Purge Fantasy: How His Obsession With Chaos Threatens Us All
I’m sure you know that Giuliani’s daughter, Caroline, had some choice words about Señor T yesterday and endorsed Kamala. She wrote that she worries “that too many Americans remain disconnected from the visceral, psychologically draining memory of Trump’s deeply destabilizing presidency. If enough people truly remembered what that chaos felt like, another Trump term wouldn’t even be on the table. But for those open to seeing the bare and unvarnished truth, there are unmistakable reminders of Trump’s destructive trail all around us, and it has broken my heart to watch my dad become one of them. As Rudy Giuliani’s daughter, I’m unfortunately well-suited to remind Americans of just how calamitous being associated with Trump can be, even for those who are convinced he’s on their side. Watching my dad’s life crumble since he joined forces with Trump has been extraordinarily painful, both on a personal level and because his demise feels linked to a dark force that threatens to once again consume America… But nothing I have experienced prepared me for the very public nd relentless implosion of my father’s life.
Meanwhile Jonathan Chait wrote Trump is demanding Kamala Harris be locked up— but hasn’t said why. “Obviously, none of the particulars of these allegations— in Harris’s case, Trump hasn’t even managed to manufacture a pretextual criminal allegation— matter to Trump in the slightest. His view of the law is fully relativist. Actions taken on Trump’s behalf are by inherently legal, and actions taken against him are inherently illegal. That is why Trump continuously brands his political opponents as criminals. In addition to all three of his Democratic campaign opponents, Trump has called for criminal charges to be brought against a long list of targets.”
So, not such a surprise that David Graham has noticed that Señor T is taking a very dark turn of late. Even Trump recognizes that… and uses it in his standup routine. “As Trump himself observed, he’s been on a particularly bleak and disturbing tear, even by his own standards… Americans have become understandably desensitized to his most extreme rhetoric, at the same time that he has taken a darker tone.”
Picking the lowlight of the past few days isn’t easy, but it’s probably Trump’s suggestion that one hour of widespread, extrajudicial violence by the police would be an effective method of crime control. Perhaps that sounds like a caricature; if anything, trying to convey Trump’s ideas in normal language risks toning them down. Trump was speaking in Erie, Pennsylvania, and was in the middle of a riff about how crime is up (this is false, as I’ve reported), which he blamed in part on the police being prevented from being hard enough on suspects.
“The police aren’t allowed to do their job. They’re told: If you do anything, you’re going to lose your pension, you’re going to lose your family, your house, your car,” he said. “One rough hour, and I mean real rough, the word will get out and it will end immediately. End immediately. You know? It’ll end immediately.”
The idea sounds reminiscent of the Purge series of movies, set in an America in which all crime is legal for 12 hours once a year. The difference is that, in the films, this is presented as dystopian; for Trump, so long as the police are the ones acting lawlessly, it’s a shining ideal. (The former president has struggled to differentiate horror films from reality, as in his ongoing musing about “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” the serial-killing cannibal from The Silence of the Lambs. He really is Ronald Reagan’s heir.)
Although he has long complained about restraints on police brutality, this goes beyond that. A campaign spokesperson told Politico it was a joke, which is a common excuse used by aides when Trump crosses the line. Nothing in his tone suggested levity. This is what I’ve called the Trump two-step, and it allows him to dangle an idea in front of his supporters while half-heartedly distancing himself from it
Trump’s police-led Purge would violate— along with many statutes, common decency, and basic sense— the Fourth through Eighth Amendments to the Constitution. Trump’s rejection of the rule of law is comprehensive: He’s upset that people suspected of crimes like shoplifting aren’t prosecuted, yet he’s also furious that he is himself subject to prosecution when accused of crimes. Earlier this month, he promised retribution for those members of the law-enforcement community who have tried to hold him accountable, “which will include long term prison sentences.” In other words: They would lose not only their pension or car, but their freedom. He also promises to pardon those who ransacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Policing is only for those Trump hates. He and his friends get a pass.
In Erie, Trump immediately went— with no transition or connection— from this observation to reprising a line from the Wisconsin rally. “Crooked Joe Biden became mentally impaired, but lying Kamala Harris, honestly, I believe she was born that way,” he said. “There’s something wrong with Kamala. And I just don’t know what it is, but there is definitely something missing.” As with some past slurs, this is a remarkably efficient way to deliver an insult, offending the elderly, the mentally impaired, and Harris— who is neither— in one breath.
The line was bad enough that it drew revulsion from Republicans after Trump first used it on Saturday. Yet Trump knows that they will tut-tut but otherwise stay strictly in line with him and then soon move on, which is why he used it again the next day. The second time wasn’t just a provocation to Harris and Democrats, but a reminder to Republicans of how powerless and sycophantic they are.
After Trump called Harris a “stupid person,” the crowd began chanting “Lock her up,” while Trump looked on in approval. Harris has not been charged, much less credibly accused, of any crime. Her offense here is presumably running against Trump.
Shall we go on? In Erie, he delivered an incomprehensible spiel about the viciousness of undocumented immigrants that compared them favorably with Hollywood stars, and ended with what may have been a line lifted from the comedian Jeff Dunham— “I kill you!”— though who can really tell? It’s one of the odder things I’ve ever heard Trump say.
Trump also claimed, yet again, and still without any evidence, that widespread fraud in vote counting occurs in large, heavily Black cities, including Philadelphia, Detroit, and Atlanta. “If God came down from high and said, ‘I am going to be your vote tabulator for this election,’ I would leave this podium right now, because I wouldn’t have to speak. We wouldn’t have any problem,” he said. This has been a banner year for candidates expecting divine intervention in their presidential campaigns, but most theologians would be surprised if God came down from on high to intervene in so secular a matter. It would be surprising if that was even his first concern regarding Trump.
And on Friday, Trump threatened to criminally prosecute Google for allegedly showing only bad stories about himself and good ones about Harris, which is a claim without evidence and, anyway, isn’t against the law. This threat is a good reminder that Trump has centered his election campaign on a pledge to use the power of the federal government to punish anyone who offends him. With material like this, is it any wonder that so many negative stories about him show up in a web search?
What’s not clear is why Trump is suddenly ranting and raving even more than usual. When Biden dropped out of the race and Harris replaced him, Trump lashed out, furious that his glide path to reelection had been disrupted. Now the election has stabilized somewhat. Polls indicate that the race is exceptionally close— some analysts think could be the closest ever. Most data show Harris with a small but fragile edge. Although many Harris supporters despair that the race could be so close, this is an opportunity for Trump. By avoiding the most strident rhetoric that has consistently turned voters away from him, Trump might be able to close that gap and win. Instead, he is turning it up. Perhaps Trump is upset about something that isn’t apparent to outsiders. Perhaps he reasons that the most divisive subjects are actually winners for him, and perhaps he is right. Or perhaps he just can’t help himself.
As I was think about what Graham had to say, my favorite Yeats poem, “The Second Coming," came for a little visit. I thought I'd share it. Please enjoy:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
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