Sort of amazing that if this happened in another country it would cause the United States and many other nations to be on high alert and looking to intervene in any such attempt to arrest political opponents. Our nation and others would at the very least come out with statements damning such an attempt. Now we have Trump, our sitting president, calling for the arrest of his political opponents (that have not been charged with any crimes nor committed any) just a few weeks before the election.
I know we have grown numb with Trump doing and saying things that are horrific and openly criminal but we are way out over a line here that should have never, and never has, been crossed in the United States. It is now our nation and our president that other nations should be expressing outrage and disgust over. It is our president calling for the arrest of his political opponents as if he were Putin or Kim Jong-un, men Trump respects and worships, or some South American tin pot dictator.
He was not joking when he made these statements. He was enraged and ranting on the Rush Limbaugh show. It was not "theater" nor just something to "troll" people with. He said that his Attorney General would be a disgrace if he did not arrest Biden, Obama, and Clinton prior to the election. He expressed disgust that his FBI Director would not go along with his lies about mail-in voting and firing him for not being willing to lie for him.
Elected Republican officials should be screaming at the top of their lungs to anybody that will listen that this man, Donald Trump, is not fit for the office he holds because he has made these statements. What are we hearing from them? Silence. Silence equals complicity in this situation. I know that they have come up with a stock answer while Trump has been president to say "I did not hear/am not aware of those comments." but that does not fly here.
Trump has now entered into waters that threaten to push our nation over the cliff into fascism and end democracy here for good. People should not be standing by just saying "Oh, that's just Trump being Trump." as this amounts to lying down at the feet of our dictator.
Trump did this after arrests were made in an attempt to kidnap and execute Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer by right wing militia members in an effort to start a new "civil war" and while he made the time to call for the arrest of his political opponents he said nothing to condemn the acts of these right wing extremists and call for an end of this kind of violence. Why? Trump wants these right wing militias to start a civil war if he loses the election.
He will not speak to nor attempt to calm the nation in a dangerous time but instead he is fomenting violence and openly calling for harm to be done to political opponents. He instigated the attempted attack on Governor Whitmer with his comments about her and "liberating" Michigan. Following the arrests of these men, Trump did not condemn the attempt, instead he again criticized Whitmer because she took action to limit the spread of Covid 19 essentially taking the side of the men that wanted to kidnap and execute her.
Democrats are speaking up but at this moment in our history, when we are so polarized as a nation, that is not enough. Republicans, elected Republican officials, if they care at all about our country, the safety of our citizens, and the oath they took to defend our constitution...they need to speak up now and show they do put country before their party. If they can't do this simple thing, this required and, what should be to them if they undertake their jobs and responsibilities with any seriousness at all, sacred act then they have abandoned their country, are derelict in their duties, and also are not fit for the office they hold.
