I first thought Trump's accusations were defense mechanisms, projection, but rather it is what enables Republicans to behave so horribly. Democrat's are [whatever inane accusation they've recently hurled] gives freedom for his followers to behave similarly. Rather than driving his fans to step back and consider how they are [whatever inane accusation they've recently hurled], it instead emboldens them to even more fascistic, vengeful behavior.
Even though the "Lock her up" crowd looks just plain stupid, they are at a confined event like fans using scripted cheers at a football game. They are not out in the streets intimidating anyone who disagrees with them. Whether or not to call them a "mob" is in the eye of the beholder.
I am not threatened by people yelling in a stadium or auditorium at a political rally, whether or not I think they are making fools out of themselves. But I am threatened if I am having dinner with my wife in a restaurant and a group of uncontrolled people charge in screaming at us, forcing me to leave to protect our personal safety. That is a present, dangerous face to face confrontation. I would definitely define any group descending on me, seemingly out of control, and making me fear for my wife's and my well being, as a "mob".
They are not people exercising their right to "freedom of speech", which does not exist on the premises of a private business establishment.
Rather than having a totally useless debate on the use of a word, we should instead be engaging in mutual effort to promote basic, decent human behavior. If we can't do that, we are like the mobs in the ancient Roman colosseum, cheering on gladiators, satisfied only when one of them is killed by the other.
7
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it". George Bernard Shaw
9
His rallies are gatherings, but Constitutionally protected protests are acts of a mob. It's the Dems who colluded with the Russians. A lot of Democrats are going to vote Republican in the mid-term elections, etc., etc. The words of a desperate man -- even by our "president's" generous standards. Expect it to get worse. His panic level is a reflection of the information he's receiving from the GOP party.
5
What other President in oir history, Bush 1 or 2, Obama, Reagan, Carter, Clinton, LBJ, JFK, even Nixon have used tax dollars to spread a message of hatred and violence WHILE President? Trump is calling veterans "Dims", mothers of children who gave their lives for this country, "Dims", and millions of other hard working and patriotic Americans who are paying taxes for this baffoon to incite his base?
9
Not much of stretch from Lock her up! to Lock Them All Up! We're in dangerous territory and no one is coming to save us. I hope voting is enough.
7
The tactics of Democrats, progressives, lefties and others of yelling at people who are out to dinner, etc. are wrong and very unfortunate. It is playing into the narrative, the lies, spun by Trump and the Trumpsters. Regardless of how much one might detest the politics and the personal presence of someone like the much hated Senator Cruz of Texas, he, his wife and, by extension, any family members or friends should be left alone. It accomplishes nothing except a few minutes of energized, symbolic revenge.
We, all of us, should be better than this. There might be a time when such tactics and even more forceful ones would be necessary but we are not at that point now. Stop it. Stop it right now and act like grown up people who love their country and want to see every person of good will succeed and have a decent life.
I suspect that most of those doing the yelling are younger people. Guess what? If all of the college students in America registered to vote and voted, Trump wouldn't be in the White House right now. Likewise, African Americans, whose participation on the national election in 2016 went down significantly from prior years.
Don't act stupid. Act smart and vote. Encourage everyone you know to vote. Get rid of this idiot in the White House in the normal, accepted way: send him packing with your votes, not your screaming.
5
There are consequences.
My overall assumption, general judgment, of white middle-class middle-age and older Americans was until very recently that they were usually decent and capable, prone to be fair-minded and rational, and could be engaged in civilized conversation. Not anymore.
Now, the people in the photos of Trump rallies are my image of what crude, irrational, dumb fanatics whom you can't trust to be civilized often look like.
If one were to use skin color as an important indication (which it is not the case), they present an argument for white inferiority.
This is spreading around the globe, and won't be easy to overcome.
3
Anybody remember Orwell's Animal Farm, where the discontented mob was made to vent every day with a group chant of "four legs good, two legs baaaad!" The same principle works in 1984, where a daily "two-minute hate" enables the restless masses to scream at images of the enemy du jour, and discharge all their frustrations and discontent at the latest scapegoat.
How different is that from the nonsense of "lock her up" ??
13
These are the same crowds made up of a bizarre groups of working class people who love seeing the Koch's get tax cuts, who are willing to give up healthcare, social security, support an #illegitimateSCOTUS that's going to take away all of their rights.
4
Right back at you the group of misguided people in the picture. Your cult leader trump has been under investigating by several government agencies since he first set foot in the White House. Those in the picture look closer to people who should be put on a 48-hour watch than any democratic candidate I have seen. trumps playbook is to always accuse others of what he himself is doing and nothing has changed. Trump is a divider and hater of Americans. Like un untreated disease or virus that has infected the body politic trump seems to thrill at how much fear, chaos, and lies, he can generate..From his unpaid tax fraud, to the many indictments and guilty pleas of his chaotic administrator, along with his alignment and total support with Russia, his favorite chant "Lock him up" really should be considered trump's swan song!....Soon...Vote!
8
I find it interesting that no one ever chants "Lock HIM up" about anyone.
6
We should start
6
We could better appreciate the contradiction if the New York Times put a picture of recent Antifa mob in Portland next to that of the Trump rally. I would not wish to be anywhere in their path.
4
Instead of a Census, could we please conduct a national IQ Test?I know the “stupid”, much like the poor, will always be with us”, but gawdalmighty! they’re roaming the villages and hamlets in red hats chanting idiotic phrases and wishin’ and hopin’ for 1954 again. I don’t know what’s worse, the Stepford Wives or the Macho Men dressed in cowboy hats and looking like the Village People. Bring back the “intellectuals” - contrary to popular belief, the “elites” never left they just started wearing baseball hats and pretending not to be “daddy’s little man” who wouldn’t know a hard day’s work even if he inherited it.
5
Watching these Trump rallies the parallels with the Nazi rallies of the 1930s are astonishing. Trump abandons all rational argument and launches into tirades against people or institutions that he says are evil, or crooked, or out to steal from you. He turns his, predominantly white, audience into a hysterical mob that is practically baying for blood. His attacks on the press are truly disgraceful. The main difference between Trump and Hitler is that Hitler, evil as he was, was at least a coherent speaker. America should be truly ashamed to see Trump garbling away like a bar room drunk looking for a fight. But, as usual, he's right about one thing - the world is laughing at the US, and at him in particular. The saving grace is that like all incompetent tyrants he will implode having left his mob followers with little to show for it while he reaps the rewards of tax cuts that might bring him closer to the wealth he claims but so obviously does not have.
10
Trump fancies himself a mob boss.
3
Insane - them and their "dear leader".
RESIST
6
Man, the vacant look of the people at these Trump über alles events just freaks. me. out.
8
We have a leader who wants to divide and enjoys doing so. And many others who think that is great.
1
So in other words, yelling "Trump, Trump, Trump" is the equivalent of a violent action? The hypocrisy is truly incredible.
Democrats, show a steady hand and get out to vote!
4
You are correct that Trump stirs up anger in the private setting of the rally. But he’s not encouraging his followers, as far as I know, to get in people’s faces outside the rallies. Can we not agree that screaming in peoples faces in the Senate office buildings, on the street, or in a restaurant, or an elevator, is a tactic of personal intimidation and is a CHOICE being made by the opposition on the left, and probably would be happening even if a moderate were president. Did we see right wing protesters screaming at the Democratic senators? Trump doesn’t force the left to scream. And Holder’s comment “If they go low, kick them” may be metaphorical, but it certainly could be interpreted as a call to physical violence. The chants of “Lock her up” are repulsive and puerile. But let’s be honest, even if it’s not being chanted, many on the left want to “Lock him up.” Did we see right wing protester screaming at the Democratic senators?
5
Republicans have selective memory, forgetting actions and slogans of their Tea Party subset.
Tea Party Patriots web site circulated a memo instructing protestors to "Pack the hall. Yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early. Get him off his prepared script and agenda. Stand up and shout!"
Tea Party protestor signs like "Dissent is Patriotic", "By Ballot or Bullet, Restoration is Coming" and "We came unarmed (this time)" were acceptable to Republicans during the Obama Administration but now protesting Democrats are unpatriotic, angry mobs?
7
Holder says, "When they go low, we kick them," offering this as the approach of "the new Democratic Party." Hillary says abandon attempts at civil dialogue.
I say NO. And I say that these two need to step aside already and let new leadership emerge instead of getting into the sandbox with players who can always - and who will always - go lower than we can even imagine. Enough of this sandbox politics already, by aging participants who in their narcissism are already prone to self-centeredness and immaturity. We need a new deal.
And we need to get out the vote, with a positive message. These rally attendees are not the only angry folks in the US. People across the spectrum are getting tired of Trump & the GOP's antics, tired of the negative messaging and palace intrigue and reality-tv gamesmanship - and they are getting sick of the ugliness that pervades the political and social landscape. But if the Democrats have only their own version of ugliness to offer, it will not appeal to those whose votes we need to hold off the descent into authoritarianism and neofascism.
We need to find a common ground with Democrats, independents and yes, even Republicans. Even some evangelicals who are disturbed by Trump and want a counter-balance. They exist but we don't reach them when we go low, too.
This is why I am going to Texas to go door to door to get out the vote for Beto O'Rourke. He seeks to unify and humanize, not go low. It's what is desperately needed right now.
10
To appreciate the irony of someone standing in front of a crowd of nut cases yelling "lock her up" and then characterizing the opposition as "an angry mob", you have to know the meaning of the word irony. My guess is that less than 10% of the crowd attending that rally could pass that test.
14
Dangerous, divisive, caustic, manipulative, destructive. These are only a few of the many words that can be used to describe our Commander in Chief. Imagine that, this is the current President we have. And his supporters eat it up, too frenzied and wild with excitement to even realize that the President would turn on them in less than a second if it suited his aspirations. It used to be that when our President spoke at a rally there was decorum and respectful behavior for the event, not the type of antics that are standard for a Trump event. The type of behavior we see at a Trump event is more like what occurs when the leader of North Korea speaks to his people. Maybe not too surprising, given that Mr. Trump adores Mr. Kim. But remember Mr. President, this is America, not North Korea. Sorry, but you can't have everything you want.
6
"Consider the question of angry left-wing mobs. They seem to be everywhere all of a sudden in this formerly placid country. "
This quote is taken directly from a Tucker Carlson opinion piece on Fox's website right now.
Formerly placid? This is detached from reality.
Carlson ends his unhinged screed by lamenting Holder's recent statements, saying "Why not shoot [republicans] or burn them? The former attorney general has given his permission to get physical. Don't be surprised when the mob obeys."
Gee, I wonder how he feels about Trump's rallies? Why am I supposed to pretend that these people are honest? Why am I supposed to pretend that they're not deplorable? They just are.
12
@C's Daughter
Perhaps Carlson missed the carnage in Charlottesville. Why am I not surprised?
2
I wonder if people at the time knew what was happening in the Nuremberg rallies? We look back on them now with horror. What will these Trump rallies seem like to future generations?
9
Uh, no, Peter, the Dems are really nuts now!
3
@Nreb
Seriously, when was the last time you saw a rally with Dems/Libs wearing Nazi armbands? Or demonstrators carrying automatic rifles? You are delusional.
4
I don't like it when Trump trashes other people, and incites a rally to do the same.
That does not lead to a healthy society. It leads to anger, fear, and mistrust of other people.
11
Crazies always think everyone else is crazy.
But this is more than that. He is marketing/selling mere disagreement with Trump policies and processes as crazy. He wants to lock up--jail or insane asylum--the entire Democratic Party--and any other dissenting party.
He's selling mass insanity--not unlike Jim Jones in Jonestown--aka "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project,"
Forget killing someone on Fifth Ave; worry about killing all dissenters. Trump's holocaust. He is setting up Trumpies to have blind brand loyalty--then he'll unleash them like attack dogs.
7
When the King declares you guilty you are guilty, when her declares you innocent you are innocent. What part of Trumpian American Justice do you fail to understand?
1
Yet another example of Trump (and Republicans) projecting onto others (Democrats) the crimes and misdeeds that they actually commit. Mob? I recall how in 2000, paid Republican operatives flooded the Palm Beach election offices to disrupt the hand-recount. Mob? Charlottesville. Rigged Election?
We see who actually rigged (stole) the 2016 election.
This is a ploy to cow Democrats and activists, and ultimately, to discourage people and suppress the vote.
Newest ploy? Calling Democrats “socialists” and warning that “radical” “evil” Democrats will turn the US into Venezuela (remember when they said that spending money on infrastructure and rescuing the country from the Bush/Cheney Recession would turn the US into Greece?)
Those who care about the existential threat of climate change, about protecting women’s reproductive rights, about stopping the epidemic of gun violence, who have had enough of a lawless administration incarcerating children and separating parents, those who care about social justice, climate justice, economic justice, voting rights, MUST VOTE THEM OUT.
Democratic Socialist? The correct term should be Social Justice Democrats.
4
GOP brave support of working Kansans:
1. Billions gifted to millionaires and billionaires.
2. No infrastructure jobs.
3. Farm trade wrecked.
4. No increase to minimum wage.
5. Looting of public education.
6. No clean energy jobs.
7. Explosion of public debt.
8. Undermining of affordable health insurance.
9
The best response to Trump?
Vote.
Vote.
Vote.
7
The most offensive part of this article comes from Maxine Waters. That's just pure hate.
2
Oh my. Really? When POTUS does nothing but spew hate? Maybe you should read it again and try to dig up a little compassion for fellow citizens. We all need it.
4
Who are the snowflakes again?
5
And a left-wing mob is better than a right-wing mob because...? The silencing of politically incorrect speakers , including pro-Israeli Jews and moderate Muslims, on college campuses is bad enough. So now we should be treated to the same scenes everywhere in the country? Back to Germany in the early 1930s when Communist thugs were beating up Nazi thugs and vice versa. In those dark times, the true heroes were those few who refused to join either side. Are we coming to the same juncture in this country?
