Donald Trump is burning the midnight oil. And the 1 AM oil. And the 2 AM oil. And that oil is made up of 100 percent pure “Why would I ever take personal responsibility for anything?”
Well, Don, it’s like this. People have traditionally expected their leaders to … lead. By which they mean shrugging off criticism and placing the national interest ahead of extracting a moment of petty vengeance, no matter how much playground-level satisfaction taking a cheap shot like “lowly rated” may give.
And shocking as it may seem, comparing a double-digit number of bombs, which if successful would have carried out the simultaneous assassination of two former presidents along with a vice president is entirely appropriate. It’s terrorism. That is, an act or threat of violence done for the express purpose of generating a political result. So yes, 9/11 and Oklahoma City are perfect comparisons. Especially Oklahoma City, which was, after all, an act carried out by the kind of violent alt-right whackjob who used to be unacceptable to the Republicans but whose views now nests comfortably in the Nationalist ranks of “very fine people.” Any party that has made Cliven Bundy a hero cannot be all that far from raising a statue to Timothy McVeigh.
On Friday morning, an eleventh bomb was identified. According to NBC News, a search at a Florida mail-sorting facility produced a device that was intended to the Camden, NJ, home of Senator Cory Booker. Like every other target, Senator Booker has been the subject of attacks from Trump on Twitter, and is a frequent target of invective on Fox News and right-wing media.
Minutes later, a twelfth device was located in Manhattan. This one was aimed at former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. No details are yet available at this writing, but Clapper has also been a frequent subject of attacks from Trump, including threats to remove his security clearance and accusations that he lied to Congress.
As Trump was tweeting out his insistence that other people are to blame, but he never could be, Fox News was backing his play with a list of “outrages of the left.” As ThinkProgress reports this list included such notable moments as Sean Hannity talking about that time Cher accused ICE of “using Gestapo tactics” and Tucker Carlson accusing Democrats of inspiring violence because they won’t let conservatives lock transgender people out of bathrooms. Notably missing from this list was any hint of any Democrat in a position of leadership calling for violence in the way of, say, calling some group of people “enemies of the people” or accusing the opposition of a “Deep State” conspiracy attempting to overthrow the government.
Trump has still not called any of the intended targets of the bombing, and the White House has made it clear that he does not intend to. Because his interest in “civility” isn’t even surface deep. For Trump, Fox, and the whole right-wing machine, that’s just another word they can throw out while accusing the opposition of being an inhuman “mob” against whom any tactics are justified.
