We begin today’s roundup with Jeet Heer at The Nation who provides an overview of Donald Trump’s strategy of inciting his supporters to violence:
The election is a little over two months away, and it’s natural to see Trump’s incendiary comments purely in electoral terms. New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman notes, “Trump is trying to change the focus to violence and unrest in cities from months of coverage of COVID.” That’s a fair enough analysis, since Trump’s behavior does indeed spring in large part from a campaign gamble. Trump and his advisers are forthright about the fact that they see the upsurge in political violence as a winning issue. [...]
But it’s by no means clear that Trump and Conway are right that rioting will be their ace in the hole. After all, protests, sometimes including riots, have been continuous since George Floyd’s killing on May 25. But in the three months since that pivotal tragedy, Joe Biden has maintained a solid national lead.
Here’s Ryan Cooper’s take at The Week:
A democratic republic is a useful form of government for many reasons, but one of the most important ones is it moves political competition away from violence and towards the ballot box. If an election is lost, parties who did not win can regroup and try to win the next one instead of overthrowing the government by force. But this only works if a critical mass of the population views the electoral process as legitimate.
That is less and less true of the American right, which increasingly tries to win by cheating — through gerrymandering, vote suppression, destroying the Post Office, and so on — instead of getting more votes. One reason this is happening is that the right is thoroughly gripped by crackpot conspiracy nonsense. But another is the accurate perception that conservatives cannot win a fair election, even though American institutions are already ludicrously biased towards them. And there is no more blatant form of cheating democracy than violently attacking one's political opponents.
The Washington Post editorial board warns of a “dangerous moment”:
EVERY ACTION, every gesture and every tweet from President Trump is the opposite of what he would do if he were intent on calming cities now seized by protests and violence. No calls to national unity. No pleas for reconciliation. No effort to recognize grievances or address them. Instead, Mr. Trump lionizes vigilantes and demonizes racial justice protesters, thereby inciting the former and enraging the latter. [...]
This is a dangerous moment. Citizens armed with paintball guns, chemical sprays, handguns and assault weapons are appearing in the streets, spoiling for a fight. In Portland, Kenosha and elsewhere, the police are beleaguered; some are welcoming or encouraging vigilantes. [...]
The president has bet on a law-and-order electoral strategy that depends on turmoil. And no one in our recent political history has such a talent for fomenting turmoil as Mr. Trump himself.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, right-wing extremists were behind two-thirds of terrorist attacks and plots in the United States last year, and over 90 percent of such attacks between Jan. 1 and May 8 this year. Trump has inspired and encouraged them.
Yet if you follow coverage of the presidential campaign, political violence appears to be seen, by Democrats and Republicans alike, as largely a problem for Joe Biden. [...]
To try to break out of it, Biden’s campaign has gone on the offensive. On Sunday, he issued a statement condemning violence “of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right” and challenging Trump to do the same. On Monday he drove home the point: “This president long ago forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence because for years he’s fomented it.”
Biden is right. However violence plays politically, the reality is that only one of the two candidates cheers it. Trump has urged his fans to thuggery since his first presidential campaign. He invited Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple charged with felonies for waving guns at Black Lives Matter protesters, to speak at the Republican National Convention.
And, on a final note, Peter Baker details Trump’s long history of violent language and incitement:
President Trump has seized on the response in the streets to police brutality against Black men and women to bolster his re-election campaign, employing provocative and sometimes incendiary language and images to incite his followers, demonize his opponents or both.[...]
Mr. Trump’s approach, intended to divert attention from the human and economic costs of the pandemic, is consistent with a career of combative politics that play to racial animosities, going back to his time in business.
