Trump supporters’ threats to judge spur
democracy concerns
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart...has faced a storm of death threats since his signature earlier this month cleared the way for the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago... Reinhart’s home address was posted on right-wing sites, along with antisemitic slurs. The South Florida synagogue he attends canceled its Friday night Shabbat services in the wake of the uproar.
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The threats against Reinhart are part of a broader attack on law enforcement...by Trump and his allies...the focus on a judge, coming amid an uptick in threats to the judiciary in general, is dangerous for the rule of law in the U.S. and the country’s viability as a democracy.
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The vitriol directed at the magistrate, while striking, is becoming increasingly common. In 2014, the U.S. Marshals Service handled 768 incidents that it classified as “inappropriate communications” aimed at judges and court employees. Last year, it reported more than 4,500.
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“This is a classic precursor of a democratic breakdown,” said Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist and co-author of How Democracies Die.
“There are threats everywhere now, it’s become more normalized because [45th in 2016 campaign] changed what was allowed in public discourse.”
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...Trump and his supporters have waged rhetorical war against the FBI for years since the investigation into whether his initial campaign was aided by Russia in 2016. The intense focus on an individual judge like Reinhart is relatively new.
Gretchen Helmke, a political scientist at the University of Rochester, said Trump’s action mirrors what demagogues have done in other countries where democracy has collapsed. “A popularly elected leader targeting a judiciary is often one early indicator of democratic erosion,” Helmke said in an email. ..."The end result is no judicial independence and no rule of law.”
This is the second article in as many days on this topic by Associated Press, a clear sign that this is serious. To state the obvious, I do not wish law enforcement and judicial officers to be threatened. It seems to me important to examine two oft-talked outcomes: civil war and the end of Democracy in America, although I think to a certainty of clear and convincing that the most likely outcome is 45th's defeat in 2024.
I do not think that the reaction to the FBI search is "precursor" to democratic breakdown. The threat to Democracy in America is the 2024 presidential election and a lesser extent the 2022 elections. Were 45th to regain the White House then I do believe Democracy in America would die with his inauguration.
I am more inclined to see the post-MAL rhetoric and acts as precursor to civil war, and that's the less dire outcome! Liz Cheney has conceptualized this time correctly. In her concession speech she invoked both Abraham Lincoln, who waged civil war for four years, and Ulysses S. Grant, who won civil war. She has transferred her campaign funds into an organization named "The Great Task", from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It will take the clear-sightedness of Lincoln and the "never retreat" bludgeoning, wasting war of Grant to vanquish 45th and his Low Lifes in civil war if that comes. And to quote Cheney's father, "She will succeed." We should remember that even in
the midst of the Civil War the United States held an election! That is, Democracy in America survived the Civil War. I do not want civil war as Lincoln did not want the Civil War but it is for that reason that I do not fear it. 45th and his supporters will be exterminated during a civil war. There is no chance that they would prevail. Democracy in America however will not survive 45th in the Oval Office again.