2
Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that this grotesque display of animus could come from the President of the United States.
This shocking and sad spectacle needs to cease. It is mortifying and dangerous for our children to witness this kind of hate and division.
201
"Panem et circenses." The easily managed and easily entertained Roman colosseum crowds are dust but our human capability to embrace bloodlust will never die. Take a long, hard look at the Trump crowd: the wild eyes, the strident voices, the chants, the spittle on their lips. The mob demands action. This is the time to vote.
6
If any reader wonders why our Nation is at each others throats, just listen to the vain bumbler-jester at the head of our table. While he uses his cognitive bias to belittle his opponents just as I did, he creates hate among the voters. Trump, however, cannot do this because he creates these antipathies that turn us against each other. This is egregious behavior that we should not tolerate. Our President should be a healer, not a renderer of our society.
5
Seems that the angry white folks at Trump rallies didn't pay much attention in history class..I didn't either but I do at least recall how Hitler started out (very much like Trump, but with less wealth and showmanship). I remember what the Fathers and Grandfathers and their peers who did not survive in World War I and II sacrificed. I am an old white lady who worked my entire career in healthcare. I can say with absolute certainty that I did not understand even my own small city until I started doing home health physical therapy. I didn't know about toddlers being raised by drug addicts (of all races). I didn't know how many folks work full-time and had NO access to any healthcare coverage. I have spent some time in an area of extreme poverty in West Africa. I can say that the poor in North Carolina are more likely to have a roof over their heads, but are less likely to have a nutritious diet, are more likely to have untreated mental illness, and are much more likely to be ignored by the wealthier members of their town. I could list 100 towns in the Southeast United States that are essentially third-world countries. Trump has not and will not help anyone who cannot pad his own riches, either right now or later on. Coal jobs, textile jobs, manufacturing jobs will never return to this country. It is incredibly cruel of Trump to tell Americans that they will. He nor his daughter do any manufacturing of their many good in this country.
15
Once again the Republican height of hypocrisy. They care for nothing other their own self interest.
7
Trump quote of the day, via WaPost transcription of Fox interview.
“I’ll bet you’ve (sic) I’ve lost billions of dollars,” he said, adding: “It’s worth every penny of it. … I’m doing so much for the country.”
Class, anyone?
2
I am amazed at the people at these rallies who scream "lock her up" knowing that their faces will appear on tv and in other Media. If Trump is fooling them it is because they want to be fooled and that is sad.
2
How can you lock someone up without due process? Is this still America? If you're not scared you're not paying attention.
5
This is what you get when you have a two party system, and the two parties get a bit too close to one another, and corporatism rules.
Trump has tapped into what Republican's portend to fight against, which is the welfare state.
The Kavanaugh hearing reopened old wounds, oozing with back room deals, hidden agendas, and bogus investigations.
All the while, our country is careening towards financial bankruptcy.
To those who read this, never let it get you down. Stand up, take note, and get involved, anyway you can.
With roughly half the country voting, you can make a difference.
5
Dear Trump Supporters: Please sober up. This is not a game. The future of our democracy is at stake.
5
There is only one possible response from Americans who are disgusted with this disgrace to the name of President. Vote.Him. Out. Cripple him in the mid-terms and turf him out in 2020. Lame Duck Donald has kind of a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
6
A political rally getting riled up is NOT the same as a mob assaulting and harassing passers-by and elected officials.
When the tea party protested, they did it completely by the book. They rented out space for protest, worked peacefully with law officers, and dispersed in an orderly fashion.
2
@TWarren
Try telling the members of the press that there’s no harassment at these rallies.
4
@T. Warren
These rallies are all about the presumption of guilt for one's political opponents. Lock her up is a mentality as well.
2
"Seig Heil!"
I fear the worst.
3
NYT: Each time you report on a Trump rally, you must begin with a count of the rally goers. Also an overview of how often Trump has used that immediate region for his shows, and an estimate of how many attendees are repeaters, groupies, or new to the spectacle.
By not reporting on the facts first you are only stoking Trump’s own hate-mongering.
You are a news agency. Facts first please.
2
Trump seems to live by the childhood refrain of, "I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you." Meanwhile, his followers behave like the NHL referee who always penalizes for the retaliation, while missing the initial infraction. It makes for a very sad and dangerous combination.
7
There is nothing wrong with Democratic nonviolent protest and civil disobedience. But the Republicans are currently an example of nearly tyrannical rule, since they control all branches of government and they show no desire for bipartisanship. When Trump smiles at his rallies as the crowd shouts 'lock her up', when he told Hillary at a debate that if he became president he would investigate her, when Nunes works behind the scenes with the White House to thwart Mueller, and when the Rs on the Judiciary Committee work with the White House, and leave the Ds out, in order to confirm Kavanaugh, all of that is an example of mob rule and tyranny. I hate to say this, but the Republicans get a large part of their support from the former Confederate states, and Trump certainly knows how to stoke their anger. These former slave states know much more about mob rule, along with lynchings, than do nonviolent protesters (who also fought against the segregated south in the 1950-1960s).
9
This IS Amerika.
@Victor
No. It is not.
1
“Drain the swamp!”
Indeed, this is precisely what one would expect to find at the bottom of a swamp.
4
On a lighter note, there is some small irony in the “enthused gentleman” in the picture, punching the air and maybe chanting lock her up, wearing a Texas Christian University shirt. Or maybe he is turning the other cheek?
5
I’m truly afraid for our country.
71
How long are we going to be distracted by Hillary Clinton, forever? And, isn't it ironic, Trump calling her a crook, of all people the biggest crook there is!
8
Do they allow reporters to have dictionaries at the New York Times, or do they knowingly ignore the meaning of words?
mob
[mäb]
NOUN
a large crowd of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence.
"a mob of protesters"
A Trump Rally and Antifa are not even close to being a contradiction.
1
His rallies are nothing but venues for spreading lies and false propaganda.Why are we, the tax payers, paying to fly this lier-in-chief around and paying for his security details? Is there anyway he can be legally made to pay for his hate filled rallies?
9
Hate to be the armchair psychologist but it seems to me what these red state folks love so much about Trump (in spite of his open disregard for their welfare and his beliefs about their stupidity) is that they see their mirror image in him: a man, full of faults, crass, distrusting of the establishment, lacking book smarts and bluntly offensive. Trump IS one of them without being one of them (due to his inheritance and the tax dodges from his father, Fred Trump). Trumpsters and Trump truly are kindred spirits.
4
That's funny that you think the "Lock her up" chant is any way comparable to what the antifa and other left wing folks are doing.
2
@Brian
Violence of any kind is across the board unacceptable. Compare hitting someone with a car and killing them to another act of murder.
Yelling Lock Her Up is juvenile incitement.
That Trump pushes it is his sad and continuing degradation of the office of our presidency. And frankly it is a sad statement of him as a man.
8
Spot on, it’s much worse. Jailing political opponents is simply Tyrannical. Trump is in good company with Stalin, Mao, Putin, and Hitler, to name just a few.
2
@Brian - what, exactly are the "antifa and other left wing folks" doing, in your estimation - and if you have specific issues, can you tell us the sources of information you've used to develop those issues? Thank you for any clarification.
6
Yet another horrific hurricane is tearing up the American South. Where's our leader (the one who castigated Obama for campaigning two weeks after Hurricane Sandy) ? Oh, right .... Trump's in Erie, PA, hosting yet another "hate rally." (How original: "Lock her up," bleated yet again.) Hey, President, throw those MAGA mobsters some paper towels. What a guy!
19
Mr. Trump thrives on hate, verbalized in the “Lock Her Up” chant, which seems to have become the modern Republican Party equivalent of “Seig Heil”. The political use of that particular phrase ended badly for all Germans and much of the world. Let the rest of us, Republican and Democrat alike, do all we can to send “Lock Her Up” into history books as a footnote for a failed political movement.
14
Focus Americans. Global climate change is the issue of the times. Stop making the issue the politician. They are suppose to be public servants. The issue isn't even civil rights. It is humanity and its survival. Whether there will be a planet for your children and grandchildren. That's the issue. Stay focused and make them talk about that. NOT abortion, NOT LGBTQ rights, NOT who pees where, NOT who did what in high school. THE ISSUE is climate change.
2
This cretin is one poisonous sub human, and it is hard to imagine too many more years of watching these chanting morons waving their little phones around and being so nakedly conned, as their pockets are being picked and their children's future being pushed toward immolation.
21
@mk...You, Sir, have hit the nail on the head.
4
@BBH it’s maam ,actually. I became aware of this lying con man ,living in New York all of my life, a long time ago. Either there fools are ignorant of his history, or don’t care. These last few years have been the most depressing of my life...
@mk
Lambs to the slaughter.
1
This obscenity of a president has got to go. He is "wacko." And how much do they pay the people to attend the rallies?
9
Trump wants a class war, race war and religious war. Simple as that.
11
It's obvious the cities trump holds his rallies in are in desperate need of a bowling alley.
23
Doesn't do a thing for 8 dollar beans.
1
I’d be all for fighting fire with fire if there was any evidence that it was helpful. But all of the evidence that I’ve seen so far seems to be pointing in the opposite direction: Trump supporters are emboldened, Trump’s “both side-ism” claim is now slightly more believable, and the small number of folks who are still on the fence seem to be staying put. Should we wait for additional evidence before continuing with this strategy?
2
Is anyone else alarmed by this? When I watch a Trump rally, all I can think of is that it echoes the rallies of fascists in the 1930's. It doesn't look exactly like those rallies of the past, but it has the same ingredients with the cheap inflammatory rhetoric. He frames everything in the same Alice in Wonderland way that turns the civil into the uncivil, the good into the bad, the real into the false. This man is our president. He has great power and influence in our country and is, in theory, supposed to unite us and attempt to represent all Americans. DJT does the complete opposite. He is playing with fire with his anger inducing theatrics. What will happen when anything happens to him in regards to the Mueller investigation? Where will the pent up fury of his followers go? He is creating a tinderbox in our country that will be frightening when it explodes. And he knows it.
154
@PK
It will disappear. The reason they blindly follow him is because on their own they are impotent.
2
@PK, here's a scenario for you. The explosion you fear occurs, and Trump uses it as an excuse to either impose martial law and/or suspend the November elections. The coup is complete. All hail Emperor Donald I. (Perhaps not probable, but extremely possible.)
1
@PK Yes. At this point, "Lock her up!" is not much different than "Sieg Heil!"
Trump knows that once his criminal activities fully come to light, the only thing that might save him is the near invulnerability of the Presidency (bolstered now by a Supreme Court whose majority rulings might cement that invulnerability), and the fury of his cultish followers as a true mob that has already shown flashes of real violence. Not verbal confrontations on elevators, but at least one death of an innocent young woman, following tiki torch marching and racist chants.
The thing that roils my gourd about all this is the towering hypocrisy of Trump and the right. The ringmaster of angry right-wing mobs assailing Democrats because protesting women had drummed up the courage to talk about their assaults and plead for politicians to step up against Kavanaugh. A mob of Republicans in Congress balking Obama at every turn, redefining Presidential prerogatives by shunning Merrick Garland (so much for rule of law), and trying to shove legislation down Democrats' throats with bills of thousands of pages presented only hours before votes. Mob rule, indeed.
3
When they go low, we do kick them, but the rub is that we kick them in such a way that they don't know where the kick came from, but they sure feel its sting. Yes, we have to fight them, but we also have to fight smartly, and booing Republicans out of restaurants isn't it. As fun as it is to go low, you still have to go high, as Senator Heitkamp is trying to tell you.
4
Trump's insatiable hunger for attention and lack of self-esteem lead him to say just about anything in order to elicit hoots, hollers and cheers from his (paid) adoring crowd. He must have been mightily abused as a child, abandoned, or completely ignored by his parents and relatives. I've never seen any public figure so needy, so uncomfortable in his own skin, so tragically wounded. The president of the United States. Stupefying.
11
Mr. Trump understands very well how to rile up a crowd into a mob, then he blames Democrats for doing the same thing even though they are not. This seeming myopia is very strategic, but it is also very bad for our country.
Meanwhile, many Democrats think we're being too civil and too nice. I disagree. We can be civil and firm at the same time. We need to present a model of decency that the Trumpers have forgotten.
Just yesterday I spoke with a middle-aged black man in my town, who says that his job takes him by appointment to homes where his services are needed, but that when people see his skin color, they are reluctant to let him in. Surely we can be better than this.
7
"The arena boomed with shouting voices and they kept going. 'Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!' Mr. Trump smiled and soaked it in. Then he assailed the Democrats for becoming 'an angry left-wing mob.'”
How is Trump's behavior acceptable to anyone? You couldn't get your children through elementary school with this twisted speech.
He is defaming the Democrats, messing with people's unquestioning minds, and taking down our two-party system.
13
Qhat part of this is news anymore? May I suggest an article about how the sun came up this morning?
2
@michael, and isn't that a sad commentary on our times? Obviously, people must be reminded that the would-be dictator in the White House is not acting in the best interests of the majority of the country. I have no problem with this article. I do have a problem with him being in the oval office.
3
Does anybody believe that right-wing hypocrisy matters anymore? Complaining about the lack of due process for Kavanaugh while ginning up mobs like this would be laughable if it wasn't so seriously dangerous.
10
Tax them up ! Tax them up! Tax them up ! Can't wait for these Pa. Trumptsters to pay their taxes without mortgage and state tax deductions . Tax them up !!
4
Trump needs to cool it.
Back when people like Tennessee's Marsha Blackburn were parroting that Planned Parenthood was slicing and dicing "baby parts", the guy who made the fake video with its fake claims got indicted. But guess what- those same words inspired loner lunatic Robert Dear to leave his home, move to Colorado, stalk people at the Planned Parenthood and kill a bunch of people. Who did he kill? Parents and a campus cop.
Inciting is dangerous and Blackburn is still saying these lies and running for Senate. Trump is paving the way for another killing by labeling other Americans as "evil". He is responsible for the tone he alone is setting at these rallies.
