More bluster than balls
Jeff Sharlet (“The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War“) posts in response to a Mike Huckabee monologue, “This is slow civil war: the rhetorical preparation, the simmer of hate, the little violences between individuals that won’t register to wonks as ‘political.’”
Huckabee, likening the Biden administration to a third-world dictatorship (via The Wrap):
“Do you know how political opponents to those in power are dealt with in third-world dictatorships, banana republics and communist regimes?” Huckabee asked during his monologue of Saturday night’s episode. “The people in power use their police agencies to arrest their opponents for made-up crimes in an attempt to discredit them, bankrupt them, imprison them, exile them or all of the above.”
Bullets, not ballots
“Joe Biden is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024,” Huckabee went on before firing off the sort of “or you’re not going to have a country anymore” rhetoric Trump used to inspire a mob to attack police and sack the U.S. Capitol.
For those not keeping current (Huckabee’s audience), Biden has gone out of his way to keep the DOJ prosecutions at arm’s length. He has no say in state prosecutions in New York or Georgia.
“Here’s the problem: If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets,” Huckabee finished.
Um, an election decided by bullets is not an election, Mike. But then conservatives such as yourself considered democracy optional long before David Frum in 2018 predicted they’d reject it.
Stuart Stevens reacts:
In “The Conspiracy to End America,” I write about how there are five elements always present when democracies slide into autocracy:
-the backing of a major party
-financiers
-propagandist
-Legal theories to justify autocracy
-shock troopsListen to Huckabee. He’s getting the shock troops ready. He is part of the conspiracy to end America.
Goat ropers
I don’t want to minimize warnings from Sharlet or Stevens. Sharlet has been in the field among actual militiamen in Wisconsin. He’s been inside their homes/armories. But Mike Huckabee doesn’t even merit “Honorary Goat Roper.” Why “real men” in MAGAstan (much less Texans) consider Donald Trump anything more is a mystery liberally infused with homo-eroticism.
There are actual violent agents on the right. Domestic terrorists. The world saw that on Jan. 6. Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was just sentenced to 22 years behind bars for coordinating the Proud Boys’ attack on the U.S. Capitol. Then there are the poseurs like Donald Trump, like Mike Huckabee, like Steve Bannon, like Alex Jones. Big, tough talk from the padded-rear-end set about others stepping up and fighting their fantasy revolution for them. Are they more contemptible than pathetic? (Perhaps a poll is in order.)
Once again, this mini rant from my files dates from the second Obama administration (2013), but with a minor edit could still work today:
It sure seems that every time some people are mildly threatened by cultural, political or demographic change in America, they run out and buy more guns and ammo.
They create shortages. There’s of talk of tyranny and rebellion, and how they need their private arsenals to defend the United States of America from internal enemies – meaning their neighbors and the elected government. And they carry AR-15s to rallies to show everybody they can’t be messed with and that they really mean business this time.
Well. There’s Pennsylvania Avenue, pal. And there’s the commie, fascist, Muslim, Kenyan usurper. And there’s your “Don’t Tread On Me” flag and your tri-cornered hat. And your gun safe full of weapons. And your basement full of ammo.
So which way to the revolution, Rambo? Are you really a Minuteman, or is that just what your wife tells her friends?