“I’m the law and order candidate.”
Will Donald Trump have Hillary Clinton arrested if he is elected in November? His base sure wants it.
With loud chants of “Lock her up! Lock her up!” reverberating through the cavernous arena at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, the delegates displayed for millions of viewers the war cry of the assemblage.
Whenever Trump or Chris Christie or anyone else among the second and third-string speakers on stage called the Democratic Party nominee out for alleged “crimes”, the chant would go up.
It wasn’t easy watching Trump’s speech last night from Ohio. But I forced myself to do it. My housemates all took cover as the convention blared from the living-room widescreen.
The spectacle Trump and his party put on for 4 days culminated in his acceptance speech, one that lasted for 75 minutes, and it had been touted as The Donald’s opportunity to show the nation what he really stood for and why independents – and even Bernie supporters, and “millions of Democrats” should cast their November ballots for him.
It was very surreal watching as the billionaire anti-establishment populist pivoted to become the billionaire law and order candidate.
“I’m the law and order candidate,” Trump announced during his spiel. He promised that on January 20th, 2017 – the day he will take office – that every U.S. law would be enforced. He made it as a threat, with his signature pout and stern visage.
What laws aren’t being enforced now? I wondered to myself.
Oh, yeah, Trump and his base believe the immigration laws aren’t being enforced. So, as he promised to make us all “safe” I wondered if that is the date that the immigration round-ups begin occurring.
Trump even said at one point, that :
Nearly 180,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records, ordered deported from our country, are tonight roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens.
Whoa! “… roaming free to threaten peaceful citizens”? Talk about fear-mongering – this was it. Clearly stated.
Trump offered no specifics of how he was going to make us all safe again – except his threats against Mexican immigrants and Syrians. He will build that border wall, he said – and the chants went up, “Build the wall! build the wall!”
But now we have the law and order candidate making threats and promises.
It appears that Trump is trying to channel Richard Nixon – who, in the 1968 election, cast himself as the law and order guy. The country was going through hell back then, what with the assassinations of RFK and Martin Luther King, the riots, the cities burning, the students rebelling against the war … It was a lot worse in the year of 1968. This year is often compared to it.
Richard Nixon, the law and order candidate, won against a divided Democratic Party. And he won again in 1972. But we know how all that turned out, don’t we. The Watergate scandal was the tip of the worst criminal behavior by a sitting president. And it drove him from office, the law and order candidate.
Nixon was the worst authoritarian president in modern American history. Trump wants to step in his shoes. Which fits a pattern that Trump has displayed over this past year, so it’s not really surprising.
Of course, the words in the phrase “law and order” are code words for racism and racist policies that are cloaked in the mantle of patriotism – every African-American who has lived through decades of American politics knows that all too well.
Time and time again, Republican presidential candidates – and others – have played the racism card – really the “white racism” card. Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, (remember Willie Norton?) George Bush the elder …
And now with Trump’s white American nationalism, he made it clear when he pledged his support to all law enforcement … presumably against the terrorists and all those roaming criminal Mexican immigrants. He didn’t mention Black Lives Matter – or the controversies erupting around the shooting deaths of Black men by police.
Many politicos of different strips have called Trump or his comments racist. Only some commentators will go further and compare Trump to Hitler and Mussolini – including yours truly. And don’t forget, Trump is a unreconstructed birther – and there’s connections between the Birther movement and neo-fascists.
As he called for law and order, and for making us all safe – and of course, proud, Trump – reading badly from the teleprompter – made all kinds of his typical gyrations with his arms and hands and fists, and his finger pointing. Every now and then, he would stop, and make a comment of the stuff he was reading, like, “yeah, that’s really bad! Really bad!” Meanwhile, Melania Trump sat in the bleachers with a sour expression during the entire speech, having been taken to task over the plagiarism of Michelle Obama’s own speech 8 years earlier.
Trump also announced the end of the era of “political correctness” – to more screams of delight from his base. This is part of his panel of phrases that make up his champion shield of returning the country to a time when much of his base felt more in control. You know, his white base of older, white, working class men for whom the Great Recession hasn’t receded.
