Trump Cult Threatens To Make America Ungovernable, Intimidation of Public Servants, Health Officials

[appalachiablue]

- Supporters of Trump host 'Stop the Steal' protest outside of Georgia State Capital building, Nov. 21, 2020, Atlanta, GA.


'Trump cultists threaten to make America ungovernable by intimidating public servants out of jobs.' Daily Kos, 12/14/20.

While the arrival of vaccine doses is finally bringing some hopeful news about the pandemic, the state of U.S. democracy continues to be at an historic low point fueled by the complicity of the Republican Party. The past week has included a rash of threats against public servants trying to fulfill their duties and uphold their oaths of office. Nowhere was that more evident on Monday than in Michigan where the Capitol building was shut down to everyone but the 16 electors and others essential to certifying the state’s Electoral College vote after credible threats of violence emerged.

Each elector was provided with a police escort, but the atmosphere was so toxic, one elector ultimately decided to wear a bullet-proof vest to faithfully cast her vote for the state's rightful winner, Joe Biden.

The situation in Michigan followed on a week in which a so-called "enemies" list of state and federal officials who weren't sufficiently loyal to Donald Trump surfaced on the internet, according to the Washington Post. The list included the officials' home addresses along with photos of them covered by red targets and hashtags such as #remembertheirfaces and #NoQuarterForTraitors. That sentiment bled into a weekend of protests turned violent from Washington State to Washington D.C., with four people stabbed and another shot in Olympia while a series of altercations broke out in D.C.

And it's not just public officials who are being targeted. The Georgia GOP election official who warned earlier this month that someone would wind up getting killed if Republicans didn't speak up outlined instances in which random citizens are getting caught in the crossfire. “We have people stalking outside of our elections offices in Cobb County,” said Gabriel Sterling last Thursday. “We’ve had a warehouse manager, he was simply taking trash out to the dumpster, and he had somebody follow him with a camera telling him he’s going to prison.”

Hate crimes spiked across the country following Trump's 2017 defense of white supremacists in Charlottesville as "very fine people.”

But Brian Levin, director of the Ctr for the Study of Hate & Extremism at CA State Univ., San Bernardino, told the Post threats targeting government officials increased last year and were then exacerbated by the onset of coronavirus restrictions. “The direction of the threats and intimidation against state and local officials took an eerie turn in the last couple of years and accelerated during the pandemic because aggrieved people are interacting with their government at the local level — in public health and elections,” Levin said. “And those officials are the very ones labeled as legitimate targets for aggressions on cable news, social media and particularly by the president.”

Following the spate of violent threats, the question becomes who will even want to serve in these positions anymore?

“There is an ugliness and cruelty in our national rhetoric that is reaching a fevered pitch here at home, and that should worry us all,” said Diana Lachiondo, a local Idaho health official who was forced to flee a meeting last week about pandemic restrictions when menacing protesters showed up at her home...

More, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/12/14/2002028/-Trumpers-threaten-to-make-America-ungovernable-by-intimidating-public-servants-out-of-jobs

[liberalmuse]

1. We used to be a country of laws.

Throw the book at them. Create a department of anti-domestic terrorism and jail these fascists.

[still_one]

2. Time to start arresting people.......

[The Genealogist]

3. Donald Trump and his goons in the RW propaganda machine have

made this country a very dangerous place for many people with their toxicity. Even threatening a warehouse manager taking out trash? SERIOUSLY? This has to stop.

[Chainfire]

4. The Right wing terrorists

are going to have to be dealt with or they will complete the Fascist takeover. They are going to have to be shown that they are not above the law and not invulnerable because, as they will tell you, "We have the guns." We may have to deal with the in the only thing that they understand. We are reliving the 1930s in Germany, the only question is will we give in and give up like the Germans did or will we fight back before it is too late?

If you don't think that Right-Wing terrorist are a threat to your wellbeing, if you think that you are safe, you are not paying sufficient attention. I hope that Biden's AG is going to have the nerve to deal with the problem, it won't be easy and it won't be bloodless.

[magicarpet]

5. Recent Wash. DC MAGA March,...

[appalachiablue]

9. Tx for adding this, what a time

[magicarpet]

10. It seemed to run so parallel to the message you were attempting to convey....

Keep the lights burning,...

[subterranean]

6. Putin sure has gotten his money's worth. nt

[monmouth4]

7. I was just going to post a similar thought.I feel the right/repubs have become the party of Putin.nt

[dameatball]

8. We have many local authorities who will not oppose these miscreants, so buckle up folks. No quick

fix with all the damage done over the decades. Two things Trump supporters are great at is playing the victim and voting. Local politics is going to be as important as ever and it will take time....and demographics.

[AmyStrange]

11. How will that help?

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[world wide wally]

12. A show of force is the only thing they will understand