Trump supporters are addicted to his chaos and lies — and pose a growing risk of violence as the president becomes cornered: political scientist
Trump supporters are addicted to his chaos and lies — and pose a growing risk of violence as the president becomes cornered: political scientist
Donald Trump is a human maelstrom of chaos, disorder, lies and destruction — as has at least partly been exposed by Tuesday’s damaging Capitol Hill testimony from Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine.
Trump’s supporters are addicted to the chaos and lies . They too want to “burn it all down”. Trump and his supporters are the political beast with two backs, linked forever by insatiable lust.
The recent examples are too numerous to fully detail and list. Trump has encouraged and aided ethnic cleansing, and possible genocide, against the Kurds in Syria. He has engaged in multiple abuses of power, including obstruction of justice. He has tried to bribe and extort the Ukrainian president. He has violated the emoluments clause of the United States Constitution in any number of ways. He has ordered administration officials not to comply with subpoenas issued by Congress. He has spread racist or anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. He has threatened violence against leading Democrats, the news media and others who dare to criticize him.
Nonwhite migrants and refugees continue to be abused in Donald Trump’s concentration camps and by his enforcers in the Border Patrol and ICE.
New reporting by William Cohan at Vanity Fair suggests that Trump, may be manipulating the stock market for his (or his friends’) personal financial gain. Given Trump’s overall profligate nature , greed and utter disregard for the law, the possibility that the president of the United States is involved in such a brazen criminal scheme is not as preposterous as it should be.
Ultimately, it would be better for the United States and the world right now if we replaced Donald Trump with nobody and nothing. A power vacuum is infinitely preferable to this human chaos machine.
Given his statements and deeds, will there be violence if Donald Trump is removed from office? How is Trump’s regime weakening the United States abroad and encouraging global chaos including the possibility of major new wars? What types of reforms are necessary to prevent someone like Donald Trump from taking power in the United States ever again? And then, a terrifying question: If Donald Trump is re-elected in 2020 will American democracy survive?
In an effort to answer these questions I recently spoke with Brian Klaas. He is an assistant professor of global politics at University College London and the author of several books, including “ The Despot’s Apprentice: Donald Trump’s Attack on Democracy ” and “ The Despot’s Accomplice: How the West is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy .” His most recent book (written with Nic Cheeseman) is “ How to Rig an Election .”
In September, The Washington Post featured Klaas’ widely-read op-ed “Everyone knows the 2020 election will be divisive. But will it also be violent?”
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. You can also listen to my full conversation with Brian Klaas through the player embedded below.
Several weeks ago you wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post where you shared your concerns about how Donald Trump may inspire political violence, especially if he loses the 2020 election. Given the recent developments with impeachment, how do you feel about your earlier assessment?
The only addendum I would add is that the dynamics I spoke about in the Washington Post essay regarding the election and violence could be moved forward as volatility around the impeachment proceedings. It’s also worrying to hear some prominent right-wing voices like Ben Shapiro and Roger Stone talk openly about the risk of violence if they don’t get their way on certain things. Even flirting with endorsing violence can cause people on the fringes to view that as a call to arms, and that’s very, very dangerous.
At this point in Trump’s presidency, are matters better or worse than you expected?
There are two levels of analysis. On one hand, in 2017 when I wrote “The Despot’s Apprentice,” I said that if the next election, meaning the 2018 midterms, went the right way, that there was a good fighting chance for American democracy to be salvageable and to not suffer serious damage from the Trump presidency.
Of course the 2018 midterms did not go perfectly, but they went the right way in the sense that the Democrats got a key foothold by taking back the House. Consider the last few weeks: If voters hadn’t shown up in 2018 and given Democrats formal power in the House of Representatives ,Republicans would have buried the Ukraine call. The Republicans would have buried all of Trump’s scandals. And Trump’s behavior would be even worse without any checks on him.
