From Salon.com: Right-wing vigilantes are "positioning ... to launch a coup" [View all]

[Kitchari]

Last edited Sat Sep 5, 2020, 09:27 AM - Edit history (1)

Excerpt from the article by Chauncey Devega in an interview with Alexander Reid Ross

We are witnessing an erosion of democratic norms in this country by Republicans. They accept breaking the law as being viable if it supports "traditional values" — meaning racism. As a practical matter, Donald Trump is spearheading the movement of the Republican Party into a full-on violent racist organization that encourages vigilantism.

-snip-

The left is not in the streets to spark a civil war or escalate violent encounters to the point of breaking civil society into protracted sectarian warfare. The left is in the streets to make life better for ordinary people, and to present a version of the future that would be better and more prosperous for everyone. The more the left maintains its sanity against overwhelming odds, the more the right's paranoia and hysteria will marginalize it in American society. This will create new spaces for progressive causes and movements.

I am worried about crackdowns by Donald Trump and his forces against their direct enemies. This would involve dragging Democrats in front of kangaroo courts and starting to criminalize dissent such that the average American who has a bumper sticker or other affiliation with the Democratic Party or liberal or progressive causes becomes a target for Trump's zealots...

That is the future that right-wing conspiracists such as the QAnon people want. They are the crowd that Donald Trump is signaling to. I do not believe that there is much stopping Donald Trump from following through on his extreme impulses. At this point Donald Trump is desperate. If Trump wins again it will just be more fuel on the fire for his followers.

More at https://www.salon.com/2020/09/04/alexander-reid-ross-on-what-the-media-got-wrong-about-the-portland-protests-everything/]