Let me begin by admitting that violence has never been completely absent from American politics. Just ask Huey Long. Or the four presidents (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy) who were assassinated, plus at least four who almost were (Jackson, FDR (while president-elect), Ford, and Reagan). But I submit that what we are experiencing now is something new: Not violence as an occasional lashing out at some political grievance, but violence as a deliberate and persistent tool to change the character and focus of the United States.
Part of this can be blamed on Trump. From the beginning, in 2015, he was urging his followers to take violent action against his opponents and even against journalists who reported what he was really like rather than the facade he wanted to convey. It was only natural — for him — to call for violence when all his other attempts to stay in power after he lost the election had failed. His use of violence and the threat of violence is exactly the same tool that mob bosses he ran with in New York were quick to use. (Using others to commit the actual violence, as he did, is also a classic technique of bullies, who are generally cowards.) He is so used to violence now that he turns to it as the first resort, not the last, when threatened either by politics or by the law.
And the GOP follows his lead. As do the Christian Nationalists — well, they were always prone to violence, but now he has made it legitimate and even “patriotic” to do violence to those who may dare to differ, to question, to dissent.
This is the point. The far right, the extreme religious, Trump himself, have been unable to use the normal paths of a democratic society — reason, persuasion, discussion — to convince the majority of Americans to agree with them and to give them power. Even voter suppression and other illegal but non-violent tactics are no longer working so well. The majority of the country is against Trump. The majority of the country is against right-wing Christianity; increasingly, more of the country is fed up with religion in general and organized religion in particular and wants it out of their lives.
When persuasion and reason fail, such people turn to violence. They are convinced God is on their side (in Trump’s case, he probably doesn’t believe in God and he clearly doesn’t in hell, but he finds it useful to pretend he is God’s anointed) and that gives them not just permission but a duty to use violence to force their demands on the resistant citizenry. Deus vult — God wills it! If the Crusaders could justify their slaughter with that phrase, so can the modern fanatics.
We have two courses of action in response. We can turn violent ourselves — but this is never a good idea, as the other side has more guns and sometimes has the police and the army in sympathy. Or we can use the legal and political tools that, while damaged, are still working, and working well enough to stop the violence if only we are willing to be ruthless in their employ.
For starters, that means that, come Monday, Judge Mercham needs to haul Trump back into court and literally lay down the law. Gratuitous attacks and calls for violence are unacceptable in a society based on the rule of law, and Trump needs — like any other child — to learn that lesson. Start with showing him a jail cell and telling him he will spend 6 hours there the first time he steps out of line, then overnight the night time, two nights after that, four nights after that, and so on until he starts behaving like a civilized adult.
(I’ve only scratched the surface of the problem of violence in this country, and there is so much more to be said and so many more counteractions to be taken. I’m focused on this one just now because Trump’s threat of violence to Judge Mercham’s daughter in order to evade being held accountable for his actions was so absolutely outrageous that I had to speak out. There’s also his broadcasting of that image of the President hogtied to a truck, which only goes to show he thinks he cannot be stopped. And shows why he must be, starting with the judge.)