“If there’s not going to be retribution, you’re never going to stop terrorism”
by digby
I’m no longer reluctant to use the word fascist to describe Trump. He clearly is fascistic and it’s absurd to pretend otherwise.
Just this week he has said this:
“I would knock the hell out of them [the Isis militants],” he told viewers on the right-wing talk show, presented by Elizabeth Hasslebeck, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmaede.
President Barack Obama “doesn’t know what he’s doing,” Mr Trump claimed, before adding he would do his “best” to defeat the militants.
“But we’re fighting a very politically correct war. And the other thing is with the terrorists, you have to take out their families,” he claimed.
“They, they care about their lives. Don’t kid yourself. But they say they don’t care about their lives. You have to take out their families.”
Do you think the wives and the families knew exactly what was going to happen with September 11th?” Mr. Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.”
Host Bill O’Reilly said he didn’t know, and Mr. Trump said: “Well I do, and I think they did.”
“We have to be much more vigilant, and we have to be much tougher,” Mr. Trump said. “We can’t allow this to happen: They take the wives, they put ‘em on planes, they send ‘em home. ‘Let’s go home and let’s watch Daddy tonight on television knock down the World Trade Center’ — there has to be retribution. And if there’s not going to be retribution, you’re never going to stop terrorism.”
Mr. Trump said on “Fox and Friends” this week that while he would do his best to avoid civilian casualties in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group, “you have to take out” terrorists’ families.
He told Mr. O’Reilly that “take out” means that “you have to wipe out their homes where they came from.”
“You have to absolutely wipe ‘em out,” he said. “It’s the only way you’re going to stop terrorism. You have all these cells all over the place.”
Asked if he would kill the family members of terrorists, Mr. Trump said: “I don’t want to be so bold.”
“I want to tell you they would suffer,” he said. “They know what was going on. If you look at what happened with these terrorists, they put their wives on the planes — those wives knew exactly what was happening, the children, everybody knew.”
Asked how he knows that, Mr. Trump said: “Because I know. Because that’s the way life is. Because I’m a realist. That’s the way life works. The wives knew what the husbands were going to do.”
He’s not just a fascist, he’s a dangerous psychopath. He’s talking about targeting children.
And more and more of the Republican base is responding to this. The latest polling has him at 36% with Cruz coming on strong with equally fascistic comments like this one:
“You don’t stop bad guys by taking away our guns. You stop bad guys by using our guns,” Cruz thundered to a roomful of Second Amendment activists. The Republican senator from Texas vowed that after he is elected president, any “lunatic” or “jihadist” who attempts to harm innocent Americans will “encounter the business end of firearms.”
And this:
.@TedCruz says he’ll carpet-bomb ISIS into oblivion. “I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we are going to find out.” #iacaucus— Kathie Obradovich (@KObradovich) December 5, 2015
How about alleged Christian minister, Jerry Falwell Jr of Liberty University:
“It just blows my mind that the president of the United States [says] that the answer to circumstances like that is more gun control,” he said to applause.
“If some of those people in that community center had what I have in my back pocket right now…,” he said while being interrupted by louder cheers and clapping. “Is it illegal to pull it out? I don’t know,” he said, chuckling.
“I’ve always thought that if more good people had concealed-carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,” he says, the rest of his sentence drowned out by loud applause while he said, “and killed them.”
“I just wanted to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to get your permit. We offer a free course,” he said. “Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here.”
I guess the scenario in his mind is if he had been at the Christmas Party he would have pulled out his gun and shot the semi-automatic “long guns” out of the hands of the attackers before they had a chance to open fire. Because he’s a real man. Who would “end Muslims.”
On the stump last week-end, Donald Trump entertained his followers in the wake of the massacre in Oregon with colorful fantasies of him walking down the street, pulling a gun on a would-be assailant and taking him out right there on the sidewalk. He said, “I have a license to carry in New York, can you believe that? Somebody attacks me, they’re gonna be shocked,” at which point he mimes a quick draw:
As the crowd applauds and cheers, he goes on to say “somebody attacks me, oh they’re gonna be shocked. Can you imagine? Somebody says, oh there’s Trump, he’s easy pickins…” And then he pantomimes the quick draw again:
Everybody laughs. And then Trump talks about an old Charles Bronson vigilante movie and they all chanted the name “Death Wish” together. Keep in mind that this sophomoric nonsense took place just two days after a disturbed man went into a classroom and shot 17 people.
Now, Trump is saying we should “take out” people’s families, particularly their wives, waterboard “and more”, to huge cheers from his followers.
The New York Times listened to every word Donald Trump said over the past week — 95,000 of them — and analyzed the meaning of his rhetoric in this fascinating piece. Here’s a bit of it:
The most striking hallmark was Mr. Trump’s constant repetition of divisive phrases, harsh words and violent imagery that American presidents rarely use, based on a quantitative comparison of his remarks and the news conferences of recent presidents, Democratic and Republican. He has a particular habit of saying “you” and “we” as he inveighs against a dangerous “them” or unnamed other — usually outsiders like illegal immigrants (“they’re pouring in”), Syrian migrants (“young, strong men”) and Mexicans, but also leaders of both political parties.
