“We are witnessing Trump telling America that if he doesn’t get his way,” they will suffer
Contrary to what many professional centrists and hope-peddlers in the American mainstream news media and political class would like to believe, the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol was not the climax of the Age of Trump. In reality, Jan. 6 was a proof of concept for how the Republican fascists will use political violence to obtain and keep power against and over the democratic will of the American people in an increasingly diverse society. In all, Jan. 6 was not the end of something but rather the next chapter in what journalist Jeff Sharlet has described as a “slow civil war” here in America.
To that point, in response to his indictment for his alleged crimes of Jan. 6 and the larger plot against democracy, Trump has been escalating his threats of violence, both direct and implied, against Special Counsel Jack Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Judge Tanya Chutkan and the other prosecutors, members of law enforcement, and potential jurors who are attempting to hold him accountable under the law. Law enforcement and other experts in domestic terrorism and national security are continuing to warn that Trump, his MAGA followers and the larger white right constitute an extreme danger to the country’s security. On Wednesday, for example, the FBI said that a Utah man who had made threats to President Biden and several prosecutors on different Trump criminal cases was shot and killed during an FBI raid.