Attacking the Opposition is Good Politics?

 

Attacking the Opposition is “Good” Politics?

Any Way You Can?

Some of the little digs and use of power have been with us a long time here in the United States. Like reminding traditional minorities that they are both second class citizens and subject to a separate application of the law. Whether it’s the number of the excessive number of “Black deaths from traffic stops” or locating polling stations far from where minorities live to using minor city ordinances as harassment, minorities are reminded of their relative powerlessness. Traffic stops and casual “stop and frisks,” which would draw the ire of powerful White interests should such indignities be applied to them, are just normal for many minorities.

White children, learning to drive, are not, for example, given the “talk” by their parents, admonishing at least, “keep both your hands on the top of the steering wheel if you are pulled over on a traffic stop.” Black kids all get that reminder. We see the new BIG reports, the new prosecutions of violence imposed on minorities, but the little things are, well, cumulatively not so little.

As is the case with a current DOJ investigation of discrimination complaints by Black police officers in Kansas City, Missouri. But it’s not the accusations from these Black cops that is so interesting; it is in a lawsuit filed against the city by a White officer. Notwithstanding a state law banning quotas for writing traffic tickets passed in 2016, it seems that well… 21-year-veteran White cop, “Edward Williams, [who] alleges that over the last seven years the department has threatened to demote officers to the overnight shift if they didn’t fulfill ticket quotas.” Yahoo!News, April 6th. What makes that more interesting, according to the pleadings, is that officers were encouraged to generate those tickets in minority neighborhoods. Those in power, in our constitutional form of government, are not supposed to use intimidation as their primary mode of convincing the electorate. But…

The threat of violence against opponents is now a prominent result from MAGA rallies. If judges, prosecutors and jurors (and their families) believe that if they honestly do their jobs, and the defendants happen to be MAGA-connected, that they face genuine death threats, often from MAGA-supporting militia groups, will they be intimidated enough to allow appropriate criminal prosecution and punishment to die?

But it seems that every time there is major Trump rally or speech, in which he lambasts very specific individuals in the criminal justice system as being un-American, “out to get him,” and are themselves criminals, the resulting death threats against these individuals, many very credible according to law enforcement sources, amplify in volume, frequency and hostility. If you do not think a call to rally or protest from the Trump camp is just a request for a peaceful protest, please look at the death and injury toll from January 6, 2021… and the number of criminal convictions meted out by juries.

Trump is equally aware that if he can rile up his MAGA base, he’s got plenty sycophants – from defeated gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, “Jewish space laser” Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike “the pillow man” Lindell – ready to stir the pot to an ever hotter angry brew. The April 6th Los Angeles Times, noting that the Trump-dominated congressional delegation is tripping all over itself to show support for Trump: “Lake and Greene treat his indictment as call to action while raising stature with the base.” As the GOP across the land makes gun ownership increasing easier, you have to believe that arming their believers to the hilt has a darker side. Defunding the DOJ, as well as the seemingly mostly-Republican agent-staffed, FBI is now an essential element of Trump’s platform.

Oppressive governments, left and right around the world, make sure that their opposition suffers, that defying the majority has a hellish cost, and are even willing to provoke dissidents either as false flag excuses to repress them more or to make those dissidents so angry that they fight back… inviting “legitimate” violent police reactions. Looking for an excuse to implement his removing the judicial system as a check and balance against the other branches of government, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu – ruling only because of a coalition with ultra-rightwing religious extremists – seems to have had provocation in mind as he attacked Muslim worshipers at Jerusalem’s al Aqsa Mosque in early April. Knowing that they would retaliate with rocks and bottles… knowing Hamas would fire rockets in support… His message to Jewish voters was clear: you need me, without the human rights sensitive judicial system saying otherwise, to be in complete control to deal with these nasty Arab worshippers.

In Latin America, we are watching entire countries enveloped in cartel wars, where young teens are force-recruited into their malign ranks, and where any sign of opposition is a death sentence. With too many corrupt cops and politicians, ordinary citizens have nowhere else to turn. Intimidation has another function. If cartels armed with American-made weapons, funded by the hard dollars generated from American drug users, and backed by corruption are not enough, clamping down on Latin American dissidents can even reach into clergy from the Catholic Church.

Nicaraguan President Daniel “Ortega initially asked the Catholic Church to play a role as a mediator as political tensions rose over the last five years, but the first round of dialogue didn’t last long. After priests sheltered demonstrators inside their parishes and expressed concern about excessive use of force, Ortega targeted them as ‘terrorists’ who backed opposition efforts to undermine or overthrow him… ‘There is persecution of the church because the church is the voice of the people, [one] priest said.

“A human rights organization, Nicaragua Nunca Más, estimates that more than 50 religious leaders have fled since 2018, when a social security reform triggered massive protests. Last year, two congregations of nuns — including from the Missionaries of Charity order founded by Mother Teresa — were expelled… Other church personnel — including priests, seminarians and lay staff members — were among the 222 Nicaraguans released from detention and forcibly expelled to the United States on Feb. 9.” Associated Press, April 6th.

You do not have to be Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping to embrace violence and intimidation against dissidents. But in a nation where free speech is protected speech, we have a massive MAGA movement to make damned sure that those who oppose them and their leaders will fear for their lives.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the “land of the free” is only “free” when those in the “home of the brave” are willing to put their and their families’ lives at risk for expressing their free speech and acting in support of a “it’s supposed to be” independent judicial system.