murderer. When he didn't find anybody around, they called another neighbor who told them it was my car. I didn't find out about this until the next day. Good thing I wasn't just taking a nap in my car! John might have shot me.
Now, add the element of political paranoia to the background paranoia about "crime." (I have lived here for 40 years and there has been ONE theft in that time and no other crimes other than drunk driving.) Multiply that by the number of men with guns (at least one per household). That's the powder keg we're sitting on. Don't think they aren't stockpiling ammo too.
My new theory is that the GUNS THEMSELVES make people more paranoid and trigger-happy and angry. Having a gun in your house makes you think you need a gun for some reason, even if you don't. It makes you suspicious. You sort of want a reason to use it.
And there is research that shows that homes with guns have a higher rate of successful suicide by gun. It is truly crazy. I am curious why you are living there, when you clearly do not fit in with the scary norms of your neighbors. I really hope you stay safe. The odds of your not dying from a gun are improved by you not having a gun. Still, it must be frightening to have so many people around you with guns. It was the red line for me about staying in the USA. I wanted my daughter out. So much that in the USA is considered quality of life, like a big home and car, is not even necessary here in Germany a country of mostly renters who are very protected in this status, and still there is quality of life coming from not being in constant fear.
I grew up in TN. I went away for college and came back around 1980. At that time a lot of young people were buying relatively affordable farmland in TN. It was ok then. It didn't matter what party you voted for, or even if you went to church. It was a more tolerant place. The old timers liked the young hippies and had a lot in common with us. Things changed after 9/11 and got progressively worse. Still, most of my farmer friends have stayed, because they own their land outright and it's too expensive to buy/rent land elsewhere. Also, it rains here. The weather is pretty good. The market for small-scale farmers is a lot better than in 1980. There are a lot of reasons to stay. There was NO GUNFIRE AT ALL until about 7-8 years ago. Shooting at targets was considered very unneighborly. Hunting ok, but in that case you fire one shot and the deer run away and the hunt is over. Now it is a one-party state, but that is a fairly recent development.
Gun violence is even worse in Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville.
A good friend of mine went to college in TN. She had a great time and made very good friends who live in Nashville now. I have socialized with them. So, I understand your state has its charms. I just would be terrified to be surrounded by neighbors who shoot guns in their yards.
It's amazing what you can get used to.
Re your theory: It is a case of the old saw, "When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." I have no doubt it is at least in part true.
Regarding your last paragraph, you might want to check out
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/opinion/firearms-guns-america-safety.html?searchResultPosition=3
in which a sociology professor from the University of Texas describes studying firearms training classes and concludes, essentially, that such training inculcates the kinds of fear you describe.
Thanks, this was interesting and quite believable. I have lived in Texas (Houston) and this rings true.
About the "I had no choice" argument: recently in Nashville, a man shot and killed a family dog in a crowded parking lot of a popular park. The dog was not on a leash, but it was just approaching him in a friendly way. He fired six times and killed the dog. Luckily nobody else was hurt. There were horrified children and parents witnessing this violence. Then the man calmly called the police and said he had killed a dog in self-defense. Most people there didn't even know that it was legal to carry a gun in that park. There are conflicting laws about that: local laws against guns in parks have been recently superceded by state laws that essentially allow guns everywhere. (Our Republican state legislature is constantly seeking to take away local autonomy when it comes to guns and a lot of other things. It is in a constant war with the city of Nashville over numerous issues, because Nashville is a blue city in a red state.)
I couldn't help thinking that this man who calmly shot a friendly dog might have made the same argument about shooting another human if he thought that human looked suspicious or menacing in any way.
Horrifying scenario, but entirely plausible. I have spoken to a Black security guard who is a rabid Trump supporter. I asked what he would do if he got his wish and Trump came back in power. I reminded this guard that racists favor Trump. “I would shoot everyone!” Another confused Black voter proposes to vote for Micky Mouse!
Life in the Absurd Lane !
