I hate myself for allowing myself to feel as such, but I don't know what to do.

[DissidentVoice]

Maybe this does belong in the Primaries section, but if so only superficially.

The violence at the Trump rallies is eventually going to get someone seriously hurt, if not worse, and he's only egging it on.

I have been told on other fora dominated by RW nutcases that "if that happens, it's because they were looking for it and they deserve it."

Ever since I first heard Rush Limbaugh in 1992, trying to paint Bill Clinton, a product of the DLC sausage machine, as a Marxist, and then with the rise of his clones, Fox, etc., painting "liberals" as demons from Hell to the point where liberals themselves have felt compelled to "reinvent" ourselves as "progressives." The hell with that; I've never run from the term.

I am not a violent person by nature, and, at 50 years old I have had my share of fights in my life. I grew up a street kid.

However, in the last few months especially I have almost been wanting to duke it out with some RW idiot who says that liberals are just a bunch of p**sies, who are scared of RW'ers "open-carrying" (actually, I'm not; in the Air Force you have to qualify on small arms and I have fired everything from a BB gun to an Uzi semiauto) and would "run from us." It is especially the "keyboard commandos" who have stopped amusing me and have started angering me - the types who post insults from the safety of their keyboards and who would never say their bullshit face-to-face.

In essence, I want to prove them wrong in their idiotic beliefs about "liberals" and to show them that, yes, we can strike back in force too. Liberals have been "too nice" for far too long.

If Trump stages a coup d'etat and gets himself into the WH (think Emperor Palpatine) and establishes a fascist dictatorship, those of us who cannot leave the country before he puts up walls that keep people from coming AND going are going to have to organise some sort of underground like the French Resistance. I have distant relatives in Alsace-Lorraine whose parents and grandparents took part in that, doing nice things like stringing cable across roadways to take out Hitler's SS motorcycle despatch riders.

I don't believe the comparison of Trump to Hitler is valid - he's more like Mussolini.

But the worst part is that I hate myself for being brought to this point.

As someone supposedly mature, who takes his Christian faith seriously (especially all that stuff in the Sermon on the Mount), who served this country in uniform (which many of the RW bigmouths have not done) in the Air National Guard, and later as a volunteer in the Civil Air Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary helping to save lives, I should be above this.

[redwitch]

1. I understand what you are feeling.

I don't like to hate anyone or anything. It just feels wrong to me and definitely unChristian. Your new mantra ( and mine too) "Blessed are the peacemakers."
Say it softly, repeat as necessary.

And if it comes down to rebellion ala the French Resistance I'll help you string cable.

[Warpy]

2. Oh, yeah, Trump's goons are going to hurt someone very badly and soon

and we're already seeing an increase in street violence from peckerheads with a grudge against the world he's told them it's OK to direct at blacks, women, Mexicans, Muslims (even if they aren't) and any other group Trump rants about onstage, throwing red meat out to the dregs of this country, the violent, bigoted halfwits who have a lot of anger but no clue where to direct it.

I do have to say most of his supporters don't fall into the "goon" category, they're just people who realize their party's power structure is hopelessly corrupt and out of touch and are desperate for an outsider to swoop in and save them.

It remains to be seen whether injuring someone badly enough for an ICU will do it or if people have to start to get killed before his dumb but decent supporters catch a clue.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. Don't hate yourself

But the worst part is that I hate myself for being brought to this point.


If it is your life or their lives - you have to do what you have to do - as we all do.

He's the incarnation of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip. He is. And while all of these folks are fighting amongst themselves - they can't see what he represents. It's not just Trump - it's the people who support him.

A fascist dictator can only rise if people support him.

And yes - I've said it snarky - but I absolutely mean it. We will leave. We have the means and the homes to do so.

And that advice to leave if it looks like a coup or a 'close' is coming from my husband's uncle - who is just as sharp at 96 (turning 97) as he was at 20 - when he was allowed into Mussolini's inner circle. He knows. He really knows and sees what is happening here. He's seen it all before.

His First alarm was the 'wall'. The second alarm was not allowing Muslims to enter the US. The problem is - as he has pointed out - those very same 'protections' can and will be used to keep people in.

[DissidentVoice]

4. I first thought that when he mentioned "The Wall."

My dad was stationed in West Germany with the 4th Armored Division when the Soviets first started sealing off the East.

It gradually went from mild restrictions on travel to the Berlin Wall...and what's happening now sounds perilously like dad's stories.

I live in a border city with Canada. If Trump stages a coup d'etat I'm going to pack up my wife and cat and beg for political asylum in the Dominion of Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not likely to have a cordial relationship with "President" Trump and may well ask the Governor-General (the Queen's representative in Canada) to put the Canadian military on an alert footing, since Trump is likely to make enemies out of most, if not all, of our current allies.

[bbgrunt]

5. I think it is a natural emotion that is happening to a lot of liberals, and

against our basic nature.

But continual, in your face bullying by others elicits that kind of emotion. I sometimes wonder if this is all part of a larger plan to destroy the country from within by forces unknown to us. First, allow all kinds of donors to contribute to political races (including international donors and unlimited corporate donations), foment strife and anger (constant hate radio and media), make guns and automatic weapons universally available, and then smile while watching them blow each others' brains out.

If this was the ultimate goal of 9-11, it seems to have worked.

[DissidentVoice]

9. I've often thought that.

We are tearing ourselves to pieces from within much more than Osama bin Laden or ISIL could have hoped to do from without.

I would not be surprised to see a second Civil War within my lifetime.

[hfojvt]

6. I think you should find a new media source

and perhaps a new hobby.

Some people seem obsessed with this Republican primary.

I have no paid that much attention to it, but I think it is absurd to compare Trump to Mussolini.

You note how Clinton was called a Marxist and liberals called demons from hell.

Well, the same things seem to happen on the left, particularly with the rise of the blogosphere and MSNBC. Leading Republican politicians are called fascists by our side, just like leading Democrats are called socialists by the other side. I remember 2012 when Mitt Romney was the most horrible person in the whole world, and conservatives, of course, are demons from hell.

It's the Jets and the Sharks all over again. Rival tribes, rival gangs. http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/122

Seems to me that a lot of the violence at Trump rallies is coming from the anti-Trump protestors.

I think it is odd how my Republican friends try to demonize Hillary. They don't just want to defeat her, they want her to goto jail.

Sheesh, I don't like her at all, but she's not that bad, just too much like a moderate Republican for my tastes. Couldn't we find some way to do politics without demonizing the other side?

As they said in the 60s and 70s "We need to learn to live together, because nobody is going anywhere."

[randome]

7. Wise words.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[DissidentVoice]

8. It's not just media sources

I rarely watch MSNBC.

I get most of my news from overseas; i.e. CBC, BBC, A(ustralian)BC and Deutsche Welle (I speak German).

It wasn't until the rise of Trump that I seriously started thinking of a Republican candidate as a "fascist," and incidentally, I voted for Reagan in 1984 and Bush Junior in 2000. Do I regret it? Somewhat, but it cannot be changed.

Well, I should amend that. In 2004 I thought of Cheney/Bush (and I got the order right) as deeply fascist, after the USA Patriot Act.

Being a near-Detroiter, rather than a New Yorker, your Jets/Sharks analogy is lost on me.

As I said, this goes way back past the current primaries. I first noticed it when I first heard Rush Limbaugh in 1992. Honestly, I thought he was some sort of political parodist until I listened more to him, read his books of unabashed self-love and realised he was serious.