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NYT Columnist Absolutely Savages Trump For Clinton Death Threats

NYT Columnist Absolutely Savages Trump For Clinton Death Threats

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman painted a very bleak picture today of just what Donald Trump’s dangerous remarks on a response by “Second Amendment People” potential Hillary Clinton presidency. Friedman draws a critical comparison to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a radical Zionist in 1995 over the possibility of a peaceful settlement with the Palestinian Authority.

His right-wing opponents just kept delegitimizing him as a “traitor” and “a Nazi” for wanting to make peace with the Palestinians and give back part of the Land of Israel. Of course, all is fair in politics, right? And they had God on their side, right? They weren’t actually telling anyone to assassinate Rabin. That would be horrible.

But there are always people down the line who don’t hear the caveats. They just hear the big message: The man is illegitimate, the man is a threat to the nation, the man is the equivalent of a Nazi war criminal. Well, you know what we do with people like that, don’t you? We kill them. And that’s what the Jewish extremist Yigal Amir did to Rabin. Why not? He thought he had permission from a whole segment of Israel’s political class.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the opposition leader at the time…in now-infamous historical footage addressing a feverish right-wing rally from a balcony in Jerusalem’s Zion Square, as protesters below shouted for the death of Rabin — the ‘traitor’ — and held up photomontage posters of him dressed in an SS uniform.”

Former Secretary Clinton is referred to as a traitor on a daily basis by rabid conservatives online. Donald Trump’s own campaign surrogate Paul Bardasaro publicly called for her execution for treason.  Cries of “Hang that bitch!” echo at Trump rallies. In memes on the internet, she is depicted as a Nazi, as a Communist, as a murderer, as a corrupt and lying enemy of the American people.

The right-wing media’s echo chamber has been hammering the false idea that Secretary Clinton is a criminal and a traitor for years to a low-educated but heavily armed voter base that is feeling extremely frustrated as they are manipulated and exploited by forces beyond their control. Trump’s statements are the subliminal justification that a disturbed white man with a legally purchased assault rifle has been waiting to hear. He is putting the lives of the American people and our politicians at risk, and we must address this crisis with the seriousness it deserves. We cannot allow Trump and his cronies to pass this off as a “joke” or accept any of the obviously contrived excuses that his campaign team is rushing to hand out. 

He ends with a forceful condemnation:

People are playing with fire here, and there is no bigger flamethrower than Donald Trump. Forget politics; he is a disgusting human being. His children should be ashamed of him. I only pray that he is not simply defeated, but that he loses all 50 states so that the message goes out across the land — unambiguously, loud and clear: The likes of you should never come this way again.

Colin Taylor
Opinion columnist and former editor-in-chief of Occupy Democrats. He graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor's degree in history and political science. He now focuses on advancing the cause of social justice and equality in America.

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