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Tom Rinaldo

(22,913 posts)
Mon Aug 29, 2022, 10:32 AM Aug 2022

Trump can't "Win" through violence, only (potentially) through threats of it

The threat of triggering off civil unrest in the event that Trump is indicted is not an empty threat, but activating it would have the result of sealing Trump's political and legal fate, in the most negative way. Trump can not win anything through large scale violence, not an abandonment of any charges against him, not continued influence in the Republican or any other major political party, not another term in office. He can only lose. In some ways his (and his Republican allies) barely veiled threat of large scale civil unrest should authorities against him is similar to Putin's threat of unleashing nuclear war should the West move forcefully against Russia's imperialist war against Ukraine. The threat is only effective as a threat to intimidate those who would move forcefully against him. No one has more to lose from the actual use of nuclear weapons than Putin. He would not emerge stronger because of it. He would not emerge, period.

So it is with Trump and his threats of wide spread violence. Trump currently does not enjoy the support of anything approaching a majority of Americans. Neither did Hitler by the way when authorities in Germany facilitated his formal rise to power there, though they did not accurately foresee the consequences of doing so at the time. Had Hitler moved prematurely to violently seize power he would have been crushed. If Trump attempts to impose his will on the American systems of Justice and politics via large scale civil unrest, he will galvanize far greater public opposition to him, and those who support him, than already exists now. Blood would almost certainly be shed, but the outcome would not be in doubt. Trump would lose all, but he has nothing to lose by threatening violence should any moves be made against him . He can only win through intimidation what he could never win through actual conflict

The threat of violence is increasingly becoming the only remaining card Trump has to play. He has been preparing the basis for that threat ever since he first declared his candidacy for president. To intimidate, a threat must be credible, and Trump has gone to great length to make his threat credible. Yes he has the power to deliver violence onto America, but nothing that America as we know it can not and will not survive. What America as we know it can not survive is a capitulation to Trump's threats. If we give in to Trump's threats our democracy will not survive. If we don't it is Trump who will not survive.

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