So, on the one hand, that is a very positive story. On the other hand, America is still not out of the woods yet, because Donald Trump could get away with all of his misconduct in the form of not being impeached or removed from office. Trump could also get re-elected. What I really worry about is how Donald Trump will respond if he gets voter endorsement by getting re-elected. Because, as authoritarian figures do, he tends to ratchet up his behavior as soon as he gets away with something. Trump tests the limits, gets away with it, matters get worse, Trump then repeats the cycle. It is going to be a very long year or so until the 2020 presidential election.
Did the Mueller report and its outcome actually encourage Donald Trump and his apparent lawbreaking and other assaults on American democracy?
If you read the Mueller report, it is extraordinarily damning. It outlines a horrific series of abuses of power, obstruction of justice, and Trump’s willingness to play with national security for his own personal gain. The framers worried about all of those things. But for Trump and for his acolytes, the Mueller report somehow exonerated him. And the way that Attorney General William Barr spun the report with his memo, I hate to say it, was brilliant. It worked extremely well as a political tactic. It set the narrative in a way that the Democrats didn’t have a good counter for.
And so by getting away with that, Donald Trump appeared to be vindicated. It’s not a surprise that the Ukraine call comes right after this period in which Trump believes that he’s gotten away with the Mueller investigation.
The question then becomes, “OK, let’s imagine Trump survives impeachment? What’s the next thing where he feels vindicated? What’s the next thing where he ratchets up his bad behavior?” There are already many other matters that we are not aware of, given the pattern of behavior from Trump’s White House. What the world has seen from Trump when the curtains have been pulled back just a little bit is horrifying.
I’m not confident that we’re out of the woods in terms of future abuses if Donald Trump feels, as he did with the Mueller report, that he’s been vindicated by the Ukraine scandal.
How do these claims about Donald Trump being a de facto king or emperor, through the “unitary executive theory,” fit into your research on how democracies fail and then become authoritarian regimes?
In authoritarian governments, particularly when they were democracies before, the regime consolidates power by slowly co-opting institutions to work for the leader rather than for the country or the citizens. That is happening even more rapidly under Trump than even I anticipated with this Ukraine scandal.
Two major institutions of United States policy have been co-opted for Trump’s personal and political gain. That is, rule of law through the Department of Justice as well as United States foreign policy. Barr is going around the world trying to get allies to basically discredit U.S. intelligence agencies and U.S. federal investigators from the FBI because he thinks it would help Trump undermine the Mueller report. At the same time Barr is doing that he is also using his full weight of his office as attorney general to try to protect Donald Trump by going after Trump’s political rivals.
Donald Trump is shamelessly using U.S. foreign policy and national security as a bargaining chip in order to force and leverage investigations of political opponents. This is absolute textbook behavior in an authoritarian regime. The way that you go after your rivals, if you’re a despot in an authoritarian regime, is by basically bending the institutions to work for you against them. In countries where corruption is rampant, only the president’s rivals get investigated and prosecuted for corruption. In the developing world, anti-corruption crackdowns are really purges of the authoritarian leader’s enemies.
Are you surprised by how Trump’s norm-breaking has become so normalized so quickly?
The American people appears to be numb to Trump’s behavior. Trump has recently suggested that Joe Biden should be put in the electric chair. He’s called Adam Schiff treasonous, implying, therefore, that he should be executed. Trump has threatened Nancy Pelosi the same way. It’s not even a news story. Trump’s threats of murder and violence are objectively the most insane behavior of any U.S. president in history, at least in modern history, and it’s just a blip on the radar.
The news stories that traditionally define presidencies are now the news stories that define one hour on Monday morning until the next what-was-once-unthinkable thing happens. That is the death of accountability, because if you can behave in such a way as Trump is behaving and the American people don’t even pay attention for longer than an hour until the next crazy tweet, then you can get away with anything because you know it’s just a ratcheting effect where you shock people.
more
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-supporters-are-addicted-to-his-chaos-and-lies-and-pose-a-growing-risk-of-violence-as-the-president-becomes-cornered-political-scientist/
Trumpers are not addicted to anything. They believe they are a part of something which does not exist. And the 'real part' of the Trumpian façade would never allow their entry, the gossamer veils of the Mar a Lago mystique shuns the prospect of being soiled.
They are addicted. They are addicted to pretending he is right when he tells them they are "winning".
