This is a gift article, so all of you can read it. By David Frum, ex-Bush speechwriter, and the one who came up with Bush's 'Axis of Evil'.
Violence stalks the president who has rejoiced in violence to others.
By
David Frum
When a madman hammered nearly to death the husband of thenāHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump
jeered and mocked. One of Trumpās sons and other close Trump supporters avidly
promoted false claims that Paul Pelosi had somehow brought the onslaught upon himself through a sexual misadventure.
After authorities apprehended a right-wing-extremist plot to abduct Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Trump belittled the threat at a rally. He disparaged Whitmer as a political enemy. His supporters chanted āLock her up.ā Trump
laughed and replied, āLock them all up.ā
Fascism feasts on violence. In the years since his own supporters attacked the Capitol to overturn the 2020 electionāmany of them threatening harm to Speaker Pelosi and Vice President Mike PenceāTrump has championed the invaders, would-be kidnappers, and would-be murderers as martyrs and hostages. He
has vowed to pardon them if returned to office. His own staffers
have testified to the glee with which Trump watched the mayhem on television.
Now the bloodshed that Trump has done so much to incite against others has touched him as well. The attempted murder of Trumpāand the killing of a person nearbyāis a horror and an outrage. More will be learned about the man who committed this appalling act, and who was killed by the Secret Service. Whatever his mania or motive, the only important thing about him is the law-enforcement mistake that allowed him to bring a deadly weapon so close to a campaign event and gain a sight line of the presidential candidate. His name should otherwise be erased and forgotten.
It is sadly incorrect to say, as so many have, that political violence āhas no placeā in American society. Assassinations, lynchings, riots, and pogroms have stained every page of American political history. That has remained true to the present day.
In 2016, and even more in 2020, Trump supporters
brought weapons to intimidate opponents and vote-counters. Trump and his supporters envision a new place for violence as their defining political message in the 2024 election.
Fascist movements are secular religions. Like all religions, they offer martyrs as their proof of truth. The Mussolini movement in Italy
built imposing monuments to its fallen comrades. The Trump movement now improves on that: The leader himself will be the martyr in chief, his own blood the basis for his bid for power and vengeance.
More truth at the
LINK
