"Someone Will Die"...Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall

[21st Century Poet]

4. Extreme forms of protest will not help the Democratic Party.

Many of the things which Mr Trump says are absolutely appalling but the protesters need to calm down. Extreme forms of protest will not help the Democratic Party at all. How is rushing the stage and trying to tackle a presidential candidate helpful to the Democratic cause?

This kind of thing gives Mr Sanders's 'revolution' (a problematic term at the best of times) a bad name. And it's allowing Mr Trump to rule the airwaves. Even left-leaning media are constantly carrying stories about him. When you hear another candidate speaking, it's the candidate's reaction to something Mr Trump said or did, or a reaction to something that happened at one of his rallies. It's like this is not a general election anymore but a referendum about Mr Trump.

Let Mr Trump and his followers wallow in their inanities. Stop giving them more free publicity. If you must, organise a march or a novel sort of protest. Most of all, shift the focus from Mr Trump to Mrs Clinton's and Mr Sanders's policies. No, Mr Trump is not Mr Hitler and, no, 6 million Jews are not going to be killed all over again. Stop taking the easy route of Godwin's law (it cheapens The Holocaust and it's as realistic as saying that Bernie Sanders is a Communist whose intention is to turn the United States into a new Soviet Union) and focus on the real issues that matter to Americans today: healthcare, college debts, America's debt, fostering new industries which create jobs and spreading peace instead of war.

All this talk about violence and killings is almost starting to sound like a self-fulfilling prophecy. When someone does wind up dead, then you can say "gotcha". Is that what you want?