Adam Serwer is right:
Remember when the most important issue was civility in politics because restaurant workers politely decline to serve Sarah Sanders and now everyone targeted by Trump or his cronies needs private security and we don’t talk about civility much anymore www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...
— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) May 31, 2024 at 6:40 PM
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This should be a huge story. Democrats right now should be explicitly blaming the Republican Party for creating a climate of fear.
After Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime, his supporters responded with dozens of violent online posts, according to a Reuters review of comments on three Trump-aligned websites: the former president's own Truth Social platform, Patriots.Win and the Gateway Pundit....More:
“Someone in NY with nothing to lose needs to take care of Merchan,” wrote one commentator on Patriots.Win. “Hopefully he gets met with illegals with a machete,” the post said in reference to illegal immigrants.
On Gateway Pundit, one poster suggested shooting liberals after the verdict. “Time to start capping some leftys,” said the post. “This cannot be fixed by voting."
“Dox the Jurors. Dox them now,” one user wrote after Trump’s conviction on a website [Patriots.Win] formerly known as “The Donald,” which was popular among participants in the Capitol attack. (That post appears to have been quickly removed by moderators.)President Biden has been cautious about appearing to take a side in this case -- understably, I guess, given the fact that Trump is falsely accusing him of being responsible for the New York prosecution. Yesterday, Biden made an anodyne statement asking Americans to respect the process:
“We need to identify each juror. Then make them miserable. Maybe even suicidal,” wrote another user on the same forum. “1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to washington and hang everyone. That’s the only solution,” wrote another user. “This s--- is out of control.”
... One Jan. 6 defendant who already served time in prison for his role in the Capitol attack also weighed in on X, posting a photo of Bragg and a photo of a noose. “January 20, 2025 traitors Get The Rope,” he wrote, referring to the date of the next presidential inauguration.
"The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed," Biden said at the outset of a speech about the war in Gaza and ongoing hostage negotiations.A subsequent Axios headline says that Biden has now gone "all-in on calling Trump a 'convicted felon.'" But he hasn't. His campaign tweeted out a cheeky annotated list of excerpts from Trump's angry monologue at Trump Tower yesterday morning; the headline refers to "Convicted Felon Donald Trump," but Biden himself hasn't uttered the phrase.
"Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself, it was a state case, not a federal case, and it was heard by a jury of 12 citizens," he continued, noting that the jury ruled unanimously after hearing evidence for five weeks.
"Now, he'll be given the opportunity, as he should, to appeal that decision, just like everyone else has that opportunity. That's how the American system of justice works."
34 Lowlights from Convicted Felon Donald Trump’s "Press Conference" pic.twitter.com/STHrmoT4Dj
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) June 1, 2024
And red-state Democrats are afraid to go even as far as Biden has:
On Capitol Hill, Democratic Sens. Jon Tester (Montana) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) took a wait-and-see approach. They're seeking re-election in states Trump won in 2020.But even Tester and Brown should be able to denounce Trump supporters who are calling for violence. Biden should be talking about these people on repeat, as should every other Democrat.
A Tester spokesperson told local media that the senator "respects the judicial process and believes everyone should be treated fairly before the courts, and voters will have the opportunity to make their voices heard at the ballot box in November." The spokesperson notably did not say whether Tester believes Trump's trial was fair — a focus of GOP attacks.
Brown has not commented on Trump's conviction.
I understand the reason for Democratic meekness. In the 1980s, Democrats lost three straight presidential elections. They won the White House back with Bill Clinton, who often coopted GOP messaging. That was a long, long time ago, but the graybeards who still lead the Democratic Party believe that they have to say nothing but nice things about most Republicans, because otherwise they'll alienate people who've voted Republican in the past.
Meanwhile, Republicans have relentlessly demonized Democrats since the Reagan era, which somehow hasn't prevented wavering Democrats from switching their allegiance to the GOP. Remember when Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and Missouri were purple states? Republicans saying mean things about Democrats didn't offend enough voters to prevent the reddening of these states. Yet veteran Democrats still believe they have to say that Donald Trump is an exception to the rule and Republicans have unimpeachable character otherwise. They won't say the party is rotten to the core, which is what Republicans say about the Democratic Party. And then they wonder why every election is a struggle.
Democrats would have the stronger case, given how batshit crazy the GOP is now. But Democrats won't even try to hang GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark “pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets” Robinson of North Carolina around other Republicans' necks, or try to make Royce "women have become too mouthy" White, the Senate candidate endorsed by the Minnesota Republican Party, into a poster child for the GOP, even though these people are now the Republican mainstream, along with the rage monsters who want to doxx every Trump juror.
Alas, the message from the gray eminences of the Democratic Party is that, apart from Trump and a few certified crazies (Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert), the GOP is full of nice people who'd all be moderate and temperate like that nice Liz Cheney if Donald Trump would just go away. They back Trump to the hilt only because they're afraid of him, you see. Deep down, they're just like us!
They aren't. Remember how we deluded ourselves into thinking that Republicans won't approve of action on gun violence because they're afraid of the NRA? And then the NRA went bankrupt and Republicans didn't alter their position on guns at all? This is who they are. Democrats need to say so -- as often as possible, though even once would be nice.
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