This. This is Donald Trump's America. https://t.co/wld2mmGTwe
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 30, 2020
When given an opportunity to condemn white supremacy, Trump told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" because something needed to be done about antifa. I think he may genuinely see them as his Black Shirts, and that is horrific.
Trump supporters and Trump himself have tried to gaslight us a bit about whether he said there were "very fine people on both sides". At this debate, it's clear to me who he sees as "his people."
The debate was a shitshow. Trump was belligerent and interrupted frequently and lied about as much as one might suspect. He blathered about the dirty California forests being the reason for the yearly wildfires and threatened about the potential deprivations of the Green New Deal. But the most important thing he demonstrated is that he is not now and will never be a president for the whole of America. There are, in fact, whole swathes of it, people in Democratic cities, in particular, that he despises.
What I hear, and what the Proud Boys themselves are hearing, is Trump telling them they'll have their time. And, just like Trump saying he'll accept the results of a "free and fair election"--he's not giving us too many illusions that that means anything other than whether he says it's time, or whether he considers something fair. He's been hinting at Civil War for a long time, appearing at times heedless to the violence that his language could cause, but maybe he is not actually altogether unaware of the potential for violence, just unbothered.
In the way he is unbothered by 205,000 Americans dead by COVID-19, bothered only when the blame threatens to settle on him?
We can not be disheartened by this rhetoric. How can he say he loves this country when he would see it burn? When he would see it's people hurt, divided, weakened? He doesn't. I can't think that he does, when he speaks like this.
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