Like, everyone? Trump people AND Democrats? White people AND black people? This is worse than confusion. This is just sadism. This is the "moral holiday" that the psychopaths among us are craving: permission to murder people.
😢Not surprising with Propaganda that is 24/365 beginning with FOX & amplified various platforms on the Right. Putin’s 🇷🇺 shows effectiveness of Propaganda over a couple of decades. Yet I remain hopeful that together we can bring a couple of folks to the voting mechanism with ourselves & prove collectively we’ll Keep Our Republic. Then we MUST implement policies that reflect the will of the Majority of 🇺🇸NOT an ideology🗽
Life in the Absurd Lane indeed, Babette!
Or to paraphrase Don Henley, "She said faster, faster, the caps are turning red"!
Recommend reading “Bring the War Home” Kathleen Belew. Many of these milita groups are aggrieved and radicalized online veterans. Others are melding in from White Nationalist groups.
She's great. Wonderful book, and you can find a lot of her addresses and interviews about it on Youtube.
You: "I think we should all make plans to vote early and then find a relatively safe place to live between election day and Inauguration Day, especially if Trump loses." It's interesting you should write that, because just yesterday I reread a Substack post by Prof. Snyder from Jan. 6, 2022, "A dream of power, an awakening to destruction: How the events of last January 6 put the existence of the United States in question," in which he writes about that very subject, but even more alarmingly: "Americans will rush to parts of the disintegrating country they find safer, in a process that looks increasingly like ethnic cleansing. The stock market and then the economy will crash. The dollar will cease to be the world currency. "
https://snyder.substack.com/p/a-dream-of-power-an-awakening-to
I'm not leaving forever: just for the winter months. I will come back in spring to plant my garden. By that time, things should have calmed down.
I'm not sure that things will have calmed down by the spring, which is why I linked TS's Substack post from 1/6/22. If any of the scenarios he describes come to pass, and my reading of 20th-c history tells me that all of those things are within the realm of the possible, there will be a world-wide reaction. I, too, see the possibility of a collapse of the US, and chaos in Europe and the rest of the world. Opportunity is one of the key drivers of history. When malign actors see an opportunity, especially when other countries have been weakened because of internal unrest, they will take it. Just look at central and eastern Europe between 1918 and 1923, when the collapse of 4 empires unleashed horrendous violence: revolution, counterrevolution, wars between states, civil war, paramilitary violence, mass murder, and political assassination. There are many examples of this throughout history, some of them much earlier. It is likely that there will also be shortages of medicines, food, possibly water, and other supplies.
If you have a chance, please read Robert Gerwarth's "The Vanquished: Why the First World War failed to End, 1917-1923." Professor Gerwarth writes unusually clearly for an academic historian. He teaches at University College, Dublin, and is also the the General Editor of the Greater War series, published by Oxford University Press. This series deals with his main area of interest, which is the so-called Interwar Years, which I described above.
My point here is that we must be prepared for this.
Take care, Shannon.
You could be right. I just finished reading a novel by Andrei Kurkhov about living in the Gray Zone in Ukraine. The main character is a beekeeper. Life has fallen apart around him, and he leaves for a while, with his bees, because shelling disturbs the bees. But he goes back. Farmers always go back if they can.
Thanks for reminding me about that book. Just found a Like New copy at amazon for $15.13. Amazon's copies are $43.91. It was described as having "one dog-eared page, otherwise like new."
Talking of novels and poetry often being good historical sources, I shelve works of literature by US and western European writers in a book case solely for literature. But novels and poetry by authors from eastern Europe, Turkey, and the Middle East, are shelved with history. The only exceptions are the works by Russian novelists. So for example, Serhiy Zhadan's "The Orphanage" and "Sky Above Kharkiv," are shelved next to Hiroaki Kuromiya's "Freedom and Terror in the Donbas."
Good talking to you, Shannon!
Oh yes, I've read about that one. It's "Grey Bees," isn't it? Literature is one of the best sources for learning about such things.
There's a club... https://www.razomforukraine.org/razom-book-club/
That was a good one, Rose.