At an event in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday evening, his voice scratchy and hoarse, Mr. Trump was asked by a 12-year-old girl from Virginia, “I’m scared — what are you going to do to protect this country?”
“You know what, darling? You’re not going to be scared anymore. They’re going to be scared. You’re not going to be scared,” Mr. Trump said, before describing the Sept. 11 terrorists as “animals” who sent their families back to the Middle East. “We never went after them. We never did anything. We have to attack much stronger. We have to be more vigilant. We have to be much tougher. We have to be much smarter, or it’s never, ever going to end.”
While many candidates appeal to the passions and patriotism of their crowds, Mr. Trump appears unrivaled in his ability to forge bonds with a sizable segment of Americans over anxieties about a changing nation, economic insecurities, ferocious enemies and emboldened minorities (like the first black president, whose heritage and intelligence he has all but encouraged supporters to malign).
“ ‘We vs. them’ creates a threatening dynamic, where ‘they’ are evil or crazy or ignorant and ‘we’ need a candidate who sees the threat and can alleviate it,” said Matt Motyl, a political psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who is studying how the 2016 presidential candidates speak. “He appeals to the masses and makes them feel powerful again: ‘We’ need to build a wall on the Mexican border — not ‘I,’ but ‘we.’ ”
In another pattern, Mr. Trump tends to attack a person rather than an idea or a situation, like calling political opponents “stupid” (at least 30 times), “horrible” (14 times), “weak” (13 times) and other names, and criticizing foreign leaders, journalists and so-called anchor babies. He bragged on Thursday about psyching out Jeb Bush by repeatedly calling him “low-energy,” but he spends far less time contrasting Mr. Bush’s policies with his own proposals, which are scant.
And on Friday night in Raleigh, he mocked people who reportedly did not contact the authorities with concerns about the California shooting suspects for fear of racial profiling.
“Can anybody be that dumb?” Mr. Trump said. “We have become so politically correct that we don’t know what the hell we’re doing. We don’t know what we’re doing.”
The specter of violence looms over much of his speech, which is infused with words like kill, destroy and fight. For a man who speaks off the cuff, he always remembers to bring up the Islamic State “chopping off heads.” And he has expressed enthusiasm for torturing enemies beyond waterboarding. Last month, after several men hit a Black Lives Matter protester at one of his rallies, Mr. Trump said, “Maybe he should have been roughed up.”
“Such statements and accusations make him seem like a guy who can and will cut through all the b.s. and do what in your heart you know is right — and necessary,” said Michael Kazin, a historian at Georgetown University, echoing the slogan that Barry Goldwater used in his 1964 presidential campaign.
There’s much more. I urge you to read it. This companion piece points out the ways in which Trump’s rhetoric differs from the past five presidents:
The voice of a president is typically dignified, measured, even solemn at times. If elected, Donald J. Trump could change all that.
Mr. Trump’s word choices differ markedly from those of America’s past five presidents, according to a review of his public utterances over the past week.
Mr. Trump’s language is darker, more violent and more prone to insults and aggrandizing.
He Sees Stupidity Everywhere
How often have you heard a president of the United States call something – let alone somebody — stupid? It is extremely rare.
“Maddeningly stupid” was how Bill Clinton described some of Saddam Hussein’s actions in 1997. President Obama said the Cambridge, Mass., police had acted “stupidly” in arresting Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home in 2009.
But Mr. Trump? Over the past week, he called his political opponents “stupid” at least 30 times in public.
“We are being run by stupid people,” he said. “I used to say incompetent. But stupid is really, you know, is the next stage.”
On another occasion he cast the blame widely. “We’re stupid people, we’re being led by stupid people, and we’re stupid because we allow these people to get into office.”
Me, Myself and I
Mr. Trump talks about himself a lot, using first-person singular pronouns like “I” and “me” more often than the recent presidents did.
He uses these words about as often as George Bush, and more than President Obama. The claim that Mr. Obama talks about himself especially often — that is, uses first-person singular pronouns – is a popular meme, but it isn’t true.
A Lot of Problems
Mr. Trump’s language is pessimistic. He uses the word “problem” often — at least 87 times in the past week. “I want to make this country so great again, it’s got such problems,” he said.
There is also much, in Mr. Trump’s view, that is terrible – a word he uttered 20 times. “We got this one guy, he’s terrible, he’s the worst debater I’ve ever seen,” Mr. Trump said of Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio, another contender for the Republican nomination. “He’s terrible. He’s terrible,” he added seconds later.
Make Everything ‘Great’ (Again)
To Mr. Trump, things are merely good (114 times) less often than they are great (168), even excluding his frequent campaign pledges to make America again.
What is great, in Mr. Trump’s view? His hotels. His memory. His temperament. The people he will put in charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The city of Sarasota, Fla. His respect for the people of Mexico. And, of course, the wall he wants to build on the border with that country.
He is a fascist demagogue. And to a whole lot of Americans what he’s saying is music to their ears.
Other right wing leaders, like Ted Cruz and Jerry Falwell Jr (an alleged Christian minister) are right there with him.
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