Trump knows his words intimidate and terrorize
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By Oren Spiegler
If Donald Trump were an ordinary citizen, he would be dismissed as an inconsequential crazy uncle who sits at a bar ranting and raving about anything and everything. Sadly, though, he is a former president whose words carry power and send messages to his tens of millions of sycophants, many of whom are predisposed to violence.
In his latest unhinged barrage, he used a purported Christmas message to tell President Biden, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and other individuals who are involved in his prosecution, to “rot in hell.” Can we imagine any other former president or current candidate for the presidency doing such a thing and thinking that it would benefit them? How does this go over with his many evangelical supporters? Have they given up any pretense that they represent integrity and dignity?
Trump surely knows that his words serve to intimidate and terrorize. This is why the lives of the Colorado Supreme Court justices who ruled that Trump is to be barred from the ballot in that state have received death threats. The former president would never tell his supporters to respect the justice system or any decision which is not favorable to him because he wants his foes to be threatened. We saw precisely that on January 6, 2021, when he spent three hours admiring his criminal insurrectionist pals as they overran and desecrated the Capitol and attacked and injured over 150 brave law enforcement officers who were outnumbered.
Support for such a man would have been unthinkable in a better time, but this is what a now-unrecognizable Republican Party wants today.
Even former U. S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who, sadly, has announced his support for Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, has said that if the candidate continues to promote his many grievances, including his lie that he won the 2020 presidential election, he is going to lose. McCarthy encouraged him to speak of rebuilding and restoring our country, which is something we know Trump will not do.
If elected officials, including judges and Supreme Court justices, feel that they will be forced to act in a manner which does not bring the danger of harm to them and their families, no one is going to want to serve and our system of governance will be eviscerated.
Oren Spiegler is a Peters Township resident.