The season of Homeland which spun out the implications of a far right that has access to automatic weapons and fantasies about white supremacy is no longer just a tale for tv. Horrifying!!
From a legal standpoint, isn't praising and promising to pardon people convicted of the crime of insurrection a clear case of aiding, abetting, and giving comfort to insurrectionists? Shouldn't this behavior, in and of itself, render Trump illegible to hold office? If not, what would? I don't hear this being discussed explicitly by experts.
Trump is inciting insurrection, urging insurrection, but maybe he escapes by saying "there will be" calling it a warning instead of a threat which it is. There should be a red line in which this becomes incitement. In fact Trump has been inciting insurrection for the last few years since the last, one continuous insurrection. He answers charges of his crimes with more criminal behavior... like defamation of E.Jean Carroll. All the proof that the 2020 election was NOT stolen seemed to trigger fiercer oppositional behavior. And he has the followers that just drink it up. They love it.
Thanks, Mr Potter, for this comment.
Hoping you have been doing well.
As a people, Americans are, it seems to me, facing a dilemma having everything to do with awareness of the Constitution as necessary and tangible working governance and common democratic process framework (of understanding and practical relationships for democratic government authority).
While I have stated in comments in Thinking About that the majority opinion of the Supreme Court in Trump v Anderson is very inadequate to the real challenges of the evidence of willful insurrection and the explicit intent of 14.3 as viewed in the context of the other 'Civil War Amendments' and, of course, within the framework of the Constitution in its entirety, as a practical matter I have been researching and outlining Congressional legislative action that might address the opinion of Court's majority.
In addition to the information presented to us herein, i.e., by Prof Snyder in Thinking About, on this matter, my studies include the astute writings and other observations of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Because both real social context and challenges and existing legislation and judicial opinion are material, Justice Ginsburg provides useful insights and wordings (declarations and questions) that have merit and potential use here.
There is not any factual question as to whether or not there are and have in recent decades been very visible choices of action made by Americans that would support insurrection as defined in 14.3 or as might be reasonably viewed as an expression in favor of ways to justify insurrection (as well as in other authoritative materials as noted for ex by Baude and Paulsen, "Sweep and Force...").
Though not limited to it, I would recommend coming to terms with the careful logic and expression of the dissenting opinion by Justice Ginsburg in Shelby v Holder (a useful source is at and within the presentations by https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/12-96 ). This is not a 14.3 case; it, of course, is a voting rights case. However, Justice Ginsburg develops context, develops necessary reasonable appraisals of Congressional action, judicial action (including review and remedies), and of appraisal of evidence, of intent, and so forth, together which present compelling analytical tools for constitutional governance.
Have you come across anything? I, too, check in for information from Prof Magliocca.
Grateful for your observations and questions.
You are correct about his ongoing incitement, but Unfortunately our cowardly and partially complicit Supreme Court, deciding Trump v. Anderson on Match 4, 2024, ducked its responsibility to hold Trump accountable under the 14th Amendment for inciting and aiding and abetting the Jan. 6 insurrection.
It is very simple. Believe people when they tell you who they are. Trump is not hiding who he is at all. A malignant narcissist with a victim complex, a nihilist with an authoritarian and facist streak who seeks to incite violence because he gets pleasure out of it. We cannot let the media and others normalize him or to make excuses that he really is not meaning what he is saying. That is all gaslighting. Trump is a clear and present danger to all of us and all this country was founded upon.
Another very disturbing aspect of DJTs campaign is that the media is doing shockingly little to make clear to the public the avowed fascism in his speeches. They are focusing on the off-ramps they can take to avoid the needed substantive discussions. Why? Is it because social media’s algorithms draw people’s attention hateful speech and then the print media feels it has to do the same to compete? Is it because any platform seeking to unmask DJTs deeply antidemocractic calls to action reasonably fear reprisal? Is it because these media platforms are so blindly subservient to their algorithms that they haven’t stopped to consider the geopolitical consequences?
