When you spew venom and hate its just a matter of time before it catches up with you - tenfold. Over the weekend Republican presidential candidate and frontrunner, Donald Trump, got a taste of his own medicine when he was forced to cancel a Chicago rally and deal with escalating violence at another one. And while that should have been a sobering moment for a normal person, Trump's not a normal individual. Drunk with his own ego and grandiloquent sense of importance, Trump railed against everyone but his followers for the melee accusing Bernie Sander's supporters of fomenting the violence.
Without offering any proof to substantiate his inflammatory statements and he called Sanders "our communist friend" -- a deliberately loaded word that further stokes anger, violence and fear in the minds of his supporters. They equate communism with violence and control that is antithesis to American values. S Trump's use of the word was carefully orchestrated. But if Trump felt that Sanders was an easy target, he did not bargain for the crusty old political battle-axe's sharp retort:
"As is the case virtually every day, Donald Trump is showing the American people that he is a pathological liar. Obviously, while I appreciate that we had supporters at Trump's rally in Chicago, our campaign did not organize the protests.
What caused the protests at Trump's rally is a candidate that has promoted hatred and division against Latinos, Muslims, women, and people with disabilities, and his birther attacks against the legitimacy of President Obama.
What caused the violence at Trump's rally is a campaign whose words and actions have encouraged it on the part of his supporters. He recently said of a protester, 'I want to punch him in the face.' Another time Trump yearned for the old days when the protester would have been punched and "carried out on a stretcher.' Then just a few days ago a female reporter apparently was assaulted by his campaign manager.
When that is what the Trump campaign is doing, we should not be surprised that there is a response. What Donald Trump must do now is stop provoking violence and make it clear to his supporters that people who attend his rallies or protest should not be assaulted, should not be punched, should not be kicked. In America people have a right to attend a political rally without fear of physical harm."
Ouch!
Trump's response to the violence that he and his narrow, hate-laden rhetoric created was and is typical of a calculating demagogue -- deflect blame, accuse someone else for the mayhem, and stoke more anger by labeling other s extreme and violent. Like generic cowards, Trump decided that, in his mind, and as targets go, Sanders was the softer/weaker of the two Democratic candidates and so he went after him preferring to avoid Hillary Clinton. But the fact is that Senator Sanders has NEVER encouraged violence of any kind and has rebuked others -- like Trump -- who have done that.
This is an exceeding dangerous escalation in the 2016 Presidential campaign. While Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz looked on and offered only tepid condemnation and responses of the violence wrought by Trump, they are calculating that they can somehow benefit from this volatile state of affairs and so enhance their chance of dethroning the frontrunner. But their calculations negate one essential fact: the Trump violence is calculated and planned. He knows what he's doing.
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