America Can Have Democracy or Political Violence. Not Both.

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BidenPresident

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The embrace of conspiratorial and violent ideology and rhetoric by many Republican politicians during and after the Trump presidency, anti-government anger related to the pandemic, disinformation, cultural polarization, the ubiquity of guns and radicalized internet culture have all led to the current moment, and none of those trends are in retreat.

Donald Trump was the first American president to rouse an armed mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened lawmakers. Taken together, these factors form a social scaffolding that allows for the kind of endemic political violence that can undo a democracy. Ours would not be the first.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/opinion/political-violence-extremism.html
 
America will opt for Democracy on November 8th. The Dems will opt for violence in the street like they did with the BLM riots.

 
BidenPresident said:
The embrace of conspiratorial and violent ideology and rhetoric by many Republican politicians during and after the Trump presidency, anti-government anger related to the pandemic, disinformation, cultural polarization, the ubiquity of guns and radicalized internet culture have all led to the current moment, and none of those trends are in retreat.

Donald Trump was the first American president to rouse an armed mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened lawmakers. Taken together, these factors form a social scaffolding that allows for the kind of endemic political violence that can undo a democracy. Ours would not be the first.
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Haven't we always had both?
 
AProudLefty said:
Not this bad.
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I'm not sure that is true. For example, in the 1960's-1970's we had widespread racial riots, radical groups setting off bombs, robbing banks, and kidnapping people, widespread marches and violence by anti-war groups...(not to mention the Civil War).

Comparing the numbers would be interesting.
 
Flash said:
I'm not sure that is true. For example, in the 1960's-1970's we had widespread racial riots, radical groups setting off bombs, robbing banks, and kidnapping people, widespread marches and violence by anti-war groups...(not to mention the Civil War).

Comparing the numbers would be interesting.
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Interesting, yet irrelevant.
 
Flash said:
I'm not sure that is true. For example, in the 1960's-1970's we had widespread racial riots, radical groups setting off bombs, robbing banks, and kidnapping people, widespread marches and violence by anti-war groups...(not to mention the Civil War).

Comparing the numbers would be interesting.
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None of them is a coup attempt.
 
BidenPresident said:
What were the other coup attempts by a sitting President besides Trump?
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I thought we were talking about violence in society in general. One lame attempt at stopping the election count does not constitute the end of democracy or widespread failure of the system. Those people are now being investigated and prosecuted successfully and the attempt to block the election failed. Our system worked.
 
BidenPresident said:
Interesting, yet irrelevant.
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Not really irrelevant since your claim was that democracy and violence cannot both exist and I said we have always had both. Comparing the numbers would show there has not been an increase in political violence. Certainly, January 6 was more of a threat to our democracy but not more tragic or violent than Oklahoma City.

[h=2]America Can Have Democracy or Political Violence. Not Both.[/h]
 
Flash said:
Not really irrelevant since your claim was that democracy and violence cannot both exist and I said we have always had both. Comparing the numbers would show there has not been an increase in political violence. Certainly, January 6 was more of a threat to our democracy but not more tragic or violent than Oklahoma City.

[h=2]America Can Have Democracy or Political Violence. Not Both.[/h]
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Well, as long as you ignore reality, you may have point.
 
Flash said:
Not really irrelevant since your claim was that democracy and violence cannot both exist and I said we have always had both. Comparing the numbers would show there has not been an increase in political violence. Certainly, January 6 was more of a threat to our democracy but not more tragic or violent than Oklahoma City.

[h=2]America Can Have Democracy or Political Violence. Not Both.[/h]
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The GQP doesn't support Democracy.
 
AProudLefty said:
The GQP doesn't support Democracy.
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Yet, we still have democracy and violence.

Another old saying was that we cannot have democracy unless we are informed and participate; yet, we have democracy although few of us are informed and vote. We have actually seen a significant turnout in voting in recent years (despite claims of "voter repression").

Many are strongly motivated to vote Democratic or Republican in 2022, but most of those people cannot name their senators or representative or most of the people they will vote for (even after they have just voted).
 
BidenPresident said:
The embrace of conspiratorial and violent ideology and rhetoric by many Republican politicians during and after the Trump presidency, anti-government anger related to the pandemic, disinformation, cultural polarization, the ubiquity of guns and radicalized internet culture have all led to the current moment, and none of those trends are in retreat.

Donald Trump was the first American president to rouse an armed mob that stormed the Capitol and threatened lawmakers. Taken together, these factors form a social scaffolding that allows for the kind of endemic political violence that can undo a democracy. Ours would not be the first.
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"stay peaceful" DJT Jan-6...
 
BidenPresident said:
Nothing to do with numbers. Only a Trump fascist would assert such a thing.
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Now, that shows a blindness to reality. Refusing to belief in real evidence sounds like my argument with those who swear there was election fraud or that antifa or the FBI was responsible for January 6 and that nobody was hurt.
 
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