He tells them he’ll return the country to a time when “America made stuff”, but also a time when Blacks knew their place, when Mexicans weren’t roaming around and pushing white people out of the lettuce fields, when women weren’t so uppity, and when other nations gave us respect, “that we deserve.”
As he called for “prosperity through law and order”, the hypocrisy simply dripped off the podium and vaporized over the crowd. He was the candidate that denigrated counter-protesters at his rallies and urged violence upon them. “Hit him! Hit him! Throw him out!” he would yell from the podium of the past campaign.
The Donald made a lot of claims, things he called “facts”. Here’s a fact-check on his speech at the Washington Post, you know that liberal media that is filling our kids’ heads with “left-wing propaganda.”
So, here was the anointed one, no longer the “presumptive” Republican nominee, but now the presumptive emperor. He will build up our military. He will force other nations to pay us to protect them. He will destroy ISIS immediately. Somehow. (He once said he would find a new General Patton and let him rip away at ISIS and Syria.)
The presumptive emperor told the convention that the system is rigged. But yet, there he was, having somehow survived the rigged system to claw his way to the top of the heap. He knew the system is rigged, he winked to the crowd.
From the pageantry and the spectacle, the raw, ugly partisanship, the plagiarism, the boos for Ted Cruz, to Donald Trump one night emerging from his silhouette in front of a blue haze, it was undeniably clear that The Cult of the Personality was in full gear. And when he spoke, he had the look of a stern father lecturing his young miscreants.
It was a disaster of a convention if it was to show America that the GOP was united and ready. The base, the base – the base was all they cared about.
What a difference 4 years make. Near the end of Trump’s speech, the crowd began another chant – “Yes you can! Yes you can!” in response to all his pledges and promises. Contrast that with Barack Obama’s famous chant, “Yes we can! Yes we can!” Which is more inclusive?
Trump said he’s the only one who can fix all of America’s problems, the only one. He’s the champion of people, the voice of the people.
He’s the law and order candidate, and you better watch out!
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What’s really scary is that Trump cruised ahead in the polls after the RNC. Whether or not you like Hillary just know that to vote for an alternate candidate is pretty much a vote for Trump.
Right on, bro.
Trump’s acceptance speech proved without a doubt that he is a sociopathic megalomaniac who will say anything to further his aims regardless of the truth of those statements. And didn’t his face even LOOK like Mussolini?! Astounding science fiction comes true.
Whether we truly like it or not, we ALL must vote Hillary.
In a way I almost feel sorry for some of his supporters. Those who’ve lost their jobs and not any real chance to recover. Un-informed, not well educated, bleak future, full of anger and hate. And some naïve belief that he will get long shuttered factories and coal mines back into operation.
Trump- what happens to people who don’t read and get educated.
So who will America vote for – a buffoon with no government experience who says “I will do this..” and “I will do that.” Or someone who has had years of government experience, who is a smart cookie, who has admittedly made some mistakes? Who hasn’t? She’s been in the arena; Trump hasn’t been. He’s the leader of the disgruntled white people’s party and those who listen to hate talk radio. In some parts of the country that’s all that’s on.
Willie Horton (not Norton) was George H W Bush’s attack ad directed at Michael Dukakis. Lee Atwater, Bush’s campaign manager, devised the ad and said, “By the time we’re finished, they’re going to wonder whether Willie Horton is Dukakis’ running mate.” Atwater recanted on his death bed.
Horton, thanks John.
When they debate, Mrs. Clinton should ask Mr. Trump, if elected, would he have her arrested & on what charge. Make him put up or shut up.
Incredibly, some “Bernie or Bust” people chanted “Lock her up!” yesterday at the Dem convention.
why incredibly? look, i’m not unrealistic. i know that if i vote for an alternative candidate it helps Trump get elected.
