He hasn't been willing to move over to Twitter, for example, even though Elon Musk has allowed him to go back there. Social - big social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and YouTube provide a great tool for them. Bullies and wannabe autocrats need a bullhorn. Today, he has only about two million active users of his own social media platform. He could basically play to the fears and the anger that were out there with a subset of Americans. He had this enormous bullhorn from which he could get his message out, he could foment anger. I'm optimistic because, in the months and the weeks leading up to January 6, 2021, Trump was on Twitter aggressively tweeting. I'm actually feeling a bit optimistic right now.
And so there's a real question as to what it might take to help the country come to its senses in this moment. And there is some question of what sort of cataclysm would even - quote, unquote - "work," because, you look at January 6, and after that event, many people said, well, this certainly will bring the decent Republicans to their senses, they will stand up and sort of right the ship and say what their party actually stands for and condemn violence.Īnd that certainly hasn't happened. Some of the examples that came up were the Oklahoma City bombing, which was one of the horrific events that eventually sort of tamped down or at least pushed underground some of the militia movement of the '80s and the - the 1980s and 1990s.īut, again, I mean, we would never wish for such an event anyway. Well, something I have heard from people over and over in my reporting was that, in fact, we haven't yet reached a point that has led to enough Americans to take this problem seriously, and that perhaps, as horrific as it is to contemplate, that it'll take something worse. Do you think that those clashes in 2020 in Portland are a warning that they could potentially happen on a larger scale nationally?Īdrienne LaFrance, Executive Editor, "The Atlantic": I think that, when you talk to people in Portland, you hear some who would say that what happened there was really unique to Portland and not necessarily replicable.īut when you look at it sort of broadly, the sense that right-wing extremists can find a city that may be left-leaning, or disproportionately represented by left-leaning folks, and go there and sort of draw them out into violence, which is what happened in Portland, certainly, you can imagine that happening in other blue cities surrounded by red exurbs.Īnd so I think, more than that, though, it's less about replicating what happened in Portland and more just the sense that political violence is, by pretty much every measure, worsening in America, and paying attention to sort of the how that trend line is going and what we should be doing about it. Waco is the symbol to the far right of government overreach.Īnd, Adrienne in your piece titled "New Anarchy," you explore years of political violence, some by militia groups in America and abroad.Īnd you focus heavily on violent clashes in Portland in 2020, you report, that were instigated by right-wing extremists. So he is in a fight for his life, and the federal government is his enemy. Walter, Author, "How Civil Wars Start": Oh, well, this is the 30 year anniversary of the big siege that happened there, which, for many in the far right, especially those groups that are anti-federal government, they see this as the perfect example of government overreach, everything that's wrong with the federal government.Īnd, of course, Trump right now is facing an indictment by the federal government, which, to him, is the biggest threat to his future presidency, to his candidacy, to his life in some ways. What's the significance of holding it there?īarbara F. Trump just held his first big 2024 rally in Waco, Texas.
And Adrienne LaFrance, the executive editor of "The Atlantic." Her latest piece, "The New Anarchy," delves into the history of political violence in America.īarbara and Adrienne, thank you so much for joining us. San Diego and expert in violent extremism.
Such threats could again result in violence, experts warn.īarbara F. Trump's anti-government rhetoric is part of a larger pattern by the former president and his allies to discredit and attack federal law enforcement and government institutions.
0 kommentar(er)