11
so....november matters more but...i can't help noticing that most of these Trump rallies occur in venues with capacities no larger than 10,000 (concert style) and are lucky to have 3/4 of that in attendance. the crowd size hype, sro claims, linestander fees, overflow reports, etc are inauguration phony. huge flags and banners backdrop/bracket empty seats, lights in vacant upper tiers dimmed, camera angles/media placement penalty-boxes placed....you wonder who Trump's Speer and Riefenstahl are? story there? they may feel like Nuremberg but they're small-handed events. start each rally coverage article w actual crowd size vs. venue capacity. show overall photos instead of staged set pieces, maybe color coded seating graphics akin to voting maps....expose the lies w images and facts, otherwise you help play their game.
8
This dangerous "president" is truly yelling FIRE in a crowded gun toting theatre. The fire out be put out....of office before its too late.
seriously America...is this the best we can do?
11
Our esteemed Senator Amy Klobuchar is one of Congress’s most bipartisan and moderate lawmakers.
Senator Klobuchar, whom Justice Kavanaugh yelled at and insulted during his hearing, is not the Left Wing Mob.
And when asked if he was the character Bart O’Kavanaugh in the book that his friend Mark Judge wrote about extreme teen age drinking, “Wasted”, Justice Kavanaugh yelled back, “Ask him!”
So, did the FBI ask Mark Judge if his character Bart O’Kavanaugh is based on his friend Bret Kavanaugh?
Or, did Mark Judge say he could not recall writing the book?
Mob.
Mob indeed.
Trump knows all about Mobs.
94
Just before the vote on Kavanaugh, I put myself on a total media blackout. I've come back today to find a story in which to comment that the past 6 days or so, not knowing what is happening in the world, have been relaxing and refreshing. I actually didn't think about Trump and didn't have to see his scowling face. Bliss.
I've come back to say, please take a total break from all this turmoil, if even for a few days. I've not given up the fight, I do care, and I will vote. Going back on my media blackout until the midterm election. Take care everyone and let's get out and vote.
2
I want to propose a litmus test for our next president; he or she must agree not to turn the American people against one another, not to incite hatred; to bind us, not divide us, to underline our commonalities. If you can’t do this, you should not seek to lead. Right now, we are governed by those who would employ fear, ignorance, and an insatiable need for drama. It is probably already too late to undo the damage.
7
The Republicans should be very concerned that one of their own politicians may suffer serious bodily harm and possibly death from some of these leftist demonstrators. We only have to look at Steve Scalise and Rand Paul to see we are almost at that point. The Democrat leaders should tell these protestors to tone in down before the Republicans suffer even a worse fate. Some of these protesters are quite violent and it only takes one mentally unhinged individual to end a life. This madness must stop and it can start with the Democrats speaking up against this violence. Do they have the grit and courage to do so? Time will only tell.
1
@WPLMMT
These are bogus examples. To cite Rand Paul's continuing arguments with his neighbor attacking him about his lawn habits as representative of some sort of example of political mobbery is laughable.
Condemn all violence. And yes, it only takes one mentally unhinged individual to end a life and Trump needs to take that seriously with labeling other Americans as "evil". That is completely irresponsible, territory Trump knows well unfortunately.
2
The same people who say Kavanaugh shouldn’t be tried in the court of public opinion are happy to falsely accuse another life long public servant of wrongdoing while publicly shaming her for years with the gleeful support of the president. Kavanaugh couldn’t handle the hate, lies, and public shaming that lasted 90 days during his confirmation hearing. That underscores the weakness of men. HRC and her family have endured years of abuse and it highlights the strength of all women who have a unique capacity to endure. We should all be embarrassed that this is what American politics has come to: still chanting ‘lock her up’ two years after an election she won by over 3 million votes.
10
Mr Baker - I am having difficulty making the gigantic leap you made in conflating boisterous rallies where no one is assaulted (President Trump rallies) with left wing activists physically confronting/yelling at individual Republican officeholders, or worse, actually assaulting or terrorizing innocent people (Antifa in Portland stands as Exhibit A).
Is the rhetoric of “lock her up” overheated? Sure. Are those people crowding Sen Feinstein in a restaurant and hounding her out? Nope.
13
She would never eat at any restaurant you would ever go to.
6
@Jim Seeman "where no one is assaulted"? Quite wrong sir, Mr. Trump has incited his throngs to violence multiple times during these Nationalist Republican gatherings, and his thugs have responded accordingly.
98
@Jim Seeman Regardless of the accuracy of your statement, you make a comparison of rhetoric in an organized rally for Trump to every other event that might have occurred in the nation somehow related - or not related - to the values of democrats. The fair comparison would be to compare the rhetoric in a rally for Obama, for instance, and that in a rally for Trump. Night and day. (Looking for exhibit A for Trump? Charlottesville, VA.)
1
Trump rants to a crazy right wing mob about a crazy left wing mob. The new Republicans against the new Democrats. A man with no historical perspective is creating a new America in his own image. Not so great.
83
@Milton Lewis Except, if the women protesting against Kavanaugh and desperately trying to get Republicans to listen, or the Democratic senators flailing for some way to stop the runaway Kavanaugh freight train, were mobs, then the Tea Party's origin antics must be the KKK on a lynch mob run.
Here's how you truly understand Republican tactics: anything they accuse their opponents of doing, look closer - you'll find that they do it themselves, to a far greater degree or their opponents don't actually do it at all.
1
Fascism, clear as day. I have neighbors and family that will vote Trump. Its still fascism.
13
Some of the vitriol spewing from Trump's lips would be considered unconscionable if uttered by any other president. He relishes the adrenalin rush of hate speech and craves the adulation of the undernourished crowd. I am so looking forward to having a president who isn't severely mentally ill. Even a president with mild mental illness or severe neurosis would be preferable over this crazed lunatic. The media should refuse to cover these insane rallies; they're not news — they're just venomous evil regurgitated by a madman.
5
If Obama had done a pep rally during the worst hurricane to ever hit the Florida panhandle, the GOP would have absolutely vilified the man.
Trump? They gave him a pass.
He gets a pass on Puerto Rico, adultery, on creating a massive deficit, his foolish trade wars....
Trumpeteers are a cult.
17
People who attend Trump rallies are the same ones who protested the ACA, holding signs that said "Keep the government's hands off my Medicare."
Ignorant, uninformed and, yes, racist.
10
Trump has dragged so many people down into the mud with him, but we can't go there because to sink to his level will never be accepted by the vast majority of voters who will only be disgusted by such idiotic actions. Let Trump's base wallow in the mud with their creature, the rest of us rational people need to use our intellects to counter Trump's deceit and madness.
11
@MyOwnWoman to your well put "we can't go there because to sink to his level will never be accepted by the vast majority of voters who will only be disgusted by such idiotic actions" my first response is to wholeheartedly agree.
But my second response is: "Too late"
In other words, your side (since you said "we") has already "gone there" and as a result will "never be accepted by the vast majority" who are already "disgusted" by the "idiotic actions" that have followed since the 2016 election. Both from those in positions of power, and all the sheep who are following.
You may say that Trump is the one leading many blindly following sheep. To some extent, I might agree. But don't underestimate the fierce independence of middle America. They are not so much following Trump as making use of him -- the moment his usefulness exceeds their distaste for him as a person, he will be put aside. But I don't see that happening until well after 2020.
@T M It's quite humorous to me that when posting for the NYTimes you are warned "Comments are moderated for civility." But Hillary Clinton herself has said that there is no need to be civil in the current climate -- and it's not like she's isolated, she's just saying in plain words what many in her party are regularly acting out -- and encouraging the sheep that follow them to act out.
So will the NYTimes now be dropping the requirement for civility?
When Obama was president, people were constantly posting on Facebook, "Kill Obama!"
3
"I know you are, but what am I" is the kind of juvenile and pitiful attitude I'd expect from Trump and his band of rabid, angry, misguided and delusional enablers.
6
It is called projection.
10
Trump is a disease that has spread to Republican leaders. His desperate, angry followers at these rallies are unable to see him for the pathologic and ignorant man that he is.
Why do people follow and tolerate this cruel and cartoonish man called Trump? Is it purely out of pain and anger for their life circumstances? Were they brought up to cope with pain and grievance by lashing out and blaming others, any others? Have they raised their own families in this way? Are they blind to the pain and challenges that each and every person must deal with in their own, unique lives? Do they lack the will and courage to resist destructive demagoguery as an outlet for their pain and anger?
9
@Gary H
Isn't this how Hitler found his way to the top? Scary times we live in.
11
@Gary H One word: Racists.
Trump is not smart, but cunning. He has been doing this since the escalator in Trump Tower. It isn't news.
6
There’s no contradiction. Trump is just a master manipulator and bully. It’s all a lie agreed upon to vent his follower’s rage. It’s a drug. He makes them feel good. The fact that Democrats like Booker and Biden think the answer is to try and out-bully Trump is rediculous. First of all, they couldn’t possibly and secondly, that is not the Democrat’s temperament. Try some honesty. For that they’ll have to give up some of the corporate money though.
5
But I never see trump bring up his greatest achievement at these rallies: that he has locked up - no, not the "Woman Of The Day" that he hates - but has locked up children, in dog cages.
How come? He could be so cute pretending to be a little child, squirming around, no room to move, crying out for their mother.
Odd. This seems right up his alley.
Think on that.
His greatest achievement is putting kids in cages.
The whole world is watching.
Impeach.
10
It's so depressing to read, day after day, about Trump's attempts to incite the mob by using inflammatory language about the opposing party. How on earth this thug ascended to the highest position in the land is beyond comprehension. He's coarse, crass and impolitic. I sure do miss the Obamas.
11
And, who can ever forget the day that trump announced that he was running for President?
There were two stories that day.
One, was that he was running and he was going to get those "Mexican rapists".
But the other story, as we all remember, was that he had paid actors to show up, get a free t-shirt and be paid $50 bucks.
"NO! I NEVER!" he bellowed, when asked.
But the agency was found that put out the call to actors and then the actors, themselves, were found and interviewed.
Watch the clip of trump and Melania descending the escalator that day. You can pick out the ones in the trump t-shirts, holding signs and "cheering" him on.
He paid for them. End of story.
Now, let's talk about the 50,000 voter applications that are sitting in the desk in Georgia that are bona fide voter suppression and are 70% black applications.....
14
ALL your favorite Republicrooks are saying this. It's a strategy, employed by a mob expressing PROJECTION. "I know you are, but what am I? LOOK what you made me do!" Bunch of mean, nasty children, as are the clueless "mobs" who support them.
8
Don Trump is the master leader in the Politics of Chaos!
@brownpelican28
His book should have been called The Art of the Scam or maybe The Art of the Con.
2
In 26 days we’ll know how sick America is. If Republicans retain control of the House, the disease is probably unrecoverable.
11
You have to tell Trumpy he is special or you hurt his ego, poor baby.NY.will lock him up for his tax game and there are no pardons. Lock Him Up.
5
This crowd mentality is truly frightening; it is only a short step away from vigilantism and raw violence, stoked by fear and hatred. Trump's on-going rallies stir up his base to the point of illogical reasoning that spills over into everyday life and the increasing lack of civility. To me, this is one of the real dangers of the Trump presidency. The Great Divider, to stroke his ego, is doing this at great cost to our country and future. How can we encourage and provide models of good citizenship to our children when our president continually lies and fuels the fires of hatred and vile nonsense? This anger could explode in our faces very shortly, and then where do we go?
109
The optimist will believe, “We go forward with a Democratic majority in the House or Senate, or both, and repair the substantive damage done by Mr. Trump and the GOP. “ The pessimist will believe, “We go forward into a dark era of hate and violence against all who dare resist Mr. Trump and the well-armed NRA wing of the Republican Party.” The realist sees a long slide into a hate-driven future where politics and racism meld and hope withers slowly.
2
I took my son to attend an Obama rally when O was first running for president. It was jam- packed with thousands of people. So full that they had to set up extra spaces for the overflow crowds. Nobody during that rally spoke an uncivil word about anyone else. The love that spread throughout the crowd was palpable. People were excited and enthusiastic without the speaker ever once resorting to stirring up anger or resentment toward anyone else.
I contrast that with the regular ugliness at Trump rallies. Trump is an appalling speaker. Besides being dumb as a rock, his only apparent skill is in stirring up rage and divisiveness, and his audiences must enjoy feeling enraged, because they lap it up. How they can stand to live in a state of near-constant fury is beyond comprehension.
McConnell is another expert in rage politics, well in the tradition of Newt Gingrich. Trump is merely the next step in the politics of divisiveness.
This has been brewing for a long time - I first encountered insanely furious people on line in social media forums. The brutality that manifests in some people is astonishing. It has made me think the country is having a massive, unacknowledged mental health crisis. These perpetually angry people must exist in some kind of emotional or mental hell.
24
Let's be clear these chants of Lock Her Up are nothing more than the new American Sieg Heil.
13
Mr. Trump and all his followers:
So with the quote below you are encouraging violence against a US citizen. How do you justify this? How does any human being condone this? How can we call ourselves free people when our own president calls for violence against its own citizens?
“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?” Mr. Trump said at one rally, promising if they did, “I will pay for the legal fees.” At another, he said of a protester, “I’d like to punch him in the face.” As a protester was being taken out by security at a third rally, he said: “Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court.”
7
I don’t know why they are so mad. They won.
7
This is just more bait. Trump is good at that. He really has no interest in public service, and democracy has too many rules. So he pits Americans against eachother, then mocks anyone who tries to stand up for themselves, regardless if they are "civil". Democrats, stop rising to the bait and just get to work doing the good works you believe in. Trump has already poisoned the well.
4
Wow. Do conservatives not see the bad behavior committed by Trump supporters? Did no one watch the news showing the alt right attacking people with sticks and brandishing torches? Mr. Trump has caused an escalation of protest and violence on both sides. I happen to believe that the left is in the right here.