But after #Wassergate, it’s more clear than ever that Hillary is corrupt. Like all politicians she’ll make promises to the progressives, the Bernie-or-Bust demographic, to get elected then won’t keep them. We KNOW this. if she had been serious about us, she would’ve selected a progressive candidate. She went with the status quo and that’s what we can expect. She is taking our vote for granted, she is not taking us seriously at all. She thinks she can coast on the “We must defeat Trump” rally cry, but it’s not enough. Sorry.
So by your own admission, a vote for an alternative candidate will help Trump get elected. And Trump is ahead in the polls BTW. He could actually win this thing. Not a happy thought.
As far as corrupt and making promises she won’t keep, what person in this line of work isn’t corrupt? Have you ever voted for anyone and actually believed they would keep or even be capable of fulfilling all their promises? Yes a bleak way to look at it but it’s true. Trump is a guaranteed disaster.
Why “incredibly”? Because “Lock her up!” essentially affirms the Trump campaign meme that Clinton is a criminal. Whatever degree of collusion the Clinton campaign may have had with the DNC (and I haven’t seen any convincing evidence that there was any) nothing suggests it would even approach the level of criminality.
Calls to “Lock her up” just play into the Trump campaign’s framing of the discourse.
I get that you’re angry about the way the campaigns have been conducted and frustrated about once again voting for the “lesser of two evils”, and so am I, but I can set that aside because I’m not willing, in a contest between a neo-liberal and a neo-fascist, to give any support to a neo-fascist.
And the Sanders campaign has indeed made a difference in the Democratic party- not only in the party platform (although certainly not quite as much of a difference as hoped- TPP in particulsr) but also in the party’s overall focus. It’s still not where I’d like it to be, but I’m still willing to work on that.
Hillary will “make promises and not keep them.” Do you really think any President could keep promises as long as Republicans control one or both Houses of Congress? Let’s face it: no President is all powerful.
I’m with Julie. Peoplein this chain are embracing cynicism, proudly. They ask,”Why expect anything other than corruption from politicians” as if that’s a position superior to Bernie loyalists. When he declared they demanded he shut up. When he drew larger crowds than Trump and Clinton, they asked, “but will they vote?” Now that Hillary’s nomination is in hand they still want everyone else to shut up. These are not admirable thoughts, Chris, rak, Frank and John. Think about the good done in the Sanders campaign. Honor that, or get out of the way.
Bob Dorn, I can honor what Sanders and the rest of us in his movement did, not the least was help to produce the most progressive party platform in the Dem Party’s history, and still understand that the moment is not between the worst of 2 evils but between a fascist / racist and a centrist feminist. For anyone – and I’m surprised Bob such as yourself to take this position – to suggest that voting for anyone besides Clinton, or not voting at all – is an honorable stance, is just not dealing with the gravity of this election. And anyone in that stance is not standing in solidarity with all the people who will be harmed by Trump,including my daughter and granddaughter, all the minorities, disabled, women that he has denigrated.
So, Bob, lock her up?
Right on, Frank! It’s amazing that Bernie got as far as he did and his campaign produced the far-ranging changes that it has. The movement of the Democratic Party to the left has been incredible. Bernie’s not going away nor hopefully are the people who supported him. The movement continues! At this point we must do everything we can to prevent Trump from being elected, and that means supporting and voting for Hillary. She’s got a head on her shoulders, experience up the ying yang and she’s not a megalomaniac!
Bullshit, Frank. Nowhere did I advocate “voting for anyone besides Clinton,” as you put it. Find it, quote it. Old lefty dogs like you and John ought to be able to remember the outrages perpretrated by Democrats in 1968 on serious, bleeding rebels against the war and racism by the DNC and at the convention. This year isn’t the same, and, yes, I’ll vote for Hillary, but not because people are telling me about Trump this and Supreme Court that, but because she’s halfway closer to my own beliefs than her husband or Donald Trump is. But if you keep hammering away at Bernie loyalists and asking them to take the pledge you’re only encouraging them to search for an alternative to Hillary. They probably wouldn’t want to be in a party that rejects them.
Okay, Bob, after questioning why I said that “incredibly” Bernie or Bust people were chanting the lock her up ugliness, Julie said this about Hillary: “She thinks she can coast on the “We must defeat Trump” rally cry, but it’s not enough. Sorry.” This assumes there is some other vote to take or action to play.