I could go on and on, but one of my observations that keeps nagging at me is the DJT very effectively appeals to those who are listening to ACT. Many of his devoted listeners have personally felt left out of or deprived of the progress of some economic sectors so highly touted in the media. They have felt (for their individual personal reasons) left out of the much vaunted American Dream and worry about the felt consequences for themselves, their families and their friends. DJT is misleading them but he IS speaking to them VISCERALLY (like any good propagandist would do). What are the media platforms doing to appeal viscerally to their audiences so they don’t write-off DJTs deeply antidemocratic plans for our country and for his geopolitical affinity for being in league with the growing network of dictators worldwide?
It is as if the networks are hedging their bets if he is elected. They need to see the facts, that if he is elected it is over for the free press entirely.
Ted, thanks so much for bringing this issue to my attention. As you readily saw, I failed to see the game theoretic advantage the press sees in hedging their bets. But this is even more disturbing because they are still operating from a totally economic basis rather than doing what the US Constitution expects of a free press. So in actuality they too are caving to DJTs world view and abandoning the integral role the free press plays in holding challengers to democracy to account.
It is more than that. Trump stories sell newspapers. It has been so for his entire career: I remember the fawning articles about him in New York magazine in the 1970s even.
When the newsrooms became cost centers as opposed to instruments of public service, the US media began their headlong descent. Ain't capitalism wonderful?
Media makes money on clicks, and salacious, emotionally charged content attracts more clicks and thus more money. The media are becoming drug pushers to those who crave the constant dopamine hit and adrenaline rush, just like big pharma pushing opioids for pain. Truth, data, facts matter not in this framework. Those are boring and do not result in the dopamine and adrenaline rush.
Are you saying that in effect the MSM has been totally algorithmically captured and in the pursuit of money have abrogated their responsibility to fulfill the role of the fourth estate - essential as a check on threats to democracy? If this is what you’re saying, what hope do we have of ending DJT and his supporters capture of the other aspects of the administrative state which are the backbone of our democratic form of government?
Unfortunately that is what I am saying, Margaret. The hope we have is that a majority sees through this along with a few news outlets that remain true to journalism and expose all the bad stuff and call it out.
Neither was Hitler hiding who he was.
Likewise Putin and Orban.
Agreed.
Wish I could disagree Paul, but alas...
Wish I did not have to point it out
Thank you, Dr. Sotkiewcz, for these observations.
Trump has, as best as I can recall, beginning when I first read (probably in Barron's) comment on his behavior and choices, a personal and professional history of candidly portraying himself and does so explicitly to invite them to engaging with him, almost to making him a 'role-model'. He markets himself constantly and does so in provocative and disturbing ways in real hope that he will be liked, listened to, followed - how flattering, self-serving, indifferent to the needs and views of others,....
And, as we sometimes clearly see, flattering another is often a way to flatter oneself. Trump understands this reciprocal circus of narcissism. He uses it effectively, including manipulatively and without regard to consequences to others (he has an aversion to consequence and accountability, a preference for self-congratulation).
Why some want to be followers and, therefore, look outward for subjectively attractive leadership qualities in others is a curious behavior. It does not, at least insofar as I can make sense of it, have organic relationship to shared social experience and mutual social accountability.
As we hear from Prof Snyder quite frequently, focusing one's attention on actors, their choices, and the intended and unintended consequences of these choices provide many salient lessons of history.
How do we communicate to others our concern for thus being strung along, deceived, manipulated,..., or is there a way to effectively check ones-self? Can any of us improve such efforts at communication to at least make reasonably interesting and desirable the choice to examine consequences?
Is it a consequence of some over- or exaggerated-individuation tendency that any person might experience when a mutually desirable and socially worked toward future is (or has the appearance of having been) irredeemably substantially contracted and drained of personal influence, meaning and benefit?
