Could Street Violence Lead To A Trump Victory?

With just over two months to go before the election, Donald Trump is clearly feeling the heat.

He must be finally realizing that he could lose, and end up in a jail cell for all his crimes against America.

So over the weekend, he fired off a barrage of tweets which only served to show how desperate he must be.

For they were the work of a madman.

President Trump unleashed an especially intense barrage of Twitter messages over the weekend, embracing fringe conspiracy theories claiming that the coronavirus death toll has been exaggerated and that street protests are actually an organized coup d’état against him.

In the blast of social media messages, Mr. Trump also embraced a call to imprison Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, threatened to send federal forces against demonstrators outside the White House, attacked CNN and NPR, embraced a supporter charged with murder, mocked his challenger, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and repeatedly assailed the mayor of Portland, even posting the mayor’s office telephone number so that supporters could call demanding his resignation.

And included more than one incitement to violence.

The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing. The people of Portland won’t put up with no safety any longer.The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard! https://t.co/bM6ypak94t

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2020

It's clearly an attempt to stir up more riots in cities across the U.S. so he can pose as a law and order president.

And some like the well known blogger Andrew Sullivan, think the Democrats are walking into a trap by not doing enough to denounce the violence.

Rioting and lawlessness is evil. And any civil authority that permits, condones or dismisses violence, looting and mayhem in the streets disqualifies itself from any legitimacy. This comes first. If one party supports everything I believe in but doesn’t believe in maintaining law and order all the time and everywhere, I’ll back a party that does. In that sense, I’m a one-issue voter, because without order, there is no room for any other issue. Disorder always and everywhere begets more disorder; the minute the authorities appear to permit such violence, it is destined to grow. And if liberals do not defend order, fascists will.

And let’s be frank about this and call this by its name: this is very Weimar. The center has collapsed. Armed street gangs of far right and far left are at war on the streets. 

What most people want in that kind of nerve-wracking instability is a figure who will come in and stamp it out. In Trump, we have someone who would happily trample any liberal democratic norm to do it. And the left seems to be all but begging him to do it — if only to prove them right. 

I don't agree with everything Sullivan says. I think he's exaggerating, and suffering from a bout of small-c-conservative panic. But his central point is a good one.

Unless the Democratic left can rein in those who think they are advancing the cause by burning and smashing things, Trump will be able to pose as the only man who can save white America.

And he could win the election.

What the Democrats need to do now is show extraordinary discipline, channel their anger into organizing, and getting out the vote.

And make sure everybody knows, who is the REAL terrorist...