6
Another example of projection, hypocrisy, and intolerance: Mr. Trump says it is very tough being a man today, when you can falsely be accused of wrongdoing; yet, Mr. Trump called for the death penalty for the teenagers collectively called the “Central Park Five” and gave them no presumption of innocence—even worse, after they were exonerated, Trump continued to insist they were guilty. Apparently, the presumption of innocence only applies to privileged white men accused of sexual assault by women.
5
What distinguishes the right from the left is not their dangerous rhetoric encouraging vigilantism but the decades of purposeful planning, or maybe just luck, to undermine our democratic structures. The "think tanks", the interest groups, the media personalities, the contact lists of millions of voters--where are the liberal equivalents?
If the left hopes to compete, we must become as organized and as ardent as the right. Frankly, I see no meaningful blue wave in the next two elections. But against a party pushing to (and winning) reverse the outcomes of the civil war, the New Deal and the Great Society, we must be as tough as they. This does not mean advocating violence. But we gotta get smarter!
Thank you. Harriet
1
"Left Wing Mobs" is the perception of many Americans who viewed the Kavanaugh hearings. The shouting down of testimony and disruption of the Congressional hearings was disgraceful.So-called political "activists" badgering Congressmen and others was not an act of "free speech" as claimed by many Democrats, but rather the opposite.
The trading of political favors for donations to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State has never been seriously investigated and has become a rallying cry for some Republicans but never to silence others.
2
@jck Before we investigate Ms Clinton could we look into the lies and deceit leading up to the catastrophic invasion of Iraq ?
3
@jck
Were you asleep in 2015 and 2016? Also, unlike Trump, Hillary Clinton provided her tax returns when she ran for president, and there was nothing there. Obviously there is a subset of the population that refuses to believe the results of investigations and reports that conclude anything other than Mme. Clinton being a three-headed monster who feasts upon the flesh of children and breathes fire, and there is nothing that can be done to appease them, short of spending over $7 million of taxpayers' money and wasting Congressional time and resources. I guess there's no pleasing everybody.
1
It would be wise for the commenters who claim that the Democrats are becoming “mob-like” and uncivil to read some history deeply and thoroughly. Citizens begin to resort to more extreme tactics when their representatives ignore their wishes. Think of just one example if you will. After the massacre of first graders at Sandy Hook nearly 80% of all Americans wanted our government to do something serious to prevent that sort of atrocity from occurring again. What did we get? Basically nothing but “thoughts and prayers”. The wishes of a majority of American citizens were ignored. And we continue to be ignored.
It is hard to even get through on the phone to talk to our public servants or their aides. Emails and letters are ignored. Some of these GOP cowards refuse to even show up for town halls.
We have a president who lost the popular vote and makes no effort to represent the majority of people’s wishes or interests. Rather, he sees us as the enemy. The GOP has been busy trying to gerrymander their way into power or disenfranchise people unlikely to vote for them whenever and however they can. They don’t want democracy nor do they want to serve us.
Most people do not support Trump. The number of people who call themselves Republican is declining. If the government won’t listen to civil requests, they will get uncivil ones. Being ignored is not an alternative. We pay them to do a job. They aren’t doing it.
10
Your comparison of the aggression and mendacity of Trumpite Republicans to Democrats is a false equivalency. There is a reason we teach young people to avoid such fallacies.
The Republicans under Trump are a recognizably authoritarian movement. Holocaust historian Timothy Snyder has laid out the resemblances. Contempt for facts, check. Embrace of blatant contradiction, check. Demonization of critics or opponents as "extremists," check. Trump has said publicly, over and over, that he admires authoritarians and wants to be like them. This isn't that complicated.
We're in a national crisis. And The Time clings desperately to its "both side do it" conceptual frame. It's distorting the truth at a moment when we need the truth as a matter of our political survival.
13
Among today's news headlines is the following: "The White House has vowed to “look into” a decision taken by Fox News to stop broadcasting Donald Trump’s rallies live and in full because they’re no longer bringing in high ratings." Why are they so concerned about this? Because Trump has been so utterly successful in turning the office of president of the United States into his most successful reality TV show ever, and these Trump rallies are an important way for him to keep his show going. This spectacle of American society at its worst has, along with so much of what Trump is doing, been turned into mass entertainment and normalized by the news media. But maybe the reality of this whole disaster is finally starting to set in a little, even with his devoted fans.
5
@Martha Thank you!
2
Trump has always been about projection.
This is not new.
It is ironic for a well-known con man, who commits tax fraud, launders money for the Russian mob, an acknowledged sexual assaulter of women on Access Hollywood (accused by at least 19), to label his opponent "Crooked Hillary."
He wants to "Lock her up" for her use of emails, when his list of largely settled out-of-court felony crimes stretch decades.
When Putin openly backed Trump for President with outright payments of cash directly and through real estate transactions, a major state campaign involving cyber-theft, propaganda, trolls and bots, extraction of voter polling data and derived Facebook psychographic profiles, he labeled Hillary "a puppet of Putin."
So it is natural when his handpicked people who have worked the most closely with him, label him with an infant's mentality and unmoored and unhinged, that he would use the exact same response to label his opponents.
He isn't clever or thoughtful enough to think of something more apt, he responds with the skills he carefully honed on the playgrounds of Queens.
This is our burden.
3
I guess chanting "MEDICARE FOR ALL" doesn't have the same feeling as "lock her up".
15
I don't know who these people are who continue to support Trump. They certainly aren't Americans. Is there a kernel of humanity left in them? I am seriously beginning to doubt it.
5
What kind of leader resorts to this kind of tactic? Stirring up emotions, encouraging anger and bitterness. This is not making America great again. This is elementary school playground bullying. Childish and polarizing. Wake up Trump supporters. Where is this going to lead further down the road? Do you really want the nation to be divided by such hatred? Do you really think Trump is on your side?
3
@Kim Findlay It leads to fascism. History has seen this before. And it's terrifying that a percentage of the country not only seems ok with it, they're cheering it on.
2
@Kim Findlay It leads to fascism. History has seen this before. And it's terrifying that a percentage of the country is not only ok with it, they're cheering it on.
Springtime for america
Once there was a snowflake
It was white and fragile
Took all the money it could take
From government unagile
And with many others made a bank
Of snow! Unfeeling, hard and icy
And as a glacier plowed like a tank
Through laws it thought too dicey.
Protect the chill! Let’s save the cold!
They’d lock in what they won
And blame the warmth, resist the whole,
And fear the American sun.
1
There is no real contradiction as folks chanting at a rally are not comparable folks out actively protesting, actively confronting folks on elevators, kicking folks out of restaurants, even making physical contact with those folks at times, damaging property, etc.
Rhetoric-wise, sure, Trump is engaging in similar wars of words. But the headline comparison is apples to oranges.
6
Is it similar to people confronting young women speaking Spanish in a store and telling them to get out of our country? Or telling a Starbucks employee they don’t belong here because their skin is dark? Trump riles people up with nativist screeds and some behave very badly because of it.
8
Wrong. We have seen this before, and within one generation, in Germany in the 1930s. We already have seen where this can lead. It’s no coincidence Trump supporters are waving the same flags and adopting the same slogans.
And you’re even more wrong if you think we are going to allow it to happen again.
10
Wrong. All kinds of right wing racist incidents have increased with The tacit blessing of Trump and his mob.
5
I came here as a 7 year old immigrant in 1964. My childhood was punctuated by assassinations; civil disobedience and marches over the war in Vietnam and racial inequality. the Kent State killings and the pool footage from Vietnam were live on our living room television, I wore a POW bracelet at 16 and marched for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1978. My tone deaf imperial President is clueless on great issues of our time.
9
Any response yet from Senator Booker to the open letter to him in USA Today from Senator Paul's wife? Or just more crickets?
The Democrats have been encouraging violence against Republicans and anyone else who is remotely traditionalist or conservative for almost two years now. The left-wing gleefulness when Senator Paul was attacked and hospitalized was on full display for all to see. Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, Senator Booker and Representative Waters, among others, are actively encouraging public stalking and harassment of anyone they deem "other." They are shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater. They are inciting violence. And they know it.
When (not if) violence occurs, the leaders of the Democrat Party will be personally responsible for people having been killed, wounded or maimed.
The "civility" these "leaders" seek is the terrified silence of Stalin's Soviet Union.
6
The irony is delicious.
2
@Frank And the President has not been inciting violence? Encouraging people to hit protestors at his campaign rallies? Still spewing hate and division at least once a week at the rallies he continues to hold to further his fear mongering?
Please, spare me your overdramatized and incorrect "the Democrats will be personally responsible" propaganda. I can't handle the hypocrisy.
6
@Frank
Proof and examples, please. And not from Breitbart, Fox News or The Blaze.
6
Wait a moment, is the NYTimes attempting to equate a campaign rally with the violence that we see with our eyes happening in the streets against citizens ?
There is no comparison.
These are as different as night and day. I saw the radicals in the streets, the cops didn't do anything as they intimidated people in cars, in wheel chairs. They use physical attacks, these idiots like Waters, Spartacus and Clinton calling for more incivility . It is a disgrace.
Imagine a chantting crowd surrounding you at dinner in a restaurant, or at church or even your front lawn. Democratic staffers are being arrested for doxxing, when will this madness stop ? Gosh, talk about sore losers. That's why they are losers, people can see truth, people understand bullies.
Who will claim responsibility when a bullet is lodged in someones head ? Will it be Spartacus saying he was responsible, how about Maxine or Hillary, who will claim that dubious honor ?
9
When Trump supporters armed with AR-15s marched on a temple in Charlottesville, forcing it to be evacuated (with its Torahs), I didn’t see any conservatives step up and take responsibility. Nor when the same neo-Nazi mob ran several people over, killing one. Nor when alt-right mobs repeatedly physically attacked people including women at several rallies in California. Trump supporters have blood on their hands.
6
@Kip
Sorry Kip, it's significantly different when your elected officials call for disturbances and "getting in their faces" versus a mob of idiots on either side doing that. I imagine you can see the distinction.
Tom, nice to see you admit that what the “Blood and Soil” and the “Jews will not replace us!” crowd of Trump supporters (which includes David Duke, Richard Spencer and Matthew Heimbach) in addition to countless other right wing neo-fascists marching with assault weapons on a temple and running people over, and beating them with sticks at other rallies, is “different” than rudely interrupting a government official’s meal in a nice restaurant. You’re right, it is significantly different.
For a Trump supporter, that’s a big intellectual step to figure that out. Nice work!!
We have all learned in some ways the convenience of understanding an outcome in three ways:caused by; associated with, or happens and we do not know why. A miracle? For which there is evidence that can be generalized to a range of situations and conditions.The scientific method. For some of us, our principles of religious faith are sufficient both for knowing and for understanding. Both groups, internally diverse in many ways, seem to prefer not considering reality's interacting, everpresent,critical dimensions: Uncertainty. Of which there is plenty. Unpredictability. Always. Randomness.Everywhere. Lack of total control no matter what we do, at what level and quality, over time. Ourselves as well as with others. And within these realities many "faithful" goulash facts, fictions and fantasies. Helping to anchor America's toxic WE-THEY legacy of violating creating, selecting and targeting "the other(s)." People, values and norms for menschlich, equitable, well being are locked out of needed mutual trust, respect, caringness and mutual help, when and if needed, by hate-fed "lock her up." Mantras of ummenschlichkeit by manipulating stakeholders of marginalization. Exclusion. Disempowering. Dehumanization. At all levels. Elected and selected policymakers. Defamers of decency getting away with IT. Daily. In a democracy which enables the right to be personally unaccountable for harmful voiced words and done deeds and their temporary or permanent harms. Challenging each of US. NOW!
The left is unhinged, as is their hatred for our populist POTUS. Hillary lost. Get over it.
4
You spent 8 years moaning about Obama, didn’t you?
16
@cjhsa
Hillary won.
She received 3,000,000 (3 million) more votes than trump.
trump only won the "Electoral College", an appendage left over from the days of slavery. The Electoral College should have been rendered as useless as the Constitutional requirement that citizens house and feed soldiers in the time of war. The Electoral College is in direct opposition to the 14th Amendment.
trump has nothing to be proud of..... and he proves that every day.
6
@cjhsa It's not about Hillary. It's about a POTUS* who has no empathy for people. It's about a POTUS* who revels in not caring about facts, or even reading. It's about a cabal of the wealthy, diverting Americans' wealth into their own pockets, and about possibly criminal actions and the undermining of our democracy. It's about a POTUS* who has dismissed 3000 deaths of Americans in Puerto Rico as, apparently, not worthy of concern, thereby cheapening everyone's lives.
It makes me physically queasy to have the fate of this country in the hands of a 'man' who derides those who disagree with him: a has-been, reality-show host who displays misogyny and racism and xenophobia, none of which live up to the America that I was brought up in.
I care little about Hillary Clinton, honestly. What I do care about is the undermining of decency and public discourse. Trump assailed former President Obama as divisive, and as not even an American, but I have never in my lifetime seen an ignoramus lauded for continually lying each and every day and for spreading the rancor for which he blamed Obama.
There is no moral compass to this POTUS*. No grasp of the nuance of important issues; no ability to actually write policy. Trump "signifies nothing" except Trump. There is no humor or decency in this 'Administration.'
I know that you are probably giggling from reading my 'unhinged' opinion. But you tell me why the empty suit that is Trump deserves a 'pass' for his incompetence.
5
Oh, I get it! As a lifelong Democrat, these Republicans have finally made me see the light: As old coach Bobby Knight once said, "... women should just relax and enjoy it!"
Who are these cretins trying to kid? The more I try to ignore them (for my own sanity's sake), the more they slime their way into our lives.
This president and his rabid band of followers are turning themselves and our country into a laughingstock. I fear greatly the consequences of their pathetic behavior.
Our only recourse is Nov. 6 -- VOTE!!!
31
So nowadays we have left-wingers who think people accused of sexual harassment are not entitled to due process, and right-wingers who shout mindlessly about locking up their political enemies.
