Trump's "Campaign Of Destabilization"

(click on image to enlarge)

(Darrin Bell, via gocomics.com)

As we've noted below and here, the evermore destructive shampaign of neo- fascist demagogue and venomous charlatan Donald "Rump" Trump has recently taken a more sinister turn (if that was possible), in constructing an elaborate "conspiracy" to explain Rump's troubles and the looming disaster at the polls for Republicans.  The Washington Post warns about the ramifications of this in an editorial this morning.  Here are a few highlights (but please read it all at the link):

... Follow the logic here, if you can: The country is under the control of a conspiracy, involving not just his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the media, but also the entire political “establishment,” Republicans included, in league with unnamed international banks, whose goal is to enrich themselves by controlling “the central base of world political power . . . right here in America” and imposing “radical globalization and the disenfranchisement of working people.” Mr. Trump, and the “movement” he heads, are all that stand in the way of this evil cabal. This election, therefore, is no ordinary political contest but “a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not we the people reclaim control over our government.” Ergo, the cabal will destroy Mr. Trump by “slander” — unless the people stand up and resist “a small handful of global special interests rigging the system.” 

This language — which he read from a prepared text fed into a teleprompter — is inflammatory beyond any demagoguery Mr. Trump had offered previously. Coupled with his repeated warnings, echoed by his followers, that the Democrats may be cooking up Election Day fraud, the speech seems to prepare the ground for resistance in the increasingly likely event that things don’t go his way Nov. 8. Indeed, anyone who agrees that the alternative to a Trump victory is civilizational disaster, the fruit of a “sinister deal,” as Mr. Trump put it in another Florida speech, would feel obligated to deny the legitimacy of a Clinton victory, should it occur. Trump-for-President is not a campaign to redeem American democracy or even to “take it back,” as Mr. Trump puts it; it has morphed into a campaign of destabilization.  (our emphasis)

The Post then admonishes Republican politicians --

They should at least find the decency, and the patriotism, to declare that everyone must respect the results on Nov. 8 — and pursue any protests or disputes through legal channels, not in the streets. Even if Republicans can’t bring themselves to part ways politically with Mr. Trump, they can refuse to cooperate in the trashing of our public discourse and essential civic traditions. Surely that is not too much to ask.  

It's just over 3 weeks to the election, and we think it's way too much to expect of the craven, amoral, party- over- country Republicans to even commit this one act of good citizenship.  Why?  Because all they'll have left in their  arsenal in the smoking ruins of the election will be more rear guard delegitimatizing of another Democratic president. More obstruction, more outrageous apocalyptic politics. Want proof? Here's sleazy coward Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan yesterday in Wisconsin urging a vote for Rump:

“If we do not act, we will not just lose our quality of life, our standard of living — we will lose the spirit that makes America exceptional in the first place,” Ryan said. “If Hillary Clinton wins and she is given control of Washington, if she is given control of Congress, it will not be long before we come to that precipice.”

That doesn't sound to us like someone willing to accept the results of the election and work constructively with the winner.

Finally, the Boston Globe gives us just one recent example of how this destabilizing message is being internalized by Rump's loyal goons supporters:

At a time when trust in government is at a low point, Trump is actively stoking fears that a core tenet of American democracy is also in peril: that you can trust what happens at the ballot box. 

His supporters here said they plan to go to their local precincts to look for illegal immigrants who may attempt to vote. They are worried that Democrats will load up buses of minorities and take them to vote several times in different areas of the city. 

They’ve heard rumors that boxes of Clinton votes are already waiting somewhere.
And if Trump doesn’t win, some are even openly talking about violent rebellion and assassination, as fantastical and unhinged as that may seem.  (our emphasis)

Reading the frankly treasonous comments that follow are, while no longer surprising to us, still shocking in their brutality and lawlessness.  Please go read and see for yourself (hazmat suit may be required).

The only way we see for an outcome like this to be ameliorated in any way is for this to be an electoral landslide of such historic proportions that questions of legitimacy are swept away for all but the most deluded.  Every vote counts, more than ever.