In a recent post [ https://joycevance.substack.com/p/frogs-continue-to-ignore-rising-temperatures... ], Joyce Vance observes, "People believe trusted sources: their friends, coworkers, neighbors, and family. So, it’s time for you to share information with the people around you. Tell them what Trump is saying about how he will conduct himself during a second term in office and what his plans are for the country. Give them copies of material to read or read portions out loud to them. Since Trump is committed to violating so many of our democratic norms, there is something to share with everyone, whether it’s withholding funding from blue states and foreign countries, dehumanizing pregnant people, using the military to enforce his plans domestically, or anything else on the laundry list of horribles. Make sure those in your circle understand that Trump intends to transform the country from a democracy into a dictatorship... When people being polled were presented with accurate information about Trump, they understood he was out for revenge and dangerous, even dictatorial. The gains in understanding were statistically significant. It’s one thing to see it in a campaign ad, but another to discuss it with a close friend. There are many voters and potential voters around us who are not firmly wed to Trump but still need facts to be persuaded that he must not be reelected. The information about Trump’s intentions bears repetition and emphasis, and we all have an important role to play....''
I am grateful for your comment and would be grateful for other comments and questions from you.
We are witnesses to the ongoing failure of the media to treat Trump not as a normal candidate, but as the radical, brain damaged, dicktator wannabe, national security threat that he is. More than a few have noted that the only reason he is running is to stay out of prison. Now the other reason is that bankruptcy looms. And his need for cash right now would guarantee that he wouldn't get a clearance at any level.
Dr. Snyder is, of course, completely correct in this Talmudically-detailed essay. The violence, mendacity, incoherence, and fascist [I do not use that term casually] terms in which Trump casts the future are clear. His black-and-gold-shirted Proud Boys linearly descend from the SA.
The 'context' in which Trump speaks is that he is the greatest danger the US has faced since the Civil War -- whether liberal, pluralistic democracy will "perish from the earth." It is the earth of Orban, Bolsonaro, Putin, etc. -- he is a world-wide, era-ending threat.
Two points merit inclusion.
First, Trump is demented. This has not been discussed as carefully in the press as it should, and Bandy Lee has taken a beating (from Dr.Snyder's institution, alas) about this. But, leaving aside Trump's vast catalogue of evils and faults, atop it all, his brain does not work. I do not say this casually either, and I know whereof I speak. His incapacity to think, engage with the world, and process information, requires thorough elaboration in public discussion.
Second, Timothy Snyder is a historian. IF there is history being studied and written [for which I have little optimism] 10 or 20 years from now, or 50, or 100, THEN he will be remembered as the one who warned, who blew the bugle, the one who tried to save us from ourselves, the one who knew the better angels and tried to resuscitate them. Timothy did his best. The country (and the world) ignore him at their peril.
Isn’t it past your jail time?
3/10/24 😘 Jimmy Kimmel
That was awesome and on live TV! Jimmy hit the mark.
Yes - Jimmy has the guts to speak truth to power 👏🏻
100%
Another great essay, Prof. Snyder. "The people who say that the car context rescues Trump ignore the meaningful contexts: history, Trump, the opening of the rally, what he said in the speech generally." In fact Trump does this sort of thing quite a lot at his rallies. He routinely inserts bloodbath-type comments into comments about other subjects. His stream-of-consciousness thinking, with its abrupt stops mid-sentence, allows him to go from one thought to another, so that by the time he gets to the middle of a sentence, he's talking about something else. What is worrying is that so many of his followers can't or won't see this way of talking, even absent the bloodbath comments, as disqualifying.
This morning I put my Biden-Harris yard sign up. The man is dangerous but and it’s time to show as you and Lawrence O’Donnell discussed last night we cannot show fear Stand Up & VOTE-Blue.
Thanks for the reference to last night's Lawrence O'Donnell. The show, and Tim O'Brien's appearance were especially wonderful, particularly the pictures of Navaltny and reminders of his courage. I think we Americans need to be reminded DAILY of what real courage looks like.
I hope everyone will vow to vote and protect his/her vote. That is what Trump is really scared of. We need to provide so many Dem votes that they can't hide, deny or cover them.
As disturbing as the post was, the comments are more so. We who recognize what Donald Trump represents are a substantial majority, and we need to make it plain to Trump and his supporters that we will not be intimidated by threats of violence, nor will we tolerate actions of insurrection on their part. We must make that clear though words and actions, and not by planning to hide away.