I'm an independent voter. Partisanship blinds people to the fact that both wings are opposed to a just legal system.
3
Trump projects these accusations onto his opponents to give his base justification for acting that way, or worse. He *wants* his base to behave as an aggressive, unreasonable mob. So he accuses his opponents to give supporters a childish sense of justification to act that way too. And it works, for them. Look how wildly overblown and dangerous they have made the ANTIFA protestors look. Or how they talk about James Hodgkinson as if he were running the DNC rather than an unhinged lunatic. When Trump is accusing his enemies of bad behavior, what he’s really doing is telling his people to act worse.
7
Trump started the descent into mob politics the day he successfully mocked a disabled journalist. From that point, he appealed to the worst instincts of the "great unwashed" and has never looked back. He eschewed the traditional presidential role of reconciliation and reunity between the parties, and now our politics lack the dignity and reason necessary to function for all Americans. The hatefulness in social media, the hatefulness in Trump and his childish hyperbole, are sickening.
10
Keep on campaigning, Trump. It just fires me up more to get out and vote. Democrats will not lay down for this one. Hillary’s not on the ticket this time. The House and the Senate are way bigger prizes.
7
Simply put; Trump is inciting violence and war.
12
“Me Me Me” The real rallying cry of Trump and his supporters.
15
To understand Trump, what you have to do is listen to what he says about his enemies. Whatever he says they are doing is likely what he is doing. It is an elementary school bullying tactic. Push a kid then run to the teacher and say you got pushed.
10
And while the plebes scream contrived insults at each other, the Oligarchs prepare to loot the public trust... yet again.
5
So the president of the USA travels the country spewing hate and divisiveness. It’s as if he’s trying to instigate violence. How long can this continue before the Trump mobs actually take to the streets? A Trump loss in 2020 perhaps?
9
Trying to think about Trump in terms of representative government will make your head explode. That's not what he is up to. He is selling entertainment to a devoted market. It looks to me a lot like the WWE. There are hero's and villains that come and go. For example the latest hero is Bret Kavanaugh for standing up to the latest villain, "the angry Mob". Never mind that the premise makes no sense because it's not what happened. Anyone that paid attention saw a flawed nominee have to face some very tough questions and instead of calmly answering them he erupted in anger and a partisan counterattack. Not becoming of someone that wants to be a judge. But that drama was no doubt scripted by Trump himself (except for the blubbering). The protests were about sexual assault victims being listened to and taken seriously which in this past drama they weren't, at least by the republicans involved. The protest to me looked like citizens petitioning the government as provided for in the constitution.
Trump's chosen script seems to be effective because its only objective was attention. If you were expecting governance from him forget about it. Trump has taken the divide an conquer approach. That's not governance. I hope people riveted by the "Trump Show" tire of it and start demanding that he MOGWA! (make our government work again)
5
Trump’s lies work because his base is so slavishly gullible. And right now the economy is doing well so why not back Trump. He’s also using the deficit to make Medicare for all appear to be an attacki on Medicare for seniors. Very clever.
7
I'd love to see an SNL sketch where "Trump" gives a speech that contains only two words: "Me" and "Them" spoken with great inflection and gestation with drawn out articulation and punctuated staccato. Of course the ratio should be about 80 - 20, but even a Trump speech all about "me" isn't a Trump speech unless it contains some derisive "them".
5
The Republican Party is one giant gaslight, from Trump to Susan Collins. And there are plenty of people who will believe them and not their own eyes.
7
Expecting a Trump rally audience to see the irony in chanting "Lock her up" while Trump says the Democrats are an angry mob is...unrealistic. Rally attendees are not America's best. They are, in fact, the basis for the international consensus of a stereotypical American: Loud, obnoxious, proudly ignorant and arrogant. They are people who exemplify one side of the Dunning-Kruger Effect, a condition neatly summed up by Bertrand Russell - "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt."
These are Trump's people, and they are legion. There will be no reasoning with them. Two years in, Trump enjoys a 42% approval rating. nothing will make that number fall. The only answer is to defeat these people at the polls. The rest of America is facing an existential moment in November. Do you take your country back, or submit to the barbarians?
36
Not a wise statement by Hilary. Mob mob = bigger dangerous mob.
Trumps rhetoric is getting very dangerous. Let’s not feed it by responding in kind.
2
@Ma
Hillary's time has come and gone, I wish she and Bill would stay home, enjoy their many millions ad shut up. She still hasn't learned anything. Please Hillary be quiet and go home. It's no wonder those on the "D" side have not asked her to participate in their respective re-election bids.
7
But he said, "Why? What evil has he done?" They only shouted the louder,
"LET HIM BE CRUCIFIED!" (all caps added for emphasis)
-Matthew 27:23 of the bible of Pence, Kavanaugh, and 99% of the people at those rallies
8
Two legs bad. Four legs good. It's all Orwellian Trumpian Newspeak. Slogans, single syllable words, reduction of complex issues to good/bad, demonizing civil disobedience. Easy listening requiring nothing beyond an emotional response. Choreographed rallies with Trump swag to help the swagger. If Fox would run newsreels of various dictators showing their rhetorical strategies, would Trump supporters have a sense of how they are being manipulated. Others have commented - look what happened to Hitler and Mussolini - but the U.S. helped defeat them. What are we supposed to do within our own country with this behavior?
18
The president would give Dem 'mobs' a pass if only they would carry tiki torches and shout racist slogans.
11
Basic elements of Trump (and historically fascist) propaganda are glaringly evident in the Republican creation of
1) false narratives with constant grudges and complaints of events as “so unfair”, Democratic “hoax”, nonstop lies, etc. - then think of Germany’s continual grinding resentment of the Treaty of Versailles
2) us v them mantras of simple good guys (his Republican colleagues and base) v bad guys (the rest of us) with Trump’s nonstop barrage of taunts, denunciations, name calling (“Pocahontas”) and dehumanizing (those murderous immigrants, the fumbling disabled, etc) - then think of how Jews, homosexuals, et al were dehumanized as “other” in 30s-40s
3) coordination of a multimedia message that gets fixed in Trump’s audiences’ heads as it’s repeated across various media (USA op ed, Fox News, Twitter, mainstream press headlines, etc etc) - then recall Hitler’s use of massive banners, uniforms, posters, post cards (see the excellent Lauder post card exhibition at the MFA Boston)
4) abstraction of repetitious hateful messages using symbols that morph into quickly identified logos and dog whistles (red and white maga hats, mugs, t shirts, etc; dozens of massive American flags at the presidential podiums; mostly white audiences at trump rallies; “lock her up!” chants, ad nauseum) - then remember the swastika seen everywhere, even on 1936 Olympic uniforms
Wake up America!
24
Not sure it’s necessary for the NYT to cover these wacko rallies anymore. We’ve all been suitably revolted by photos of the devoted, ecstatically shaking their fists and foaming at the mouth, screaming for various people to be hanged. These nut-cases are beyond redemption; they are truly the indifferent bystanders to Trump’s 5th Avenue shooting spree.
Given that these grotesque, self-aggrandizing MAGA events are nothing more than the narcissistic posturings of a reality-show host and failed real estate developer, where nothing of import or relevance is ever said, maybe we can dispense with even hearing about it.
31
If this isn’t absolutely the most Hitler-esque wake up call of modern times, then it seems these people will never wake up to danger of this this frightening man. And his treasonous accomplices.
Doesn’t this look like a future documentary video about how a ruthless dictator came to power, plunging the world into war?
I guess people who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.
This is so despairingly a repeat in the parade of dangerous dictators who convince people that they are the people’s savior, yet go on to kill their citizens and plunder the nation’s wealth.
These people should be crying, not cheering.
28
Fascist mobs are just fine with regressives. They'll even tell you they're NOT "mobs" but some sort of "patriots" when all they are is deplorable angry undereducated ignorant people.
14
One group is in a controlled rally, the others are say in the halls of congress, in the face of individuals in public, and in other inappropriate areas. I have no problem with peaceful protesting, I have massive issues with people who basically assault others, use violence, and behave foolishly. We should be civil, being other ways just makes things worse, civil is when you are in contact, not in a "rally". And of course "lock her up" is really not serious. Hillary has not even been investigated again, she probably should be.
8
Gen Michael Flynn, "....if I did 1/10 of what she did I would be in jail now....". Actually he did much more than she did and is awaiting sentencing!
If you say the rallies are not serious in their chanting, you are not facing reality.
7
@vulcanalex
Millions upon millions of tax dollars and countless hours of time better spent actually serving US citizens have been wasted by Congressional Republicans over the past 26 years in their endless pursuit of trying to pin something on Hillary Clinton. She has been investigated thoroughly, and it has come to nothing. Sorry the investigations didn't turn out the way you and others wanted or confirm various conspiracy theories and lies you all choose to believe, but that's the way it goes. But since the tactics of conspiracy theorists involve continually moving the goalposts and insistence that the alleged "theorist" is the only one with the "facts," there will never be any satisfaction on the part of people who engage in such nonsense. That's why thinking people don't take conspiracy theorists seriously until they harm or kill somebody, which unfortunately has happened. Please find another hobby.
4
Who is paying for these rallies? Can't we stop these so called 'rallies' which are basically campaign stops being funded by taxpayer money?
28
One doesn't need a crystal ball to envision a time, hopefully sooner rather than later, when people will be chanting "Lock him up!" once the full extent of Robert Mueller's investigation is made apparent.
If ever there was a time when Karma was begging for the circle closing in on Donald Trump, it is fast approaching.
Yesterday in Pennsylvania, I passed a roadside stand attended to by several people with the sign that said, "Stop Here to Defend Trump!" They had pamphlets and other items on a table for distribution. I parked halfway down the street and watched to see what kind of interaction the stand generated.
After 25 minutes I left. Cars passed the stand. Not one stopped. Not exactly a scientific poll, but hopefully a portent of things to come.
20
And if they were leftists they’d be blocking the road. That’s the difference.
3
@Ed And if they were blocking the road, Ed, Republicans would think nothing of running them over. That's the difference.
1
It should shock no one that Trump and his rally-going supporters continue to accuse their opponents of exactly what they are doing. If you're at all like me, then the real shock you feel is the realization of the past two years that there have always been significant numbers of anti-liberal, authoritarian-prone voices here.
Don't waste anymore of your outrage on it. Let it sink in, get passed it, keep on trucking. We're in for a marathon endurance trial which will pit the anti-democratic tendencies of powerful interests against reason and egalitarianism, and if we're hoping to avoid armed conflict, it's incumbent on cooler heads to the outlast boiling resentment.
The country still needs people and institutions who strive for a objectivity and fairness. Just don't expect to hear anything different from Trump or his rally-goers. Don't worry about engaging them, or understanding them, because they don't want to understand you. Just keep the lights on for others who are looking for sanity, and vote, vote, vote.
10
Trump appealed to emotions. Hillary appealed to intellect. As is the case most of the time, emotions won. Emotions energized the crowds. Intellect brought low voter turnout. Michelle’s “they go low..” is very noble, but in reality, a mix (favoring emotion) is a much better strategy.
4
Actually intellect brought in Over 3 million more votes
6
Three million more votes where the Dems didn’t need them. A more effective approach would have been to energize Dem voters in critical swing states that ended up going to the GOP. Instead, Hillary concentrated on NY, Cal, etc. where she and her followers were more comfortable, and already had the Electoral vote in he bag.
Everything about trump is a contradiction. He’s a walking talking version of Jung’s shadow. Everything he says as an accusation is what he is guilty of. If he accuses, rest assured he did it (“no collusion”).
24
@Mike. In other words, again another example of DT's need to use projection as a defense mechanism. It's what keeps his shallow ego afloat.
1
Would that the world were different, but I'm glad the Democrats are finally giving the GOP a taste of its own medicine. You cannot expect fair results or compromise from an opponent who doesn't share your view of the greater good - meaning reason, compromise, bipartisanship and respect for institutions. The GOP of today cares only about one thing:power. How many years of brazen obstruction, voter suppression and outright tantrums do enlightened Americans have to tolerate before accepting that we're going to have to beat the GOP at its own game? I long for the days where our government produced thoughtful, bipartisan legislation, like Ronald Reagan, Tip O'Neal, Bill Bradley and Bob Packwood did for the 86 tax act. What a broken GOP will have to accept, however, is that the new power structure will include women and people of color.
89
"meaning reason, compromise, bipartisanship and respect for institutions"
Many GOP value these, some don't. Many Dems value these, some don't. You cannot tell me Booker or Harris, for example, are in this category. Or Schumer even.
4
Whether one questions Trump’s mental stability or not, you don’t see many pictures of Republicans dressed up in their balaclavas beating on Grandma’s car with clubs.
You don’t see many unhinged Republicans beating their heads on a door because a Supreme Court Justice is confirmed.
You don’t see many Republicans with rocks and bottles attempting to prevent Liberals from expressing an opinion.
The mobs are definitely one sided.
17
@Ken
You don't see republicans picking your pocket. I'm sure if you did you'd never respond in kind.
There is absolutely no equivalence.
3
You don’t see leftists marching in the streets shouting Nazi slogans and carrying Nazi banners. You don’t see leftists driving a car into a crowd of protesters killing one.
When Nazis march, you have to expect a fight.
4
Oh please. A woman was run over with a car. People walking around with weaponry. It’s not a contest to the bottom.
Trump could help by just skipping the show biz stupid stuff. We need leadership not showtime, not juvenile tweets, not revenge stupidity.
23
Just from reading this article it’s clear there’s plenty of blame on both sides. Do we now want to engage in playground accusations about who started it first? The best response from Democrats would be to follow Michelle’s advice and not Holder’s and to concentrate on policy-making and governance and getting out the vote as opposed to stoking the fire with further violence.
24
@Ed
There is absolutely NO moral equivalent among BOTH sides.
Where's the democratic Trump, McConnell, Graham? Where's the democratic mass mob rally with incitements to violence ?
