Trumpism Must Be Defeated By Ballots, Not Bullets

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Assassinations don’t stop authoritarians, they enable them. We must defeat Trumpism at the ballot box. Political violence is not the way to combat authoritarianism.

Link to tweet

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trumpism-must-be-defeated-by-ballots-not-bullets.html

That a bullet came within millimeters of killing Donald Trump is a scandal and a horror. That it failed is a blessing for all Americans.

In the wake of a near-tragic assassination attempt of a widely reviled figure, some people who loathe him may be wrestling with or suppressing emotions that feel contradictory. But the notions that Trump is dangerous, and that attempting to murder him is also dangerous, are not in tension with each other. The ethics and the practicality of liberal democracy both affirm a strong norm against political violence.......

Trump stokes and feeds upon a lust for violence. He possesses a demagogue’s skill for manipulating his supporters’ most elemental emotions. As a private citizen, he exploited a white woman’s rape in Central Park to demand the execution of innocent young men of color. He continues to call for various critics to be executed for their disloyalty. When a maniac attempted to kill Nancy Pelosi and smashed the skull of her husband, he cheered it on. He continues to glorify and promise to free the criminals who assaulted police in the attack on the Capitol in an attempt to seize an unelected second term.

It is not Trump’s fault that someone tried to kill him. It is absolutely his fault that it has immediately set off a widespread fear of reprisals and chaos.......

Fellow vice-presidential contender J.D. Vance went even further. “Today is not just some isolated incident,” he wrote. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

This is not true at all. Biden has not said Trump must be “stopped at all costs.” He has said Trump must be stopped through a free and fair election.

The distinction Vance elided is not trivial. In it lies the whole difference between continuing the American experiment and ending it......

Political violence is a tool favored by radical causes. Assassination attempts of authoritarian figures, successful or unsuccessful, generally do not prevent authoritarianism. They enable it.

Even by the coldest calculation, murdering Trump would not protect American democracy because the threat of right-wing authoritarianism would not die with him. Had he been killed, his martyrdom would have only fueled his movement’s will to power.

The country is lucky Trump survived. And now we must protect the system from him.

Violence is not the way to solve issues

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. "This election should not be misleadingly portrayed as a no-holds-barred struggle between democracy or authoritarianism.

I agree with Democratic Rep. Jared Golden

Link to tweet

[Skittles]

2. it is NOT misleading to CALL IT WHAT IT IS

the GOP is INCREASINGLY AUTHORITARIAN

does Golden even fucking know what has happened to the Supreme Court???

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. On August 30th 1918 Vladimir Lenin survived an assassination attempt.

Link to tweet

[slightlv]

4. Violence is not the way to solve issues...

agreed. But perhaps the "other side" would benefit from this warning more than the left. After all, it was a "leftie" who did the deed, and we absolutely detest the orange fool. Instead, all of their reps came out with all kinds of accusations against us, and I've yet to read one apology or have any words from them rescinded.