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Far-right wing militias threaten violence in embrace of Trump’s Civil War rhetoric

Far-right wing militias threaten violence in embrace of Trump’s Civil War rhetoric

He’s gone there before — warning of violence if Congress dares to impeach him or if he loses the next election while inevitably inventing some conspiracy theory to question the legitimacy of the results.

Donald Trump’s post last night, however, retweeting a quote predicting a civil war if he is removed office — a quote from a Texas mega-church pastor who believes that Jews and Muslims are going to hell along with Clinton supporters, that Catholicism is an instrument of Satan, and that Mormonism is a cult — went beyond the pale of anything ever suggested by a sitting president and was immediately condemned by both Democrats and at least one repulsed Republican congressman, Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).

Add your name to tell Congress to investigate Pence for his role in Trump’s Ukraine corruption. The VP is complicit!

For some Trump supporters, on the other hand, the president’s tweet was a clarion call to arms.

Consider this series of posts from the Oath Keepers, an extremist group described by hate group watchdog the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of the largest radical antigovernment groups in the U.S. today — claiming tens of thousands of present and former law enforcement officials and military veterans as members and based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories about the federal government working to destroy the liberties of Americans.

Decrypting such utter intellectual garbage is painful in the extreme.

Beginning with the self-definition of patriots as those opposed to progressive agendas and moving to the Oath Keepers’ insistence that any attempt to hold Trump accountable to his clearly demonstrated violations of the Constitution would be seen as an incitement for insurrection, these right-wing extremists seem to forget that Trump’s election with a minority of the popular vote likely was only accomplished by the intervention of Russia in the 2016 campaign. Talk about illegitimate!

How odd that those in the majority who voted against Trump might view the presidency as their “rightful” prize in a supposed democracy undermined by an outmoded electoral college.

The Oath Keepers continued their rabble-rousing war cries by declaring their commitment to the view that an actual violent civil conflict is only moments away.

Perhaps even more frightening than the implicit threat of violence in the event of the perfectly lawful impeachment of a corrupt and dangerous president by a constitutionally co-equal branch of government is the likely eventuality that any potential electoral loss by Trump — no matter how overwhelming and legitimate — will be considered equally suspect by his conspiracy theory-weaned followers.

Pretending to be victims of a Deep State conspiracy when the actual coup was enacted by Trump and his Republican co-conspirators in conjunction with one or more foreign powers, the Oath Keepers represent the danger that Trump has brought upon the nation with his lies, his treason, and his promulgation of his paranoid fantasies.

The moment of truth will come if and when Trump is removed from office — whether through impeachment or at the ballot box — and these right-wing militias try to take up arms to oppose the legitimate end to the Trump presidency. The reaction of the police and the military at that crucial juncture will determine the nature of the country’s future — a totalitarian theocracy or the constitutional republic to which we currently pledge allegiance.

Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.

Vinnie Longobardo
Managing Editor
Vinnie Longobardo is the Managing Editor of Occupy Democrats. He's a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.

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