6
@Ed. The best response to someone who brings a bazooka to the negotiating table is to arm yourself (figuratively, of course). It would be lovely to be able to focus on governance, but the GOP has clearly stated, since Obama became president, that their goal is to obstruct - remember Merrick Garland's nomination? It's time to push back, to fight hard, to change tactics. One side chose a psychopath to lead this country, and gathers in mobs to scream about locking up the 2016 Democratic candidate for president; the other has done nothing remotely like this - the false equivalency needs to stop.
6
I agree with your prescription, but the "plenty of blame on both sides" nonsense is an absurd false equivalency.
2
Republicans believe that justice will be achieved through the court of law and authority, as only law enforcement have the ability to "lock her up." On the other hand, Democrats believe they can achieve their own agenda through the "rule of the mob." Democrat supporters use anger, violence, intimidation, and guilt-blaming tactics by getting all up in your face, just because people disagree with them. Of course, it's not going to be reported by liberal news because there is media bias. To name a few: (1) gunman motivated by left-wing political agenda shoots at Republican Congress members at a baseball game in Virginia, including Rand Paul, (2) left-wing mob attack civilians in Portland, Oregon, (3) Ted Cruz chased out of a restaurant by radical protesters while spending time with his wife, (4) two enraged women approached Jeff Flake in an the elevator to intimidate his vote for Kavanaugh, (5) Cory Booker encourages Democrats to "Get up in their face." (6) Hillary Clinton says, "You cannot be civil to a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about." Hopefully my comment does not get deleted and people will wake up to the bias that is in our news today. Good luck Democrat followers. Like Lindsey Graham says, "I hope the American people can see through this sham." We welcome you to join the Republicans/Conservatives with open arms.
17
@Joan L.
Hi Joan. You have a valid point, but I submit to you that the Democrats remained very peaceful and stoic for years incurring the wrath of the party of hatred and anger as inspired by the 1994 Newt Gingrich "Republican Revolution". The public was well reserved and to cite a few instances of rebelliousness by Democrats does not justify Trump's trying to start a war.
24
Said the spider to the fly...
15
@Joan L. - This, like Trump, reminds me of the bullies who go around and strike out at people but when the people they bully tire of it and stand up, the bullies cry out "see, I told you they were mean and angry".
The bullies want the right to unimpeded bullying. It is all pare of the "How DARE you!" campaign.
5
Trump is destructive of the idea and ideal of a democracy that envisions the President as a unifier and a symbol of the country. He is incapable of engaging in
civility and in being open to the possibility that the Democratic Party has policies that can help solve our problems. He demonizes the opposition and demagogues with the truth and uses lies, his alternative facts to destroy the discourse necessary to the functioning of our system. He employs the politics of authoritarian and Fascist leaders with anger, rage, resentment, conspiracies, and self worship.
He is not only embarrassing, but his conduct is anathema to his role as leader. Why do people still support this act? It is repetitive and dishonest and despicable. He needs to be impeached and indicted as a fraud and an enemy of our country. And his supporters need to re-examine their faith in him and their attitudes towards our constitution and the loyal opposition and their fellow citizens.
150
I took photo of your comment to read again it is so true what you write . Thanks!
4
These shots of Trump's rallies are "infotainment" for those in attendance. I strongly suspect that there are not many in the "top 1%" or "top 2%" in these crowds. I also strongly suspect that, in the end, those who attend these rallies and cheer for Trump won't realize that the Federal programs they will lean on (Social Security and Medicare) will be significantly cut, as a result of the increase in the deficit, while they cheer away...at their long-term demise.
13
Watching all of this from far away, in Australia, I don’t understand how a President can be do rude to so many of his fellow Americans. Don’t presidents make some sort of oath about serving all Americans?
I might have missed it when Obama was president, but I don’t remember him being so rude to Republicans and people that angered him.
As our Aussie politicians watch what is happening in the USA, I fear they will learn from this sort of behaviour.
290
Obama was non-confrontational but in his own way he was just as divisive as Trump by pretending to be morally superior and by lecturing people on their supposed shortcomings, e.g. “It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” Notice how he gets “anti-trade sentiment” into it as if people shouldn’t question his trade policies which were causing Americans to lose jobs. In other words they shouldn’t exercise their first amendment rights when their personal interests are at stake but should just keep their mouths shut. This one unnecessary comment of his changed the course of history.
5
@Ed I remember that Obama quote as well and although it came across as insensitive (and he later apologized...something Trump never does) I felt that he was spot on. Of course, I’m not from the Midwest, and don’t feel the need to cling to anything other than my own resolve when times are tough. Does that make me morally superior?
@Ed
Look it up; Trump's trade tariffs are costing more jobs than anything Obama ever did by 'opening trade' around the world. Americans are the best in a free and open market place. You are not the best when you need pay higher taxes to manufacture goods or your export markets dry up due to 'revenge' taxing by China etc; ask the Iowa farmers trying to sell their soja; ask Harley Davidson trying to sell motorcycles in Europe, ask the nail manufacturer how his competitor now has better prices because there is a Tarif on imported steel, etc etc. Look it up , it will open eyes; then vote.
1
Ranting like that guy sitting at the end of the bar.
It all appears to a cheap form of entertainment.
A pep rally for those angered by income inequality and threatened by social change.
Unfortunately, they’ve fallen for a grifter as their cheerleader. A man who has never shown any concern for those in his crowds.
315
@Tom
Is that it you think? There is certainly a case to be made regarding anger and income inequality and the republicans ridiculous tax cut.
But to put their faith in trump to help them? Also ridiculous...how do they not see this?
1
Women need to release that “lock her up” is the modern version of “burn the witch” chanted by an ignorant, and afraid mob of people who are scared that women will gain true equality and are terrified of powerful women.
55
The dark genius of the president's rhetoric works, no matter how puerile and irrational it may seem. Fascism is sparked when (any, all) opposition is dehumanized, labelled a "mob," or "nuts"--see the conclusion of another article appearing in the Times this morning, 'Republicans Abandon Vulnerable Lawmakers...' Fascism is fueled by sustained departures from verifiable reality--this week's bracing alarms about climate change, and administration indifference, provide Example A. Fascism is inflamed by the incantations of punishment--"Lock her up," now aimed at a second powerful woman perceived to be in the president's way. All these arts of manipulation are poisoning healthy democracy, and could be setting the stage for even further political and social devolution. And I believe that the president neither recognizes this danger, nor gives a hoot about it, as long as his vast narcissism is nourished, and his Potemkin financial empire is advanced.
20
Is this the United States of America or divided states of america? United We Stand, Divided We Fall
7
@Danielle H,
Divided you stand against each other and divided you fall blaming each other for the others fallen first or first fallen.
The only unity in America is the unity of contempt for each others unity in contempt of the contempt that unifies them against each other.
No common cause that can be agreed to, no common good that is seen as the Bad that others hold in common against another.
And in and of the greatest irony among you all so easily led to hate and opposite opposing division and rancor?
Is the always and ever present unspoken not agreed or mentioned FACT...that you are ALL in agreement in and on and with each other on at least 85% of EVERYTHING ELSE!
But let's not bring up those! Lest an outbreak of agreement muddy the waters of those not so huge or so many points of disagreement that all energies are applied to in keeping out front and in decision against each other ...that would be just terrible...wouldn't it?
No.
EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF FASCISM
from the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government Intertwined
9. Corporate Power Protected
10. Labor Power Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals & the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime & Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism & Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections
88
The ironic thing is that this country was founded by a left-wing mob and left-wing criminals.
Google each of these:
"Boston Tea Party"
"Founding Fathers"
"American Revolution"
20
@VJR -
Conservatives hate to be reminded the very idea and essence of the country is a liberal one. Conservatives want to claim patriotism while it was the liberals who were the patriots while the conservatives supported the King. They were the Tories and Loyalists fighting for the right to be ruled by the royals and aristocracy. Just as they do today. Liberty is a liberal concept.
6
Oh, please. You are comparing people chanting at a political rally with protesters screaming and banging on the doors of the Supreme Court? You think people chanting "Lock her up!" at a Trump rally are the same as a crowd of people hounding Ted Cruz from a DC restaurant?
What is more dangerous? A Trump rally or and Antifa demonstration?
Rand Paul gets shot at while playing baseball by a deranged Bernie Sanders supporter and he gets beaten while at his home raking leaves by a leftist neighbor. Steve Scalise is nearly killed by the same Bernie Sanders supporter. There is no equivalent case on the Republican side.
The left has become a mob, encouraged by the likes of Hillary Clinton (who stated this week that there can be no civility if Democrats are not in power) and Eric "Kick 'Em When They're Down" Holder. Give me a break.
7
Leftists are not marching in the streets shouting Nazi slogans and carrying Nazi banners. We have every right to protest the obscene confirmation of the lying Kavanaugh.
22
@David Ricardo
Rikky, you're deluded if you think you're going to get a break from any republican.
2
Funny how Trump followers go out of their way to avoid mentioning Charlottesville.
19
We are supposed to be a nation of people that values the freedom of free speech and different opinions. It is these basic freedoms which allow for diverse thought and compromise which ultimately leads to the BEST solution. Instead we have fallen into a dysfunctional, radically bi-polar, winner-take-all mentality which is sucking the life-force out of this country. Shame on the Democrats. Shame on the Republicans. We need a political process that elects PATRIOTS as our leaders to continue our path of greatness.
1
I look at the photograph and unfortunately don't see anything much different than you would at a sporting event. When people identify with a team, their self-esteem rises or falters along with the fortunes of their idols. An athlete earning $50 million a year doesn't have much in common with the out-of-shape, hot dog-scarfing zealots cheering him on; they insist on imagining a bond that simply isn't there, but as is in the case of Trump, it is a condition ripe for exploitation. The same faulty wiring that requires us to have at least one massive stadium in every major city and turns individuals into synchronized masses of gibbering baboons at the sight of a particular uniform is fully capable of giving us Trump.
23
They can't lock her up, the jail is already full with half of Trump's advisors, staff etc.
25
I’ve long said that Mr. Trump is an arsonist. There is nothing that he won’t burn: our institutions; the Constitution; international economic and social agreements - NAFTA, TPP, the Paris Agreement; NATO to name but a few. He throws Molotov cocktails to his rapt, trapped audiences at these “good old fashioned barn burners.” I wonder if they know that they’re being burnt? They are nothing but kindling and firewood to him. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, they came for the good time to be had.
We are in living dystopian times that were once the required reading of classrooms: Fahrenheit 451; The Handmaid’s Tale; 1984; Brave New World. If Mr. Trump’s willing audiences are unacquainted or disinclined to read these books, I would recommend that they binge watch Game of Thrones (GOT) over several weekends. Acquaint themselves with Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish. Varys said of Littlefinger, "He would see this country burn if he could be king of the ashes." Those words are applicable to Mr. Trump, the King of the Ashes.
11
Who and where are the former grown ups, elder statesmen/ women, and former Presidents when we need them? Afraid to stand up to someone who, as the highest elected official in the land, incites violence from his cowardly bully pulpit that should be criminally prosecuted. Their complacency implies complicity.
The toxicity and contagion of this egregious sickness has spread rapidly to authoritarian 'regimes' around the world and back with no end in sight. Divide and conquer instead of unite and lead has become the new theme for strategies developed by our sworn enemies and implemented right here at home.
Decency is in exile, let's hope it can still return to where it rightfully belongs sooner rather than before it's too late.
Vote.
I hate to borrow a phrase from the Tea Party, but it now seems sadly appropriate: 'I want my country back.'
107
Worn down by the destruction of the hurricane that tore my state apart yesterday, I found myself lost in the range of unfamiliar numbers of TV stations, where the Weather Channel and CSPAN are located. It was one minute from the beginning of Trump's, whatever that was called, Erie PA, diatribe. Self induced torture is the closest thing to describe what I was doing.
I scanned the crowd, as CSPAN scanned the audience. An Asian couple was all the diversity I could see among the group of mostly middle aged to elderly marginalized white folk. There were some young whites, but few, and they appeared to have been brought by their parents.
Horrified, I watched as President Trump rambled, but really only bragged about himself, and wondered what was appealing about the man to the crowd. I really have no takeaway. I was left dumbfounded. I'm left wondering, how the Republican party gets lower, to middle income people to turn out in masses to vote. I'm left bewildered and disappointed in the demographic that were in attendance.
153
@merchantofchaos
They need to feel "up" and not be held responsible for their bad actions. As long as he immunizes and elevates them, they're his. It's all bigotry all the time, and they are happy to give the president's owners and masters all their money and health to feel those things. Conservatives are just as sane and informed as other people, but their strongest needs have nothing to do with their actual status, only their relative status.
2
@merchantofchaos The fact you think your state was "torn apart" says you are way too emotional. Most of the state was not even effected. Not to say it is not severe, but being emotional is a negative for me.
@vulcanalex
Was it a negative for you when Brett Cavanaugh was emotional?
No one thinks that Florida was literally "torn apart" but most people can understand the use of hyperbole to describe a terrible situation. You know, the way Trump does every single day. Is Trump being "way too emotional?"
2
He's always been a liar, and he seems to have acquired the Republican tendency to accuse others of his flaws, similar to how Obama was pictured as a Nazi. In terms of defense mechanisms believe it is called projection:
"Projection is a form of defense in which unwanted feelings are displaced onto another person, where they then appear as a threat from the external world. A common form of projection occurs when an individual, threatened by his own angry feelings, accuses another of harbouring…"
6
"Never let the Truth get in the way of a good or desired story "
if one watches a Trump rally ,its the same old ..same old .
There is no doubt ,that in an alternative democratic country Trump would be charged with inciting violence .
His speeches , particularly at rallys is palpably close to the earlier speeches by Hitler and Mussolini .I kid you not .
What may happen or kick off around the Mid Term elections , i shudder to think .
The oath of the Presidential Office should be modified that it emphasises the Presidents responsibility to represent and protect ALL the people of the United States equally .
