VDH UltraFifteen Ways to Destroy Democracy to “Save It”—Democrat-Style: Part Eight
Victor Davis Hanson
14. Assassination Porn. Threatening the life of a president in order to dehumanize him and lower the bar of his safety became a tactic of the Left.
Donald Trump is not just the only president to have been impeached twice, tried as a private citizen, indicted by four local/state/federal prosecutors, and targeted for ballot removal in some 16 states. He was also the first presidential nominee and ex-President to be the target of two near-miss assassination attempts during a single campaign.
The combination of a lax Secret Service that mysteriously did not provide the minimum level of protection necessary to secure a controversial candidate and ex-President Trump, along with a decade of non-stop threats to Trump and comparisons of him to the worst of mankind, both lowered the bar of the unthinkable.
In other words, the notion that it was not hard to get within shooting range of Trump, married with the reality that his assassination would be greeted as heroic by the Left, made it especially dangerous for Trump—given the likelihood that any would-be assassin might imagine he could complete the task and yet would be iconized for his murderous effort.
Note that pollster Scott Rasmussen’s Napolitan News Service recently polled 1,000 registered voters and asked them: “While it is always difficult to wish ill of another human being, would America be better off if Donald Trump had been killed last weekend?”
The result? Some 17% of Americans responded “yes,” while 69% answered “no.”
The remaining 14% polled that they are uncertain. Yet note again that among those Democrats polled, 28% answered “yes.” No wonder—given the celebrity and media talk of Trump as Hitler and the need for him to be assassinated.
So, consider the wide variety in leftwing celebrity and politico expressions of either assaulting or killing Trump.
Robert De Niro repeatedly claimed he wanted to punch Trump out. Kathy Griffin held up a facsimile of a decapitated Trump head. Marilyn Manson cut a video of a decapitated Trump.
The Shakespeare in the Park troupe of New York portrayed Trump as a doomed Caesar—and repeatedly stabbed by conspirators.
Mickey Rourke wished to club him. Snoop Dogg preferred shooting Trump.
Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain chose to see Trump poisoned. Comedian George Lopez joked about putting a lethal bounty on him. Pearl Jam dreamed of Carrion eating his corpse. Larry Wilmore dreamed of suffocating Trump, while Madonna exclaimed that she dreamed of blowing him up in the White House.
Rosie O’Donnell envisioned throwing him over a cliff. For Johnny Depp and Big Sean just having him generically assassinated was enough. Billionaire Reid Hoffman prayed that Trump might have been martyred. New York Times columnist John McWhorter wished that someone had assassinated Trump.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) dreamed of hurting Trump physically: “My testosterone sometimes makes me want to feel like punching him, which would be bad for this elderly, out-of-shape man that he is if I did that. This physically weak specimen.”
Note how mainstream politicos and officials have declared a desire for Trump dead.
Obama and Harris campaign advisor David Plouffe said, “It is not enough to simply beat Trump. He must be destroyed thoroughly. His kind must not rise again.”
Rep Dan Goldman (D-NY) exclaimed, “He is not only unfit; he is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be, he has to be eliminated.”
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo gushed, “Let’s extinguish him for good.”
Remember, in March 2018, Biden had huffed, “If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.”
A year later, he doubled down on his physical threats. “The idea that I’d be intimidated by Donald Trump… He’s the bully that I’ve always stood up to. He’s the bully that used to make fun of me as a kid with a stutter, and I’d smack him in the mouth.”
Earlier this year, Biden talked of putting a “bullseye” on Trump.
Sometimes, the threats were not just verbal. The former head of the January 6th Committee and 2004 election obstructionist Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) introduced legislation ridiculously entitled “Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act.” It was ostensibly designed to strip Secret Service protection for former President Trump and thus apparently put him in physical danger.
In a recent New Republic cover, Trump was literally photoshopped as Hitler. The editors unapologetically defended itself with: “Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, ‘He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.’”
Anchorwoman Joy Reid screams nightly about Trump as a Hitlerian dictator (“Then let me know who I got to vote for to keep Hitler out of the White House”). So does Rachel Maddow, who brags that she is studying Hitler to understand Trump.
And on and on. What is odd is not that two assassins have tried to kill Trump but given the rhetoric and hatred by the left and the celebrity crowd, it is a miracle that there have not been dozens of more attempts.
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