I recently asked, in light of the free speech implications of the second federal Trump indictment, when the price is too high for those who seek to jail the former president. The chilling answer is found in a new report out of the University of Chicago showing that almost 12 percent of the population, representing 30 million people, believe that violence is warranted to prevent Trump from assuming the presidency. That is almost double the number who believe that violence is warranted to ensure that Trump does become president.
As discussed in The Guardian, the Chicago Project on Security & Threats survey found many Americans are embracing violence as an option for political change.
We have watched as rage has risen in the country. It is often celebrated by one side or the other. I previously discussed how a scene like the recent confrontation on the floor of the Tennessee House perfectly captured our “age of rage.” Protesters filled the capitol building to protest the failure to pass gun-control legislation. Three Democratic state representatives — Justin Jones from Nashville, Justin Pearson from Memphis, and Gloria Johnson of Knoxville — were unwilling to yield to the majority. They disrupted the floor proceedings with a bullhorn and screaming at their colleagues.
It is a scene familiar to many of us in academia, where events are regularly canceled by those who shout down others. The three members yelled “No action, no peace” and “Power to the people” as their colleagues objected to their stopping the legislative process. Undeterred, the three refused to allow “business as usual” to continue.
Nobel Laureate Albert Camus once said, “Insurrection is certainly not the sum total of human experience but … it is our historic reality.” Those words came to mind when Tennessee’s House of Representatives expelled two members accused of disrupting legislative proceedings in what some called an “insurrection” or a “mutiny.”
Only a few days before the Tennessee House floor fight, a confrontation occurred off the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington which captured perfectly this new political reality.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) was shown on videotape screaming about gun control in the Capitol as his colleagues left the floor following a vote. Various Democratic members, including former House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), tried to calm Bowman. However, when Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) asked Bowman to stop yelling, Bowman shouted back: “I was screaming before you interrupted me” — which could go down as the epitaph for our age.
The problem is that political figures on both sides are attempting to harness this rage. They are playing a dangerous game. Trump’s inflammatory tweets are an example. Likewise, former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany. His son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa as riots raged in his city last summer.
Unleashing such rage is difficult to control and often those leading the mob find themselves later pursued by it. This is why, during the French Revolution, the journalist Jacques Mallet Pan warned, “Like Saturn, the revolution devours its children.”
And 70 million people felt violence was reasonable on January 6 to try to overthrow a free and fair election.
“Trump’s inflammatory tweets are an example.”
LOL — If these were Revolutionary War times, Turley would be faulting George Washington for posting mean tweets about the British. If these were Civil War times, Turley would be claiming that Abe Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth were both at fault for their “inflammatory” conduct.
Ralph, Professor’s only lashing out about tweets (anger) as one of the “five steps” after finding out his friend, Merrick, isn’t who Jon thought he was.
Turley is kind of a milktoast pence type. Not ever seeing right from wrong.
Sir the correct spelling is: Milquetoast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Milquetoast
Trust Me, I’m old enough to know.
Remember Ashli Babbitt
-January 6, 2021
Yes, she was a criminal who got what she deserved.
Welcome to the 12 percent.
Pity that SkippingCommieDogs fellow Soviet Democrat street thugs in Antifa and Black Liars & Marxists that assaulted the White House a few months before July 6th hadn’t simply been machine-gunned as they threw their Molotov Cocktails, bricks, etc. Because, as SkippingCommieDog pointed out, that’s what they actually deserved.
Add to that his fellow Soviet Democrat street thugs in their CHAZ/CHOP occupied zones, the ones firebombing federal buildings, etc.
As long as we have a weaponized and wholly corrupt justice system, there is no need for violence. All the 30 million would-be revolutionaries can stay comfortably at home obsessing about climate change and keeping up on their Covid boosters while Trump rots in jail on made-up charges.
This type of behavior is neither new nor shocking We have seen it recently under Hitler and Stalin. What is shocking is that no Democrat seems to care that the system of justice is being irrevocably shredded. It’s not going to bounce back after this. From now on, they will charge and convict people simply because they can. There is no one to stop them. If even the former president cannot defend himself from the insanity, what about normal people? Sooner or later this double-edged sword will turn on those now wielding it, but by then it will be too late to change course.
Sure, maybe Trump can eventually appeal, but how much money and time will have been stolen? The main thing is that these demons will achieve their goal of keeping Trump off the ballot. If this is not election interference, then nothing could ever be.
The part of Your comment about money gets to the heart of the problem. As long as the police, and prosecutors, have NO risk or anything to loose the system is rigged against the public. Cops are, in general, not our friends. Why do you think lawyers tell you never talk to them or answer questions ? Their job is to arrest people. The prosecutors job is to get you convicted. Only you care about innocence or guilt.
Simply untrue.
Why lie about the laptop?