Tuesday night at his rally in Tampa, Florida, Donald Trump did what he always does: spouted nonsense, told massive lies about his accomplishments, and proved himself completely unfit to hold the office of the president. This is now our new normal and is to be expected. But something else he did was continue to stoke hatred and division among his supporters which was partially directed at the media—specifically at CNN, and the network’s anchor, Jim Acosta.
Right there on video, we can see Trump’s rabid base shouting down the media and giving the middle finger. As you watch this and other footage, you cannot help but worry about Acosta’s physical safety—given what we know to occur at Trump rallies. Remember that it wasn’t so long ago, when Trump was just a candidate, that MAGA crowds in various parts of the country pushed, kicked, spat at and inflicted all kinds of bodily harm on black and brown protesters who showed up to oppose their beloved leader. They were egged on by Trump himself, who encouraged them and even said he’d pay the bail fees for anyone arrested at his rallies for taking on protestors.
We all know that Donald Trump is a monstrosity and that this presidency is a disaster and embarrassment. But it’s beyond time that we also admit that he is inciting widespread violence and mayhem. According to the FBI, hate crimes are up since he was elected. And according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, they are up since he became a candidate for public office. And yet, the mainstream media presents these facts as if they are in a vacuum. They are not. They are the direct result of a wannabe dictator who appeals to white supremacy and hatred in the hearts of millions of people. And let’s be clear: they are indeed hateful and violent.
The mainstream media continues to try to get us to empathize with Trump voters, ad nauseam, consistently presenting them as disaffected, down-on-their luck, everyday Americans. But this is not normal and neither is their behavior. Their are lots of people who are marginalized in this country. But it’s only Trump voters that we’ve seen for the last three years on video repeatedly behaving as enraged mobs who shout down people, shove people, kick and spit on people. They are nothing but angry white folks who pose a danger to the other people around them, especially people of color and now journalists.
We must stop normalizing them as rational human beings and voters that we simply disagree with. Enough of the civility bullshit. What we are witnessing is people behaving like animals who have zero self-control, all while encouraged by their idiotic, hateful president. Some of them have killed people of color. It’s only a matter of time before they kill a journalist. And it will probably happen on video. We should all be terrified at what’s happening at this moment. None of this is normal.