Playing with Matches

....If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019

Trump has accused Rep. Adam Schiff of treason and Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats of having an "Impeachment match", but it looks an awful lot like the president who is actually playing with matches in a gunpowder factory. He's reviving the Clinton email story both as a distraction, and to make examples of persons currently employed in the (fairly hollowed-out) State Department. He has also made statements about needing to know who his supposedly very partisan accuser (whom strident minion Stephen Miller made "Deep State" noises about--which I guess is one way of saying "career professional who analyzes security threats for a living") is. The individual may now be under federal protection.

Trump's "Civil War" comment is a quote from Pastor Jeffress (himself no stranger to making controversial statements), but using it feels like a threat. If his singling out of the whistleblower and the Democrats who are leading the inquiry into his impeachment carry the intention of intimidation, the Civil War reference feels like a threat against the rest of us. I noted earlier his request of assistance from the NRA--they, too, have made their share of "civil war" type statements. The threat of a "hot" culture war has long been lurking in the underworld of the American mythos, and the folks who really want it are armed. Is there any wonder Trump has had a hard time disavowing the white supremacist fringe (and his done a little bit to mainstream)? He likes the threat of violence, and the idea that he can, with a hint, make something "happen".

Especially if the right conspiracies are invoked.

One of the lessons to be learned from the 2016 election interference is that the US does have deep divisions that can be exploited, and Russia certainly worked with this knowledge in its digital attacks on us. A leader who cared about the security of this country would not want it to devolve into violence and would repudiate such thuggishness. Trump embraces it--with malice towards all.

Trump has compared himself, more than once, to our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. He is no Lincoln. If there is violence, he should be blamed, not rewarded for it.