Meanwhile young Kavanaugh is throwing a number of right wing shapes in the Supreme Court but he is being thwarted by Neil Gorsuch , who , at times ,appears to be playing with BK.
if the present cases being presented in the SC are decided in terms of common sense rather then the Administration desires , then "Our Donald " may think again as to his decision to nominate Gorsuch .
I would not be surprised that there is an undercurrent of resentment going around the SC , where ,irrespective of political inclinations (which should not exist ) , these Justices are murmuring to themselves "we are not and will not be the puppets of that" ignorant muppet" in the WH..
3
I like to see that the Times picks up on its reader's thoughts, or maybe we all thinking the same thing, but we reader/commenters have the advantage that we can just snap off a comment while Times writers have spend more time researching, writing, editing, getting approvals, etc.
Me? I'll never write well enough for a Times green check. My thoughts can't hold a candle to Socrates or ChristineMcM. Only occasionally recommended. But still, every once in a while it is rewarding to see a thought I had fleshed out in a Times editorial or article.
In response to a comment to a piece by David Leonhardt where a commenter spoke being put off my mobs (all were "liberal" mobs, of course) I noted: "Yet we are treated to a mob at every Trump rally. Angry shouting. Angry banners. Chanting. Raised and pumping fists."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/opinion/midterms-trump-republicans-su...
I've made several comments like "I wonder how all those defending Kavanaugh with concerns of a presumption of innocence were able to shout "Lock her up!" with impunity?"
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/23/us/politics/brett-kavanaugh-christine...
I guess we all like to see our thoughts and feelings validated. Which may be the basis of the Trump rallies.
10
Trumps cheerful mob/chant/cult like agitation may be his undoing.That worked for Mussolini on his rise, but look what eventually happened to him!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12_s028JYOU
6
Trump walks in wearing one of his suits manufactured in his factory in Mexico, a money belt and a tie made in his sweatshops in China and shouts "America First" - which is a dog whistle for his KKK fans who have used that phrase since the early 20th Century, and these supporters are still buying what he's selling.
They are not the majority.
They're just loud.
Please get out the vote.
46
As if there was just 1 contradiction!
We're also:
Radical zealots, who are so apathetic, we won't protest unless Soros pays us.
Sensitive snowflakes who are angry monsters.
Scheming elites but also unthinking "libtards".
"Globalists" who want an American empire by meddling in other countries' affairs, but we want to weaken American influence & power.
Obsessed with helping African-Americans at the expense of white people & "blue lives" but we also want to keep black people down & on welfare because we're the real racists.
Hyper-promiscuous libertines who want to encourage casual sex, but we also want a prudish feminist utopia where sexual behavior is regulated & scrutinized.
Against protecting cops, but also against more civilians having more guns.
We run all the big media, tech & entertainment companies, but want the government to take over the economy & seize wealth from the rich.
I could go on but you get the idea. We're whatever kind of villain fits today's GOP narrative.
23
@luedtke And don't forget that we conspired with the Russians to defeat our own presidential candidate. That one really boggles my mind.
1
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and besides, the pig loves it." George Bernard Shaw
13
It is instructive to examine how the general concept of "democrat" is manipulated by a small corporation, run by a small number of extremely powerful well connected people.....that corporation, responsible only to its stockholders.......is the DNC. Most people confuse the DNC with the Democrat Party.....and that confusion signals the downfall of the United States of America. so=called "democrats" running for office owe absolutely no allegience to their constituents, to those small people who still cling to the concept of "democrat". Democrat Politicians owe their profitable careers in office to no one...except the DNC, that corporation that controls an obscene amount of money, money used to fund campaigns, to smear opponents,,,,,and yes....to buy votes. You dont want to know how the sausage is made......
2
Where is the outcry from Congress about 45 presiding over a crowd that is chanting "Lock her up" about Sen Feinstein? Where is the outcry from my Sen Susan Collin, who was probably too busy primping for her photo-op with 45 about her recent legislation concerning informing patients about medication pricing. The GOP leadership is a cancer eating at our country. God bless America. We need it.
10
One thing about an "angry left wing mob" is that the people in said "mob" are capable of critical thinking. These people at Trump rallies remind me of the line said by Gordon Gekko in the film "Wall Street" - "Know what happens to sheep? They get slaughtered."
14
As hard as this is to state, the “in your face” approach, simply gives this lunatic material to build on. He will use the smallest incident, enlarge it and so manipulate the truth, that his supporters will cheer and scream, and go home with these images burned in their memory. These rally’s become a mainstay in their lives, putting them on an equal footing with people they are told, despise them and hold them in low regard. As with any cornered, wounded animal, Mr. Trump must be approached very cautiously!
Tom Franzson Brevard NC
4
President-as-theater isn't a good look. For a president who excoriated Barack Obama for being a "community organizer," Donald Trump has become a community organizer himself. He just does it from a megaphone, whipping his community of supporters into a frenzy. His hypocrisy knows no bounds.
Aside from the fact that what Trump does is beyond inappropriate for a U. S. President, one can only hope that while he may be cementing the support of his rabid, hateful base, he is also energizing more anti-Trump voters every day.
18
Trump is internally full of conflicts that he has never addressed. He projects what he does not deal with onto whoever his opponent of the moment is. Thank you Peter Baker for “the pot and kettle department of politics.” At a time when journalists are so seriously under attack not only do you keep doing your job but you keep giving us these wonderful turns of phrase.
3
Trump is just running an entertainment outfit like World Wrestling - it’s all a game to him, a stop on the road for bored seniors in out of the way places.
He gets Pretend Vegas, some hair and make-up, the audience gets lies, and he’s good with the foam-light mantel and cardboard crown of being a fake president. Being president in the Real World job requires actual skills and leadership abilities that he cannot begin to touch. He’s our Howard Hughes in cardboard box shoes and gnarly fingernails being required to care about real issues in the real world like hurricanes and crops burning up but he likes the fun stuff- chants and the screeching about his own American countrymen and women being “evil”. Trump has no similar word to describe the possible dismembered body of a journalist because he likes the attitudes of dictators more than the truth. “We’ll see”. Truth is boring, truth is caring that your actions could hurt others when you lie about people like Dr Ford for your kicks.
The other half is adults packing in to holler and yell at their wrestling heroes and villains. They are watching cartoons together- he has fans! fun!
13
Oh, please. Chanting at a rally is very different than screaming and forcing someone out of a restaurant.
3
@Mr. Slater
But you had "very nice people" in Charlottesville who murdered a woman who was with protestors that Trump is now referring to as an "angry mob".
My father fought in WWII and was awarded the Silver Star by Eisenhower who was a general at the time. I am my fahter's daughter. He fought for my right to speak up and protest.
Trump's rallies are not the only venue where "free speech" is allowed.
Get used to it.
27
@Mr. Slater Separating babies and young children from their families is very different from having a sensible immigration policy. Why should Trump administration people be allowed to be comfortable when their decisions are hurting so many people in the US and across the planet?
I admit to be conflicted about making Trump administration people uncomfortable when they go out to eat at restaurants, but the pictures of those babies in court and the children in tents and cages in warehouses keeps things in perspective. A tiny bit of discomfort and humiliation for the people who lead entitled lives but implement a bad policy is deserved; maybe they will think twice before doing something so evil again.
92
@Mr. Slater - The behavior of many Republican politicians, starting with Trump, has been unremitting shamelessness. The thing about shame is, if you don't apply it to yourself, eventually others will apply it for you.
11
Republicans either can't grasp the concept of hypocrisy or it doesn't bother them--either way, they are proven to be incapable of feeling embarrassment, empathy or compassion.
10
Trump’s contradiction is putting it far too lightly. How about”Trump’s Contradiction is more than just Dangerous Rhetoric”
What’s more is that it is a real headline not just for the OpEd.
1
And Hillary Clinton said, "Civility can return, only when Democrats win control of the House or the Senate"
Sure sounds like a call for insurrection to me
2
There was a mob of people banging and clawing at the 13 ton brass steel doors of the Supreme Court of the United States. They looked like they were some form of the walking dead out of a zombie film. It was insanity incarnate.
I never liked the "Lock her up" crowd, but come on, they aren't screeching and clawing at doors and within the halls of the Senate are they now?
3
@Mark F no, they are showing up at Charlottesville well armed and looking for trouble. They are sacking people with 2x4s, shooting a pistol blindly into the crowd, running people over with a car killing one and permanently injuring others, driving great distance to shoot up a family oriented pizza restaurant. I bet the perps were surprised that Trump didn’t come through with his offer to pay their legal fees.
8
Senator Graham and a SC nominee were screeching in Senate chambers. Don’t forget them.
And a rally with the president of the US going along with his mindless chanters is a hideous dirtying of the office. Not forgivable.
2
This is nothing new. Projection is the only tool Trump has in his shed. It is what got him where he is, it is what keeps him where he is, by keeping his rabid, hateful base at a fever pitch.
24
Anytime Trump or Republicans whine about angry mobs, the appropriate response is simply “like Charlottesville?”. No mobs have been angrier or uglier than Republican mobs from the Tea Party to the Trump MAGA hate rallies.
20
Imagine the GOP outrage if President Obama had been out campaigning while a hurricane was ravaging southern states. I guess it is OK to do so if you have an "R" behind your name. My, how the rules have changed.
27
One of the worst hurricanes to hit Florida ,he goes to a rally in Penn, saying people have been on line the entire day to see him, truth is he paid people $100.00 per person to arrive at 9am to show a big crowd was attending ,The ad was run on craigslist Erie/Pa.
16
There is a gift in being able to be strong and clear, but the Democrats cannot win a war of insults with this kind of bully who LOVES bringing people down into this mud. The source of "authenticity" in Trump is that he totally believes that everyone is as greedy, lying, and manipulative - and devoid of any empathy - as he is.He doesn't believe that anyone in the business has ANY intentions to benefit others or te country.
If we don't get rid of him and his enablers, we will end up with his vision and his vision only.
29
To do this, your thinking citizens must get to the polls in numbers that factor in the predicted meddling in the election. If you don't, it may be your last chance. @cheryl
"Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which the human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others." - Wikipedia
Seems to fit.
62
And it goes both ways.
2
What is it with trump crowds? It is like every last one of the was raised by parents who never taught them civility, decorum or being polite. They carry their rudeness proudly and claim any attempt to ask them politely to wait their turn as an infringement on their first amendment or politically correctness. What's worse is their children are picking up on it and watching a third grader act like their parents is disheartening.
41
Please, united States. Don't do this. It won"t get you anywhere in the long run.
8
I’m sorry. Hillary was right. Trump and the people at his rallies are deplorables. It’s about time we all admit it.
We talk about bringing the country together, reaching across the aisle and finding common ground. But who would want to do so with this bunch?
What’s tragic is that those screaming and hooting supporters don’t realize how Trump is making their lives worse. Just yesterday, for example, I heard the head of FEMA say his agency is being stretched very thin. And yet, the nation apparently had enough resources to give the wealthy massive tax breaks.
94
Never in the history of this country has this type of taxpayer supported politicalization occurred. This is the end of American democracy.
Nothing will stop this.
30
@Jaye Ramsey Sutter
Take a deep breath. This too shall pass. And by voting, we may possibly help this pass much more quickly.
2
@Jaye Ramsey
The dems could dissolve their party and remake it into something that actually has a purpose?
Maybe even a platform of things it supports besides gender and race politics?
2
The most important difference between these Trump disciples and the rest of us who don't want him as our president ( nor the Republicans as the party in charge)?
They vote.
All of them.
Every election.
47
We can clearly see voter disenfranchisement right now in Georgia. Yes we need to vote, but democracy and blind justice are under assault.
19
Those prone to hatred and anger generally migrate to the Republican party, long a militant party that cultivated hatred and anger to win the love and admiration of those followers. Strange but true.
The Republican leadership has an affinity to war, and it might be argued they start wars to solidify their organization and cultivate their following. Most of those wars were foreign except our own civil war that resolved a social issue with violence.
It seems to me the Republicans are once again trying to start a war to coalesce the party. Unfortunately they would fight their fellow Americans. The Republican leadership carefully cultivated the following of the military with funding and the gun owners with deregulation. Do you see what they are doing? The leadership makes no effort to stop Trump, even supporting him.
Vote like your life depended on it. There is real danger if we don't.
62
Lincoln didn't start the Civil War, the South did. Otherwise agree 100%
2
@Shakinspear
Yes. And that bloody civil war fought by Republicans to free the democratically owned slaves ended slavery.
The white angry mob in the audience are like the brown shirts in Germany in the 30’s. They are trump’s supporters, and their hatred of others is what can destroy America.
129
Let this sink in for a minute....Trump is using taxpayer money to operate a perpetual poltical campaign to insult more than half of the taxpayers who are paying him to do it.
When have we ever witnessed a President of the United States use inflammatory language to incite hatred and violence, not as candidate, but as a sitting President? In essence, Trump is saying to his supporters, "if they don't agree with us they are the enemy. They are evil. They should be jailed."
262
@Mack
trump is indeed dumbing down the planetary discourse.
1
@Mack Yes, I was at the site of yesterday's political rally. Military cargo planes bring in a host of limos. Trump arrives on Air Force One. Secret Service everywhere. Military helicopters buzzing the City for an entire day.
The cost had to be astronomical and the taxpayers paid.
He spent over an hour inciting hatred and violence to folks in the grip of a mob mentality. It is scary to watch. Real scary.
3
@inner city girl
Then he plays golf again on our dime. The people who voted for this man just don't get it.
I don't know. They sure look like a right wing mob to me.
Trump knows what he started. He seems to be treasonous.
102
@Shakinspear Trump would gladly see this country go to civil war as long as he could retain power. We already know how this tax dodger has little respect for our laws. And the GOP is self-destructing at the behest of their wealthy overlords. Get out the vote.
1
Why is Trump allowed to lie and encourage division in America?
