Over the weekend Donald Trump’s campaign took a dangerous turn.
First, one of his rallies had to be canceled after protesters and Trump supporters brawled in the arena. The left-wing activist group MoveOn.org took credit for disrupting the event and promised more disruptions. Some of the Chicago protesters were also Bernie Sanders supporters, but there’s no evidence to support any involvement by the Sanders campaign.
Outside another Trump rally in Kansas City on Saturday, police were forced to use pepper spray against anti-Trump protesters. Earlier in Dayton, Ohio a man was arrested by the Secret Service after trying to rush the stage at a Trump rally and grabbing Trump himself. Trump later (falsely) claimed the man was tied to ISIS.
Yesterday, Trump responded on Twitter to the increasing violence at his rallies by threatening similar disruptions against Bernie Sanders.
The protesters who riot and use violence against Trump supporters are solely to blame for their own actions. If they weren’t trying to shut down Trump, they would likely try to shutdown other Republican candidates. Many “crybullies” on the left use their perpetual victim status to silence speech they disagree with. If you pay attention to what has been happening on many college campuses, you’ll know this is simply how the far-left rolls.
But it is also a fact that Donald Trump has encouraged his supporters to get violent. People have even been inspired to commit murder by Trump.
Donald Trump is uniquely tapping into something frightening and ugly that makes it impossible to support him.
The worst possible scenario for those who love liberty is Trump being elected president in November.
With the threats targeted towards Bernie Sanders, Trump has crossed an even more dangerous line than just trying to suppress political dissent.
Matthew Yglesias at Vox, who described himself as a “liberal Donald Trump apologist” denounced Trump as terrifying on Sunday:
The framers of the Constitution rather sharply circumscribed the president’s authority to make and repeal legislation, making it in many respects a weaker office than the prime ministerships of more majoritarian countries. But the president and his appointees have enormous discretion over the enforcement of existing laws. Putting a leader who would condone violence against the supporters of his political opponents in charge of the federal law enforcement apparatus is frightening. Giving him the power to unilaterally issue pardons is terrifying.
Even worse, as Rare Politics’ Jack Hunter pointed out, the remaining Republican candidates refused to condemn Trump’s culture of violence in the last debate. Some conservatives have tried to excuse Trump and his supporters’ violent behavior, a courtesy they’ve never given to African-Americans and others who riot in protest of police brutality.
There are many things to hate about a Hillary Clinton presidency. She is far more interventionist than President Obama on foreign policy, she will continue Obama’s economic policies, and she makes Richard Nixon look like a Boy Scout when it comes to ethics.
Although Hillary Clinton has described Republicans as “her enemy,” she has not shown a desire to restrict political dissent. More importantly, she has never threatened violence against her political opponents.
I most likely could not vote for Hillary Clinton and I believe she would be a terrible president.
However, electing Donald Trump would be far worse.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
