No to Trump, Duke, and Coup!

The author of "Debunking Henry Ford" socks it to the politics of Donald Trump and David Duke

I worry about a lot of things, but now I am worried about a coup, in the United States.  Donald Trump has essentially threatened a coup in the event he looses the election.  On October 27th he told his followers, Let's just cancel the election and claim the presidency for Trump.

The link for the 35 second video of these remarks: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-cancel-election-give-it-me-n674276  

Is it his bluster or is it his plan?  Or is it a plan unfolding from which he is compartmentalized, not responsible, but giving of permission, appreciative and profiting nevertheless?

The remark was tossed off in the context of attacking Clinton.  "Her policies are so bad," he said.  And previously he has said she should be jailed.  During the second debate he claimed his first act as President would be to jail Clinton.  But if or when he is not elected will he accept her as President or attempt some maneuver that is already being set into motion?

Trump disrespected numerous different kinds of people, including Mexicans, Muslims, and women.  Trump stereotyped Mexicans as criminals and rapists, and then insisted that a  Mexican-American judge could not be fair to him, on the basis of his ancestry.  Trump garbled some history and lauded the idea of dipping bullets into pigs blood, to use against Muslim terrorists.  Trump bragged about sexually aggressing on women.

Trump gave the country permission to forget civility and indulge in assorted bigotry,  and then lechery.  He  seemed  a big scammer,  unqualified and inappropriate for the job he sought.  When his numbers plummeted, he made his remark "Let's just cancel the election and give it to Trump."   Then out of the woodwork there emerged an increase in pro-Trump thuggish incidents.  An example from Mississippi is the arson at an historic Black church, accompanied by "Vote for Trump" graffiti.  

At a Trump rally in Phoenix, a man with a "Jail Hillary" tee-shirt kept shouting an anti-Semitic slur, then yelled a threat  to the press.  Trump's campaign manager distanced the campaign from this.  Technically, Trump is not responsible for overzealous independent actors on his behalf.  But certainly he is responsible for his bad influence, and so is his admirer and coattail colleague, David Duke.

When Trump rants about the media and its unfairness to him, the liberal elites, how Hilary is so bad, David Duke is behind the scenes, deliberately distanced, but still functioning to supply the explicit anti-Semitic rhetoric that Trump himself does not spout.  David Duke calls the media the "zio media" and he compulsively casts Zionism as the root of all evil and any problem, with the Jews, Israel, Zionism, and zionist dupes always the villain.

Duke is like a Trump whisperer, on his Youtube, in an earnest tone, saying to Trump, "They hate you, Donald," repeatedly.  The liberals and the Zionists, the zio media --  "They hate you, Donald," and they won't let him be president, according to Duke.  People of their white Christian heritage founded the country and made it great, and now the Zionist menace is attempting to take away that country and that greatness -- the world according to Duke.  "They hate you, Donald," Duke repeated.

Then, in the middle of the second presidential debate, Trumps accused Clinton of hating him, and the remark sounded like such a non-sequitur, unless you know what Duke is saying to him, and what seems to have sunk in.

The United States of America has a two hundred forty year history of an orderly transition of power from one presidential administration to the next.  That is a record and a tradition worthy of preservation.  So too in U.S. history, recurrently the right to vote was expanded to include more of the population.  These are efforts to be honored and renewed.  Trump is an extremist, a reactionary,  a bigot, and a huge scam artist.  Many Republicans have rightly expressed buyer's remorse,  but the whole country has to find ways to go forward together.