Addicted? No. Deceived.
The addiction is false. The deception is real.
"I alone can fix it," DJT. Is not an addiction. It is a deception.
They are so addicted to the Kool AId that they all look orange.
Guess they forgot about the faux "christian", faux "family values" troglodyte faux pastor
PASTOR WARNS IF TRUMP IS REMOVED FROM OFFICE, 'GUYS THAT KNOW HOW TO FIGHT' WILL HUNT DOWN DEMOCRATS
Trump supporters really need to stop binge watching The Purge.
It is really no wonder the once Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln is now often referred to as, "the damn gop". The Big R Republican Party of olde has devolved unto the smaller r republican small g gop of today.
Also, TRUMP IS TOAST...
What interviews like these reveal is that the left's greatest worry is that people will stop listening. The left has been ratcheting up the use of buzzwords that are intended to heighten public fear and to attract attention. The public has become less amenable to being outraged by merely mentioning the left's favorite dog whistles. Now the left must utilize the language of terror to attract attention. The political status quo built upon shaming, guilt, and outrage is crumbling.
Violence is not the real threat. What the left fears most is that the public will stop listening.
You nailed it. That is why they have to keep something in the wings for the next meal of red meat and shiny objects. Hell, AP and others are even prepping as we type bringing Summer Zervos back into the fray......................
According to the FBI by far the greatest current threat posed to the peace and security of The United States of America today is the one posed by dangerous violent white supremacists like the KKK, Aryan Nations, Skin Heads, Proud Boys, Republicans and other such organized race based radical rightwing hate groups!
There are more violent Somali jihadists in Minnesota than there are white supremacists in the entire country
more people are murdered every week in Chicago, Baltimore, Washington DC, and New Orleans by black gangs, then are killed every YEAR by the so-called white supremacists
Are you claiming that's because they are black? And what does inner city drug/gang violence have to do with right wing white supremacists gunning people down? How are they in any way equivalent? One is caused by poverty and battles over territory and income, and while horrible, has nothing to do with killing others simply because you hate their race or faith as right wing extremists do.
No. I never celebrate any death. Just pointing out the facts
WRONGO! Members of far rightwing white supremacist hate groups number into the hundreds of thousands. Hell, probably into the tens of millions considering that Donaldo Trump got sixty million lousy votes. So, according to the FBI and Justice Departments what I said is absolutely completely 100%... TRUE!
So, your lameness contention comes up BUPKISS!
White supremacists are our biggest threat.
Butt, Trump's and Barr's Justice Department says, "Yes"...
If that's the case then you are going to lose your war.
As compared to millions of gang members. Which is proven- not conjecture based on leftist hard feelings.
Want to still argue who is considered a bigger threat? Better concentrate on those white supremacists really damn hard to ignore all the gang violence going on around you.
Trumpp was elected by the skin of his teeth that peels from the wind and son burns. as he and they fleece US All, and as the fleas breed, we are left in more need, as a potUS puts himself and his religion, A Greed or not best for our country built by 'Men' with an idea to create a perfect Union, not Strike it Down,
and down so few have enabled an enabler of DISS, as he disables what so many fought and dies for to create,
asz he creates, disaster after disaster due to people too ignorant to be informed, as he DE forms and mutates
all that Putin DICKTATES from easing sanctions to vacating our NAtional Middle East Interests,
that now our Enemies control, like they do our POS potUS.
A few thousand, a tiny fractional proportion of this country in 3 states gave this A Whole lot of stupid . free reign to reign and bring down while ununiteing these once United States he knows more than the Generals, the economists, the experts on any and all while
he knows less than the knows rite nose stripped on his Nostradamus Nostril flared to signal an Abby Normal Brain
stolen valor, and pride, from so many that gave so much, and while many even DIED, so this FCKN AS WHOLE lot of WRONG
can profit, and not be EXPOSED by PUTIN in Place to save his face,
while ALL OF AMERICA IS LEFT
DISGRACED
now that disgraced is done
Lets Eat !
Left-wing radicals getting worse.
More people are killed by Hispanic and Black gangs than KKK groups.
To you.