We need to identify non-voters and convince them to vote as though their lives depend on it. We need to convince all prior Biden voters that while not perfect by any means, Biden is far better than Trump. When Joe Biden wins the election in November, we need to have large, spontaneous celebration parties nationwide. When the day comes to certify the results, we need to show up in Washington, a million strong, unarmed and peaceful, to shield the Capitol from his thugs.
I've read a lot of the apologists who have tried to tie the part ot Trump's speech on cars with the bloodbath comment. What they fail to see, either deliberately or in ignorance is that Trump's rants are hardly a coherent whole, but rather a collection of disjointed and often unconnected sound-bytes calculated to do two things only - to prove that he is the victim of a vast left wing conspiracy, and that, contrary to his usually hollering that he is his supporters retribution, he is, rather, counting on them to be his retribution.
The irony, of course, is that he doesn't give a damn about his supporters except as hands to pull voting levers, mindless adoration at his rallies, and deep pockets to pay his legal expenses in order to keep him out of jail.
This is man without a soul, a man so given to his own pleasures and desire for stature that he would destroy the country that has given him so much in order to fulfil his own personal desires. That so many don't seem to comprehend this is the real matter of concern in this whole terrible business.
Thank you Prof. Snyder. excellent...we need an overwhelming vote against Trump. At this point whether or not you have a bone to pick with Biden, a vote for Biden in the general election, and not a third party spoiler, is a true vote against Trump and for continuing our democracy of we the people... as flawed as it may be, as a work in progress as it may be.
We need to reverberate messages like this one about what Trump is saying, repeating, quoting and demonstrating to those who are tuned out, rationalizing that it's just rhetoric, not voting, or voting third party. The choice is binary.
There are so many parallels: Goebels/Mannafort, Goering/Miller, any female FOX news personality/Riefenstahl. Yet, people are still bamboozled with the idea that ANTIFA and a supposedly sympathetic Deep State is the real enemy. A simple high-school class on the history of the 19th and 20th century ought to be enough to curb what's currently taking place. Even a simple Google search or a few Wikipedia citations would provide context but, apparently, the need to have an enemy contextualized in simple terms and a small hint of belonging to a like-minded group is all that's required to complete what is so clearly an illusion. What will it take to divert our elected officials from orthodox and blind obedience to Trump and his self-indulgent, narcissistic rhetoric? When will reasonable people finally say "enough is enough?" When will the people whom have been entrusted with protecting our country and our global reputation finally stand up and say that Trump and his Cadre of sycophants represent a clear and present danger to Democracy?
Oh, I wouldn't compare anybody at Faux Noise to Leni Riefenstahl. It would be inaccurate and a slur on Riefenstahl's talent.
Is there anything more disgusting than The Bloated Yam? I think not.
There was also the choice of this place 'Vandalia', the place of the Vandals. Part of the context to me.
It’s the blue collar part of town, another one hit hard by post industrialization and the opiod crisis.
In other words, screwed by corporations, but they, like the Midwest farmers in the 1980s, are being told conspiracy bullshit to explain it.
“Our Kids” Robert Putnam
“There is Nothing for You Here” Fiona Hill
Chronic Post industrialization chronic problems breeds grievance, enough internet access to view inequality like a firehouse to their pysche, dopamine overload, our most vulnerable populations to radicalization.
Professor Snyder, this essay is a master class demonstrating why humanities education matters. You have shown that context and history always matter and that it is incumbent on us all to do the analytic work. And to vote! Thank you.
The RNC has dropped promotion of early and mail voting. So vote early and/or by
mail but…. Volunteer to serve as a poll watcher for the Democrats if you can. A massive turnout, well-monitored is our best hope. Join the texting, postcarding, phone-banking and letter-writing campaigns, now. Knock on doors and donate to candidates. Wave and post signs. Go to a rally. Show yourself. Wear campaign insignias. Own the streets.