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I think that before anyone goes too far ahead, they should read this little gem.

https://www.unrv.com/government/political-violence-in-the-roman-republic.php

Yesterday, the jackasses of ANTIFA attacked a bunch of right-wing whackjobs from a group named Patriot Prayer.  I can't really say that I would mind horribly if these two groups beat the living shit out of each other, but there are bigger fish here to discuss.

We seem to be entering a period of time where mob violence and direct violent action against political opponents is gaining some cachet.  Maxine Waters, her astonishing lack of forethought only matched by Trump, has publicly called for mobs to form in order to attack political opponents.

An extended aside here, to be completely honest, MW never said to physically attack anyone, but she did say to:

“If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” Waters, 79, told supporters. “You push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

OK:  that is physical intimidation of a political opponent.  That is quite simply where political violence begins.

Now of course, the tweeter-in-chief could not manage to come up with the dignitas to defuse the situation.  Where he could have stood a little on the high ground and tried to defuse a situation, he chose (of course) to go low and call MW stupid and issue a challenge.

The trouble with populists (and Maxine is a populist as well, just playing to a different population) is that they use very blunt tools.  Whipping up the hoi polloi is an easy thing to do, but it is a knife without scales or quillion.  It can very easily turn in the hand that tries to wield it.

Another thing to read