I watched the so called video. It shows zero proof of what you claim. It starts with a fight. It conveniently does not show what happened leading up to it.
Well you need to watch it again. The man was obviously attacked by a gang and when he ran the thugs still kept following him.
I don't need to. It started at a fight. Did not show who or what started it or any words that may have been exchanged before.
yes I think you do.
so the guy deserved to be held by force and assaulted by a mob. is that what you are going with?
and then chased after by the mob.
well it takes all kinds I guess
I didn't see any of that. I did not see him being held or a mob throwing punches, as is insinuated.
Good grief, the man was suckered punched while others held him and cheered the thug on.
I guess you only see what you want to see..it is sad.
That is my point. It shows one punch being thrown, then running down the street.
It does not show any confrontation that led up to it and it does not show him being held and attacked by a mob.
They are pulling on his clothing and holding him then the guy sucker punches him. So now you admit he was attacked.
Sorry if it isn't enough violence for you to condemn it. Perhaps next time they should beat him down to the ground.
What does it matter what was said or what led up to mob violence?
I never denied an attack. I am saying the description of the attack is a fabrication.
Ask the proud boys. Several of them will have plenty of time on their hands.
No it isn't. It is spot on.
What do the Proud Boys have to do with this attack?
You have your view and I have mine. Funny how redstate can glean so much out of an 11 second vid.
What does the proud boys have to do with it? You are the one that stated left wing violence is getting worse, when I see members of a racist organization actually going to jail for violence and attacking people.
The video speaks for itself. Like I said you see what you want to see.
So when a leftist points out a fact that is simply the truth, with absolutely no political slant. When someone on the right points out a fact it is considered celebratory, and derogatory?
Please.
Yes, those are the supposed threats of violence touted by the FBI (and other intelligence agencies). Of course, there isn't any coordination between those factions; there isn't really a rightwing terrorist organization emerging. MS-13 is a larger and more organized violent threat than are supremacist groups but MS-13 isn't organized around any sort of ideology. Organized crime is still a larger violent threat than is ideologically motivated domestic factions.
And the United States is still expending a lot of resources to defend against ISIS, al Qaeda, and other foreign terrorist organizations. So, foreign threats of infiltration and violence still loom very large in domestic policy.
The left focusing attention on small, domestic, uncoordinated ideological factions only serves the purpose of stoking public fear based on the left's favorite dog whistles. The white supremacists ideology is naturally a threat to minority groups but not a national threat. White supremacists may attempt to bomb a synagogue or black church but white supremacists won't attempt to attack New York City or national infrastructure as foreign terrorists are attempting. White supremacists are not attempting to obtain nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons as are foreign terrorists.
White supremacists are not threatening to overthrow the government of the United States as are leftwing socialists and radicals. The leftwing radical movement to partition the United States and create the Republic of New Africa is actually a greater ideological threat than are white supremacists.
Gee I guess all the white folk can rest easy then.
[Deleted] You learn something every day.
[Deleted]
The state of Jefferson would still be a state within the United States. The Republic of New Africa would be a country separated from the United States. A more apt analogy would be the calls to reestablish the Republic of Texas; although the Republic of Texas does have a historical precedent while the Republic of New Africa does not.
The leftwing radical movement to partition the United States and establish the Republic of New Africa really does have multi-racial and multi-ethnic support domestically and internationally. Your attempt at whistling dogs is not well founded.
[Deleted]
Exactly! The State of Jefferson would be America’s 51st state and a great one.
Never going to happen, don't like living in California then move
......will never exist.
the new state of Jefferson
It is not a new state. It is a wanna be new state. A cat can have kittens in the oven but it does not make them biscuits.
And who complains about gaslighting?
I was amazed at the level of batshit leftist lunacy in the article.
Until I started reading the comments. Holy crap.
trump is kicking deep state butt and they are cornered.
only a moron thinks trump is cornered.
( thanks for the laugh
Not tough to do given that the deep state doesn't even exist.
then they won't mind being the subjects of criminal investigations.
win win yes?
LOL
Even if Trump grew a third leg, he couldn't even kick his own ass.