As Donald Trump's election becomes increasingly unlikely, he has been sounding increasingly desperate. His speeches are more addled. His actions are more bizarre. The garbage spewing from his mouth is more incendiary.
During the GOP primaries, Trump unveiled his strategy of calling his opponents grade-school playground names. "Little" Marco, "Lyin'" Ted, and "Low Energy" Jeb can attest to that. Trump's childish name-calling continues in the general election. Starting with lame names such as "Crooked" Hillary, Trump has become increasingly over-the-top as it is becomes clear how far behind he is trailing.
Some of Trump's name-calling is simply silly. For example, he has called Hillary a "marshmallow", a "low energy napper", and a "world class liar". Sounding less mature than a second-grader, he called his opponent Hillary "Rotten" Clinton. However, many of his more recent names are aimed at dehumanizing Hillary. They are designed to strongly demonize his opponent, making her seem somehow worthy of hatred and scorn.
In a reflection of Trump's own shortcomings, Trump has called Hillary "incompetent", a "disaster", and a "nasty and mean enabler". In an audacious pot-meet kettle moment on Wednesday, he actually called Hillary a "bigot".
Many Trumpian names for his opponent are really over the top and could incite some of his most rabid and unstable followers into actions that go beyond simply exercising their vote. In Cinncinati, Trump killed a mosquito, then proceeded to compare Hillary to that dead mosquito. He has called her "the Devil". He has called her "evil". He has said that she is a "monster". He has repeatedly implied that she is a Muslim terrorist, calling her the "co-founder of ISIS".
Trump's rallies have become hate-Hillary fests. The uniform of choice is a "Hillary for Prison" t-shirt. Trump's stream-of-consciousness speeches are often interrupted with chants of "Lock her up!". These rallies are aimed at dehumanizing the Democratic candidate and whipping the Trump faithful into a frenzy of hostility.
And Trump keeps spouting-off about how the system is rigged. How "Crooked" Hillary is going to steal the election from him through widespread voter fraud. How "certain areas" of Pennsylvania are rife with cheating, and will lead to his defeat. When Trump finally loses the election, he will find great comfort in this fantasy that he is not a choker. He will convince himself that the presidency should rightfully be his. The problem is, some of his most addled followers will also believe this, thinking that Hillary Clinton is somehow not the legitimate President. It is difficult to fathom what actions some of these crazies will take.
If Trump worries that the most violent of his followers will not get his message, he spelled it out for them at a recent rally. He suggested political violence against either a President Clinton or Supreme Court justices, saying "By the way, and if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know." Although he later backpedaled on his dangerous and ill-considered statement, the most diehard Trumpbots heard him loud and clear.
If there was any doubt, a New Hampshire politician who advises Trump and sometimes travels with him to campaign events stated on radio that Clinton "should be put in the firing line and shot for treason."
If you think that Trump's followers will all just laugh off his agitation to violence, I encourage you to stand outside of one of his rallies. Some of these folks are downright insane. While most of his disciples would never consider acting on their rage, a small subset would have no such restraint. It only takes a few well-armed Trump-inspired nut-jobs to cause major damage to our country.
Donald Trump has dehumanized his opponent by calling her a "monster", "the Devil", "evil", and the "co-founder of ISIS". He has implied that, if (when) he loses, it will be because the election was stolen. He has gone so far as to suggest armed violence against a legitimately-elected president. This kind of rhetoric is akin to playing with matches in a fireworks factory. Someone this reckless has no business being anywhere close to the White House.
by Paul C. Adair
I normally don't like to discuss an event after it has already happened. However, today I would like to talk about Tuesday night's anti-Trump protest at the Washington Co. Fairgrounds.
Trump came to Washington County in an attempt to shore-up his Republican base. Despite trailing by 15% in the latest state polls, he is under the delusion that he can do what no Republican candidate has done since Reagan-carry Wisconsin. Don the Con and his advisers figured that Washington County was a safe place to hold his campaign stop. After all, we are (percentage-wise) the most Republican county in the state.
However, Washington County still has more Democratic voters than all but 14 of Wisconsin's counties. We certainly were not going to give Trump and his horde a free pass to spew their patented brand of hatred, unopposed. Not here. Not in our county. A good crowd of Dems and allies showed-up at the fairgrounds to wave the progressive flag. All of the protesters were local, most from Washington County.
At any one time, the protesters numbered about forty people. The crowd had a bi-modal age distribution. There were plenty of old people like me. Encouragingly, there were also a lot of college-aged kids. I guess neither of these groups are trying to raise a family or focus on their career right now. Both old and young have time to devote to changing the world. Everyone had a sign of some sort, many quite clever. My own sign is pictured above. (the baby is my 3-month old grandson, "Otis")
As expected, the Trump crowd was almost exclusively white, slack-jawed, and gray-haired. Many in the crowd were so decrepit that the GOP would do well to strongly encourage early voting. Men greatly outnumbered women. Almost everyone attending seemed angry. Angry at the protesters. Angry at the country. Angry at life in general.
A very long line of Trumpsters waited outside of the hall to pass through security. They must have been patting people down for smuggled copies of the Constitution.
