“The Michigan Court of Claims has ruled that open carry of firearms outside polls on Election Day to be legal… The ruling from Chief Judge Christopher Murray came Tuesday [10/27] after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's recent directive to ban them within 100 feet of polling locations for Nov. 3. After Benson's earlier directive, three gun rights groups sued, leading up to today's hearing and ruling.” Fox News 2 (Detroit), October 27th. As the President has called on his supporters to monitor polls, to which well-armed right-wing militia seem to have responded with alacrity.
Voter intimidation is flatly illegal everywhere (the above is a federal law). The problem with that concept is that it is open to perception and relies mostly on local police for enforcement. The FBI and other federal policing agencies lack the necessary staffing to enforce the law itself. As a group of 13 ultra-right-wing militia were arrested in connection with an alleged plot to kidnap and possibly execute Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who is unpopular with right-wing extremists, a local sheriff – the same sheriff who would have to enforce voter intimidation at polling stations – defended these purported domestic terrorists.
Perhaps, mused Barry County, Michigan, Sheriff Dar Leaf, they were simply implementing their constitutional right to implement a citizen’s arrest of a woman they believe violated their constitutional rights (which they called an abuse of her authority surrounding coronavirus restrictions). “Six people are facing federal charges of conspiracy to kidnap, while seven others, who are associated with a group called The Wolverine Watchmen, were charged by the state.
“According to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, the suspects in state custody attempted to identify law enforcement officers’ home addresses so they could target them, threatened violence to instigate a civil war, and planned and trained for an operation to attack Michigan’s Capitol building and kidnap government officials including the governor.” The Patriot Daily Express, October 16th. At more than one subsequent rally, where the President excoriated Whitmer and cast her as an outlaw, Trump smiled as the crowd chanted in unison, “Lock her up! Lock her up!” That she was the intended victim of extreme, Trump-supporting violence did not matter.
In Tennessee, generally thought of as a Trump stronghold (in 2016, he carried 60.7% of the vote), there is a growing recognition that Donald Trump believes the only way he can win his by denying the vote to his opposing constituency, even if that entails blatantly illegal tactics: “The ominous music swelled behind Donald Trump Jr. as he spoke straight to camera in a recent Trump campaign ad asking supporters to join the campaign’s poll-watching group called ‘Army for Trump’:
“‘The radical left are laying the groundwork to steal this election from my father,’ he says. ‘We need every able-bodied man, woman, to join Army for Trump’s Election security operation...We need you to help us watch them, not only on Election Day, but also during early voting and at the counting boards.’
“This ‘Army’ of unsanctioned, untrained poll watchers is part of a disturbing torrent of voter suppression and intimidation activities we have seen this election season… Already this year, my organization, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, has filed litigation and undertaken advocacy to stop coordinated efforts to intimidate voters — especially Black voters and other voters of color.” Kristen Clarke in the Tennesseean.com (Nashville), October 27th.
Meanwhile, in Pinellas County, Florida (St. Petersburg is located there): “Two armed men dressed as security guards told cops they were hired by the Trump campaign to set up near a Florida early voting location — a claim that President Donald Trump’s campaign denied through a spokesperson.
“On Wednesday [10/21], Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Julie Marcus told local CBS station WFLA that when sheriff’s deputies approached the two men, who had set up a tent near a St. Petersburg early voting location, they said they’d been hired by the Trump campaign.” Mediaite.com, October 22nd. Notwithstanding the local GOP and Trump campaign denial, given the above solicitation for that “Army,” it seems that miraculously, money is coming from somewhere, and very obviously consistent with the unabashed messaging from the Trump campaign itself.
As an extension of the intimidation phenomenon is the very real threat of a full-on civil war in support of keeping Donald Trump in power should he lose the election. If all those voter suppression efforts fail. One group of conspiracy theorists seem at the forefront of the risk: “On Oct. 17, roughly 100 people reportedly gathered in a conference room at a resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., for Q Con Live, an all-day event featuring speeches from some of the most prominent disciples of the QAnon movement.
“Among the conference’s ‘all-star lineup’ of speakers was Alan Hostetter, a retired police officer turned yoga instructor who has become a key figure in California’s anti-lockdown movement, which emerged this spring in opposition to state and local ‘stay-at-home’ orders designed to combat the spread of COVID-19.
“According to an audio recording of his speech obtained by hosts of the ‘QAnon Anonymous’ podcast, which has been tracking the growing conspiracy movement since its early days, Hostetter, who claims the coronavirus pandemic has been exaggerated by the media and that masks are part of a tyrannical effort to control the public, can be heard describing the U.S. as on the brink of civil war and suggesting that President Trump must be reelected in order to prevent the country from descending into violent conflict.
“This kind of ‘second civil war’ rhetoric is more commonly associated with far-right extremist movements like the ‘boogaloo’ and antigovernment militia groups (who’ve also seized on anti-lockdown protests) than with QAnon. But experts who study QAnon say they’ve observed an increase in calls for offline action among the movement’s followers, adding to the growing risk of postelection violence posed by a variety of extremist groups.” Yahoo New, October 28th.
This sounds like the Jim Crow era, when KKK and other armed segregationists literally shot African Americans trying to exercise their right to vote… with little or no risk of local prosecution... combined with the race war murderer Charles Manson imagine he could provoke in his “Helter Skelter” vision for America. It also sounds like so many totalitarian states, who either stuff the ballot box so voter intimidation is not necessary or deploy the same poll-watching intimidation. Does this sound like the United States of America, land of the free and the home of the brave?
I’m Peter Dekom, and right-wing gun barrels at polling stations is a really, really bad mix that is obviously and clearly intended to intimate anyone who might possibly vote against Trump.
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