57
I enjoy seeing the losing classes idolizing a member of the group that exploits them. Those unruly mobs come mostly at his rallies and have now become the norm of American politics. 'Little people of the world, Unite!'...
15
\--His fans say they go to the "rallies" for the spectacle. Nothing more. Just to laugh at everyone else and make themselves feel good in the moment.
4
@Pat What starts as a joke can sometimes end up as a tragedy. Just ask the Germans....
1
Mob rule made America what it is:
Boston tea party, not mob rule.
John Brown and his crew, not mob rule.
The robber barons, not mob rule.
The Labor movement, not mob rule.
Civil rights movement, not mob rule.
But when we don’t like it:
The Irish protesters against the unfair draft, mob rule.
The anarchists, mob rule.
Native American civil rights, mob rule.
6
As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes say to describe mob rule: “A little man needs a big man”
3
An “angry left-wing mob” and an angry right-wing mob chanting “lock her up” have one thing in common- they’re both nothing more then unthinking mobs.
5
@Lewis Sternberg--The people protesting against Kavanaugh were not "unthinking." Nor were they a "mob".
33
@Lewis Sternberg Everybody carrying signs....mostly saying "Hurray for our side". Remember that one? And it applies to ALL sides. Dont allow yourself to be so easily manipulated.....
@Pat Disagree. The folks protesting Kavanaugh based on character assignation, based on a very common female experience,.....not based on anything relevant to Judicial Experience............is most definately an emotional, non-rational MOB. Kavanaugh was a horrible choice....but that conclusion could have been made without ever whipping up the Mob with un-founded accusations.........the Republic is lost.
Watch out! This is exactly what tyrants do before they create a “threat to national security” and declare a “state of emergency”. The paramilitaries begin a campaign of terror. Read Benjamin Hett’s Death of Democracy.
76
@Hope Melton
Yes,Trump would even use the natural disasters we've had as justification for declaring suspension of civil law. His enablers in Congress are despicable for echoing his "mob rule" comments - simply because they were forced to see the anger of those who oppose their policies.
9
No need for Dems to emulate Trump; he’s headed for disaster. Weak policies, foreign governments running amok, his base composed of unfocused, addled citizens, angry, fearful Republicans too shackled by ideaology for meaningful governance, an over-heated economy boiling over, rampant deficit and a busted budget. Unpopular, minority judiciary. Trump exists through sheer, world-class hubris. None of this is a recipe for success. Democrats should confidently follow their own path. The nation will fall into their lap.
17
@Chris Mchale
Yes. Do nothing and be proud!
1
After taking measure of the bad day we had as a country yesterday, I found myself pondering the parallels between Mr Trump, and the life and times of Emperor Nero who "fiddled while Rome burned".
20
I am so done with all things Republican. As I drive about my neighborhood and surrounding city prior to midterms, I am visibly assaulted with political signage. These people are publicly announcing their political affiliation. I see these political signs as more than just allegiance to a party, I view them as character stamps.
46
I read this and this "war footing." I read this and feel despair. I am not sure what the solution is but I think I need to attempt another media black out until the mid terms just for my own sanity. Too many people, including me, too easily inflamed. This article baited me.
6
When will Trump supporters figure out that the man puts on a really great show, but doesn't know dip about operating a government? The Republican tax cuts for the wealthy, and their loading of the courts with radical right wing zealots are both going to kill the middle class in coming years. Meanwhile, he parades around the country leading shouts of "lock her up" as if the "her" made any sense at all, and his MAGA thoughts are based on locking kids up in cages or tent cities in the desert. If $15.00 bucks an hour is your dream wage, and you don't mind losing the house over health care, Trump is your man. If massive inflation and a Federal debt shooting through the roof is where you want to follow, then 'lock her up" is your chant. If economically ceding all of Asia and much of the Third World to Chinese economic growth is an idea you have thought positive, he is your man. Otherwise, you may want to reconsider.
59
Their prime motivators are not logic and reason but rather racism, bigotry and misogyny. That is where the true loyalty of his base resides.@Patrick Stevens
"Lock her up" is a call for justice. "Kick them," as former Attorney General Eric Holder exhorted, is a call to violence. And Hillary assured all that the incivility would continue until Democrats got their way -- a distinctively female (although not exclusively female) tactic for a political world more inclusive of women.
5
Nonsense. Mr. Holder was in no way advocating violence. He and Mrs. Clinton advocate appropriate responses to Trump's long-standing assault on decency.
55
@real dB cooper: I doubt that the head of the Trump crime cabal is calling for anything resembling justice.
18
@Real D B Cooper - "Lock her up" is a call for justice.
Justice for who? What happened to the sacred right to innocent until proven guilty?
Maybe that is just a distinctively male right?
10
Pot calls kettle black.
From offering to pay the legal bills of any supporter who assaults and batters a critic to having the Republican campaign chant be "lock her up", Trump has encouraged lowering the bar until it is nearly a crow bar.
Democrats should not take the bait and mirror the Trump rhetoric and tribal chanting of the red-hatted empty-headed worrisome party rally-goers. All they need is to feel like they are followers at a party rally in Nuremburg in the 1930's. The broader American public does not want or like this; it should not be copied.
33
The attendees at Trump rally’s definitely seem to be incited by Trump’s words to take on a mob mentality. Once inside the rally doors, they seem to lose all concept of individualism and self awareness and meld together as a herd following the pack leader. I hope we as a nation can move past this image of Americans as angry, revengeful followers and not the independent people who built a great country.
59
The clearest indication of a nearly full tank of Donald desperation. Smells like 90s bankruptcy spirit.
31
In fact “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana works perfectly with these images. Media editors and the music owners might like to lay it over some video. “Come As You Are” could be played over the 2012 and 2016 rallies as an intro to the slow crawls out of the GOP woodwork.
2
"President Trump is turning the tables on his opponents by accusing them of being what they say he is . . ."
OK, well, maybe you didn't notice but this is the whole life story of Fox News and the formula of Nixon alumni Karl Rove.
129
--@Rocky L. R.--You give Rove too much credit. He learned at the feet of Lee Atwater.
1
@Rocky L. R. Actually, Trump is not "turning the tables on his opponents." He draws a few thousand people to these small rallies. Add them all up and it might reach 50,000. 130 million voted in the presidential election. Trump's approval ratings continue to decline every day. Nobody but his under-educated, racist, hating supporters attend these things. Multiply those numbers by 10 and it is still a small percentage of the voters.
it just to painful to read this ! the vulgar,racist, ignorant vocabulary use by Trump to motive his audience, then the picture of people full of haine shouting 'lock her up, what country is this?? In Avignon I just met a couple from San Francisco, they are looking for a place , they don't want to live in the us any more they don't like the way their country is divided, they don't recognize America
and I don't and I love it
77
@me
Popes hid out, or were forced to stay in Avignon by a French king who wanted the tourist and church money. I am sure it must be nice there, and the wine must be as well. After King Donald, if he doesn't seize power for his heirs as a French king would have him do, but Louis XVI has other advice.
1
It’s not projection. He’s just not bright enough to come up with his own criticisms of Democrats. So he resorts to: “I know you are but what am I?”
71
@EW In my neighborhood (just next to the one Trump grew up in) the expression was "I'm rubber, you're glue, everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you."
2
Trumpians are not the majority in this country. They are certainly not conservatives. Donald Trump has shown the party for what it is. Those republicans who are intelligent and thoughtful adults have left the party. The rabble is what is left attending Trump’s rallies.
122
@bmarshall
You are giving conservatives too much credit. Some intelligent, thoughtful adults may have misgivings about Trump but the overwhelming majority of conservative Republicans have made their deal with the devil for tax cuts, deregulation, and Supreme Court appointments.
They reserve the right to criticize any Democrat that ever behaves like Trump.
19
Don Trump is either profoundly insane in that he doesn't recognize the extreme danger his words present, or he is trying to start a civil war.
Whichever is true, people have to communicate with our nation's military and law enforcement leaders to tell them to disobey any orders from Trump that would contribute to the destruction of our society's peace and civility. It is their duty.
30
@shakinspear: protests are fine with you if it’s the republican tea party I guess, but not if it’s women protesting a blatant coverup of repeated sexual assault by a candidate for the Supreme Court?
Or, let’s say a mob of white supremacy advocates kills a woman at a rally but that is just “some fine people” expressing their opinions? Give me a break.
-@Shakinspear---General Mattis already has. Remember when Trump told him to assassinate the leader of Syria? He refused to follow that illegal order.
Just keep in mind that this rhetoric, designed to insight violence, is coming from a truly vicious lynch mob rabble rousing leader they elected. We have seen the real America, and it's pretty scary. Be prepared in case they rise up.
102
When the Vegas Strip lights turn off, most go to their rooms. The crowds appear more determined than they really are to keep partying until 8am.
1
@Shakinspear Definition of Incite a Riot, Federal Law
Under federal law, a riot is a public disturbance involving and act of violence by one or more persons assembled in a groug of at least three people. Inciting a riot applies to a person who organizes, encourages, or particpates in a riot. It can apply to one who urges or instigates others to riot. According to 18 USCS 2102 "to incite a riot", or "to organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a riot", uncludes, but is not limited to, urging or instigating other persons to riot, but shall not be deemed to mean the mere oral or written (1) advocacy of ideas or (2) expression of belief, not involving advocacy of any act or acts of violence or assertion of the rightness or, or the right to commit, and such act or acts."
The only way to fix America is to acknowledge how broken we truly are...Trump is the oozing sore that indicates a much deeper infection in our country. Sure, it's grotesque and painful, but without it we would have little awareness of there being something so wrong.
I'd rather we know of this problem than to be past the point of recovery via ignorance, or ambivalence. We will recover, we always do...this is what truly makes us great...our resilience...
33
i hope you are right, however the real judgement on that will be on Nov. 6@Tim
Vladimir Putin must be so proud of Don Trump for destroying so much of America's present and future, even bringing us to the brink of civil trouble and his totally accomplished goal of instilling hatred and anger and division in society. It' no wonder to me why Russia helped Trump win.
154
@ShakinspearOne definition of treason is entreating a foreign power (Russia) to debase, invade, and destroy our internal election process. People have been hung for less
4
In light of the destruction taking place from Hurricane Michael, he should have cancelled the rally, stayed home and read the UN report on climate change.
275
@FL Sunshinei. Yeah, Right, did you say READ the UN report on climate change, like I would read a dis-claimeer on my prescription drugs. Trump didn’t even read Cliff Notes.
15
But... that would require him to actually understand policy and start making rational, thoughtful decisions. He’s already come this far, why would he start acting like President now?
2
@FL Sunshine--but that would require reading--something he doesn't like to do...or something he doesn't know how to do--take your pick.
2
Trump projects, all the time. It's part of his lying ways. His rallies speak for themselves, and what is said and how the crowd behaves combine for a very ugly, disgraceful picture of victims and varmints, i.e., "white middle America," as it has always been but is now unleashed.
When we remember that Trump is President of the United States, it is even more a disgrace. Has he ever said anything truthful? Anything intelligent? Anything humane? The children in the desert, are the reflection of it all. November is near.
181
@Reuben Ryder
No. He has not.
4
I have to say this made me think. Has he ever said anything honest, humane etc.. The answer is yes. ‘Dr Ford is a very credible witness’ was what came to mind. But the inability to hold a thought and the desire for adulation had him openly mocking her at a rally the next day. I almost feel sorry for a man so out of his depth and in need of praise that he will never recognize himself or want to learn.
3
The best response to Trump in the Republican debates was Cruz’s telling Trump to calm down and his follow up strategy of ignoring Trump’s excesses.
Tump wins the game of insults. If you play that game you play into his hands. Don’t get into an angry debate. Ignore Trump’s aggressive arguments. Let Trump argue with himself. Nothing undercuts an argument like not engaging in the nonsense.
41
@michjas: I am totally with you on this. Why play his game?
Trump rallies sound much like the "10 minute hate" straight out of '1984'.
How the national dialog has degraded into thoughtless emotion.
207
Ha ha - this is a riot. This article is one of the few that take a minute to point the spotlight on the behavior of the Democratic Party and one comment on an article written yesterday. Wow.
The country is not being destroyed by one organization and one person. It's being destroyed by the behavior of all. When the Presidential election was still a campaign, some people attempted to persuade people to stop escalating tensions and divisions in this country and work toward understanding each side's view and working toward compromise and unity. I watched over and over again, where that fell on deaf ears.
I can't see where that will ever be a possibility again. Two sides are locked into their positions and a growing hate has deepened. I don't see how any of this ends well. And Democrats are just as guilty of how this has gone as anyone else. People would love to scapegoat Trump as the evildoer who has brought this country to this point, but, that is a very simplistic view. I dislike Trump as much as the next person, but the Democratic Party has become uglier and uglier, while seemingly being very pleased with themselves at the same time. As far as I can see, there's no one to vote for and I miss the country I grew up in. I don't know how it will ever be that again.
10
I didn't plan on voting in the mid terms. After observing the hysterical / irrational antics of the Democratic Party during the confirmation process for Kavanaugh, I'll definitely be voting.... straight republican.
Who in their right mind wants to further empower democrats?
11
Why weren't you going to vote in the mid-terms? Didn't you think it was important?
15
@Kerby - "Further empower" Democrats? Have you not noticed that Republicans control the presidency, both houses of Congress and now the Supreme Court?
5
@Kerby: didn't plan on voting? It's a privilege we still have - and not exactly guaranteed anymore. The day may come when you have no longer any right to vote. Our votes may be hacked and no longer meaningful in this environment of gerrymandering, soviet influence, and GOP-oligarch overthrow, but we still own our right to vote. Use it, cherish it, it may be taken away sooner than we know.
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The guy is completely unprincipled...(possible insane by any measure of what it means to be a decent person), but everyone knows this. It's really a sad pathetic time to be a citizen of this country. You can thank the Supreme Court and Citizens United, Anthony Kennedy and Justice Roberts for his creation. The country is being destroyed.
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