While we were pretty far removed from the line of Trumpsters entering the auditorium, there were plenty of Cheeto-Jesus disciples walking or driving past us on their way to see their hero. Many of them felt obliged to flip us the bird, give thumbs down, or tell us in so many words that we were misguided. Pretty tame stuff for anyone involved in the recalls.
Many believed the GOP meme that we protesters were either employees of the Hillary campaign ("Who is paying you?") or don't have a job ("Go to work!"). Well, which is it?
One man must have learned his street invectives from Moe Howard, calling us "imbeciles", "morons", and "idiots". Another yelled-"We will build our wall and put you on the other side of it!" Yet another one said, "You Dems just want free things!"
To almost everyone who treated the protestors with disrespect, we answered with "Have a nice day!"
Things were just getting started about 4:30. A steady stream of cars kept coming into the Fairgrounds at least until 7:30, when a headache forced me to go home. Trump was running late and did not speak to the crowd until well after 9:00.
We were surrounded by vendors selling Trump and GOP swag. Many of these entrepreneurs travel with the campaign nationwide and contribute to the carnival atmosphere. Pundits who call Trump a carnival barker are spot on.
The biggest winners of the night were the people selling the "Hillary for Prison" t-shirts that appeared to be the uniform of choice. They succeeded in getting hundreds of gullible rubes to spend $20 apiece on something they would be ashamed (and scared) to wear outside of a Trump rally.
For much of the 25 years since we moved to Washington County, I was unaware of the many progressives living in our town. We saw few Democratic yard signs and bumper stickers. Most local political offices had only GOP candidates on the ballot. In local social gatherings, no liberal ideas were voiced when the discussion turned to politics.
Yet, one in three of my W.O.W. neighbors consistently vote for the Democratic candidate for President. Thousands of us signed to recall Walker, Darling, and Grothman. After Dane and Milwaukee counties, Waukesha has the third most Democrats of any county in Wisconsin. We exist. We are here. We just tend to keep our heads down. But that is changing.
I wrote a lefty political blog in the Germantown NOW from 2012 to March 2016. At first, many from the far-right crowd were apoplectic. "How dare there be a liberal voice expressed in our town?" Early on, the anonymous comments on the articles were often so offensive that they were quickly removed.
However, over time the comments became more substantive and respectful. By the last year, several of my far-right readers said that, while they seldom agreed with the columns, they enjoyed reading them. I don't know if I changed any opinions, but over four years we went from open hostility to an acceptance of the right of progressive ideas to exist.
In a similar vein, I have volunteered to work at the Washington County Fair's Democratic Party booth since 2012. The first year was awful. No sooner did one angry venom-spitting rightie leave our booth than another one would take their place. I was convinced that they were on scheduled shifts.
However, Washington County conservatives are gradually coming to an acceptance of local Democrats' right to exist. And increasing numbers of our rational neighbors are being assured that it is OK to be a liberal here. This year, I saw more thumbs-up than down. There were only a handful of nasty comments. Sure, there were still a few people who wanted to argue the primary GOP fixations on "God, Guns, and Gays". But even the argumentative folks approached us with much more respect than I saw my first year.
I have heard similar stories from others. For example, the Washington County Dems have had a float in the West Bend 4th of July parade for the last several years. Participants report hearing fewer Boo's each year. We are becoming more accepted. Simultaneously, we are letting other liberals see that it is OK to express your political views in public here.
Just last week, I was getting my hair cut at a local salon. A loud-mouthed Belling disciple started spewing talk-radio memes, assuming that everyone in the room agreed with his bizarre world view. Having had enough of his pro-Trump monologue, I spoke-up. He seemed stunned.
He said Trump was a great businessman. (I said that he stiffed suppliers and went bankrupt six times). He said that the Trump kids were great and you could tell a lot from how someone's kids turned-out. (I refrained from saying how dickish the Trump boys are, but replied that Chelsea Clinton seemed nice). He said that Hillary belonged in jail. (I said that the FBI cleared her, but Trump was in court for fraud). He said that electing Hillary would be like a third Obama term. (I said that that would be great). Growing increasingly red, he said that Trump would get rid of Obamacare. (I replied that I get my insurance on the exchange and am quite happy with it). (I asked him if he was really going to vote for a guy who idolizes a Russian dictator and who said that we should abandon NATO allies to Russian attacks). In a fit of pique, he sputtered again that Hillary should be in jail ! (I said, "So should Scott Walker!").
He then made an angry exit, muttering that "Scott Walker is a good man". He was no longer feeling secure to shout right-wing talking points in Germantown without push-back. A sense of relief went over the salon and several of the patrons actually thanked me for shutting the guy down.
Every Hillary yard sign, every Russ bumper sticker, every Democratic parade float makes being progressive in W.O.W. Counties a little more accepted. Every local Democratic candidate, every liberal view voiced in a beauty shop, makes others feel that it is indeed OK to be a progressive. Every lefty letter-to-the-editor, blog, and door-knock makes our neighbors realize that we're here, we're progressive, and they'd better get used to it.
