In my book on our age of rage I explore how rage is addictive and contagious. What people do not want to admit in places like Minneapolis is that they like it, they need it. Politicians know that. Even after Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones was shown to have threatened to kill his political opponents and their children, other Democratic leaders continued to support him and he was elected to the highest law enforcement position in the state. Now, Ohio Democratic Attorney General candidate Elliot Forhan appears to be attempting to ride the same rage wave in a video in which he says, “…I am going to kill Donald Trump.”
A video is making rounds on X in which Forhan says, “I am going to obtain conviction, rendered by a jury of his peers, at a standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt, based on evidence, presented at trial, conducted in accordance with due process, resulting in a sentence, duly executed, of capital punishment.”
Forhan continued, “That is what I mean when I say I am going to kill Donald Trump.”
The video shows the thrill of saying (or hearing others declare) that you are going to kill your political enemies. After the thrill-kill statement, Forhan then adds the legal rationale, like a fast-talking commercial warning of product risks. He knows, as with those warnings, people will tune out the perfunctory verbiage. Indeed, like a commercial, he immediately returns to the marketing pitch in saying, “I am going to kill Donald Trump.”
This is protected speech under the First Amendment, but it is also reprehensible rhetoric at a time of increasing social unrest. Forhan is trafficking in rage in the hope that it will secure him a political office.
This pledge to hunt a single individual has worked for other Democratic Attorney General candidates like Letitia James.
Other prosecutors are feeding the rage addiction with their own overwrought and dubious pledges. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has been holding chest-thumping press conferences promising to arrest federal agents, which is highly unlikely given federal immunity protections.
Krasner was back, thrilling the MS Now crowd with a vow to “hunt” down federal immigration agents if they move into the city. He repeated the Democratic mantra that these law enforcement officers are Nazis and Gestapo.
“This is a small bunch of wannabe Nazis. That’s what they are. In a country of 350 million, we outnumber them. If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities. We will find you. We will achieve justice.”
This reckless rhetoric from Krasner (who was in my class at the University of Chicago) is occurring as protesters in cities like Minneapolis have been shown carrying signs reading “Kill Nazis.”
From pledges to kill Trump to hunting down federal enforcement officers, Democratic leaders are attempting to ride the rage wave to midterm victories. It is a call not for democracy but mobocracy. They will find that it will be a short-lived ride. Today’s revolutionaries often turn into tomorrow’s reactionaries.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the author of the forthcoming “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution,” which will be released on Feb. 3 as part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Ohio Democratic Attorney General candidate Elliot Forhan is suffering from Lizzie Borden Syndrome (El B.S.).
The simple fact these vile hate mongers are allowed to continue to run for office even after threats of murder to a sitting president should tell you they want division so to continue to divide and conquer America!
It should be very clear by now America has fallen and is the NT harlot hidden within the OT harlot in the language the bible is the most printed in for these last days!:
JER(USA)LEM
https://sumofthyword.com/2016/10/04/the-rapture-of-the-church-is-after-the-tribulation/
Wow, talk about irony. Professor Turley has been rage-baiting his readers for a few days now, and today is no different.
The professor doesn’t seem to understand, or maybe he’s just being deliberately obtuse for his audience. Putting out of context quotes and cherry-picking lines from a statement to emphasize the rage “addiction” of the left to sell books is hilarious.
i’m sure Turley is aware, perhaps just being in obligatory denial per his Fox News contract that the rage coming from the left is deliberately incited by Trump and his immigration crackdown run by what is turning out to be a bunch of undertrained and some barely literate law enforcement agents who have been described by some senior DHS whistleblowers as a bunch of idiots hired off the street or racists lowlifes looking for the thrill of catching illegals.
It’s already turning into a disaster for Trump and his DHS. After trying in vain to control the narrative by blatantly lying to the public and ignoring the fact that the same under-trained and poorly vetted ICE and CBP recruits have been on a constitutional violation spree, obviously because they are hiring idiots, police department rejects, and racists. DHS had to lower its standards to meet its hiring quotas, and it is not ensuring that these new hires meet any high standards, legal knowledge, or even physical fitness requirements.
For example, yesterday, some of these idiots and morons at ICE decided to force their way into the Ecuadorian consulate in Minneapolis—no warrant, no idea where they were, and looking to apprehend illegals in the building. After being forced out the door by Ecuadorian officials, one ICE moron proceeded to threaten to “grab” one if they didn’t comply. Never mind that they were on sovereign territory and were definitely trespassing onto a foreign government’s property. Poor training and basic stupidty seem to be the norm for ICE and CBP recruiting.
george
Putting out of context quotes and cherry-picking lines from a statement to emphasize the rage “addiction” of the left to sell books is hilarious.
_______________________
Stay away from mirrors george.
The real concern for me is that our American populace, dumbed down by information obtained via social media or slanted agenda-driven MSM, combined with an increasingly diverse representation of foreign immigrants inundated with nonstop words for which they have little contextual or historical understanding (other than it must be something negative) (like “Nazi!” and “Fascist!”), in addition to the commanding control of academia and media by certain political ideologies—-makes Forhan’s successful run for election not as comfortably distal as we would like.
Nazis for enforcing laws duly enacted by Congress? That’s looney tunes right there. That’s the Democratic party in America today – certifiably insane.
Professor Turley –
If you think Jay Jones getting elected despite making hateful comments is bad, you’re never going to BELIEVE it when you hear how Donald Trump got to be president after what he said about women, minorities, the handicapped, dogs, immigrants, fellow Americans, Africans……I mean – he bragged about getting to rape women as a celebrity and STILL got elected! I’m sure that’s a chapter in your book too – right?
False.
^ TDS on display. ^
Your statement is as credible as the Democrat AG candidate from Ohios statement that he has evidence of a proveable capital offense by Trump.
unfortunately I see only two possible outcomes for the US at this point. A divorce between Red States and Blue States dome peacefully. Or Civil War. We are far to divided on what is Right and Wrong. There is no way we can resolve our differences if the left thinks it’s ok to murder those with a different opinion than theirs.
@Rick
I’m hoping, and it may be a thin hope, but I’m hoping it’s generational and the mentality will age out (though our education system definitely needs to be addressed regardless). I actually see catastrophe across the entire Western world if we don’t iron things out, not just conflict here, and this time the global, modern left would not be on the side of right, I fear.