And then you commented: “I’m with Julie.” Period.
So what is bullshit?
I’ll tell you what is bullshit, your comment “but if you keep hammering away at Bernie loyalists …” as if Bernie himself hadn’t asked his supporters to support Clinton.
Not to mention your claim that I’ve told people to shut up and that my thoughts are “not admirable”.
So, who exactly is being divisive here?
You’re angry at somebody who agrees with your politics and your good fight against the bad guys, Frank. Persuade people who we’ll need in the coming days, don’t insult them. This is only a little like the old Bolshevik and Menshevik struggle that led to Stalin in Russia, thank god. We agree on the big things. That shouldn’t make you and Hillary loyalists angry.
thank god it’s only a little like that.
Sure, we agree on the big things as long as we agree that we must not allow a fascist to be elected president. That’s a very big thing.
Plus, your comment, “that shouldn’t make you and Hillary loyalists angry,” is the 2nd time you have directly placed me in the non-Bernie, Hillary camp. My good sir, I did plenty to support Sanders during the Primary, so get off your high horse. Quit acting like you have the high ground here.
Bernie has asked his movement to support the Democratic Party candidate, as he understands clearly the stakes involved. The least his “followers” can do is to not reject his advice (some even booed him at a recent Calif delegation meeting) and display crucial support for him at this moment.
Bob, I’m taking it all back. You’re a good guy, progressive, experienced, supportive of the SDFP, and I’m tired of arguing with you. You and I have better things to do. But I won’t be getting “out of the way”, as you warned.
Wasserman just did her job, which was to elect Democrats. Bernie was & still is not a Democrat. I voted for Bernie because he was not a Democrat, not because he was. The party Chair who should resign is RNC Chair, Reince Priebus, who surrendered his GOP to Trump’s outside insurgency. Did you really expect Wasserman to do the same with Bernie? Her work is over now & she can leave knowing she did her job well, leaving you the option of voting for Bernie, if you can find him on the ballot. While you’re belly-aching, I’ll be voting for Jill Stein, who is actually on the ballot, flying her true Green colors. I’d love to vote for Bernie again & again, but currently have no plans to move to Vermont.
Primaries are the place and time to vote ones conscience; the general election is the time for practicality. While I too am registered Green Party, I will cast my ballot for Hillary simply to help assure Trump is not elected.
Sure, I realize that CA. is solidly blue and our 2 votes don’t really matter. Still, my conscience dictates a practical vote against Trump.
Well said, but here in CA, we have a unique opportunity to move the political needle our way. No vote is insignificant if it carries a message. Voting for Dr. Stein in our true blue state is indeed a luxury, but I’m not going to let Trumpism make me vote out of fear.
Regardless of which party controls which house, no one candidate ever fulfills all promises they campaign for if they actually get elected. I can’t believe any voter ever actually believes their respective candidate themselves believe they will fulfill all their promises. Promising more than they themselves will deliver is a common tactic to get votes.
Chris has it exactly right- read the Constitution- 3 branches of government with checks and balances..NO president can implement large change without the Congress! Civics..folks,,,civics.
Good writing, Frank. A shame that few will read the WaPo Fact Check and none of them will be people who need to know the real facts vs. Trump’s version of reality.
Trump has shown no respect (or knowledge) of the rule of law, so if elected, why do we assume that he’ll abide by it once in office? Hitler won with 32% of the vote and shredded their weak constitution immediately.
The longest lasting, real solution is for these frustrated progressives still feeling the Bern to get out and campaign for local progressives. That is where all the bullshit GOP stuff starts..they run for small offices like school board or council or water district- then they get name recognition and springboard up. Why do you think we have a GOP House of Representatives? Many started out that way. (Yes, I know about gerrymandering too.)
So people, get real- in CA vote please. But get off your butts for local issues and local candidates. That’s often what affects us most.
Absolutely true. Elect ocal people who are democrats, not just
Democrats.
“local”