AMERIKA
'Keeping me up at night': Researcher terrified by findings of his own political surveyAlex Henderson, AlterNet
October 21, 2024
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. president Donald Trump raise MAGA hats, on the day Trump returns for a rally at the site of the July assassination attempt against him, in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., October 5, 2024. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
The Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution recently teamed up to conduct a "2024 American Values Survey” — and what they found has researchers terrified.
One of the questions asked how GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump should respond if he loses the 2024 election to Vice President Kamala Harris — and 19 percent said Trump should refuse to accept the election results in that scenario.
Axios reported, "The growing number of Republicans willing to shun democratic norms — and possibly embrace violence — comes as Trump continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him and is saying the 2024 election is already rigged. The survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution is the latest sign of how Trump's grievances and conspiracy theories have reshaped his party — and whipped up its most disaffected, far-right elements."
Contreras noted that PRI and Brookings found that "nearly 3 in 10 Republicans believe that true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country, compared with 16 percent of independents and 8 percent of Democrats."
The Axios reporter also points out that "Americans who most trust conservative news outlets are the most likely to support political violence."
PRRI President Robert P. Jones discussed the survey results with Axios — and finds them extremely troubling.
Jones told Axios, "I've been doing this for 20 years, and these answers.... are keeping me up at night. It's all pretty dark and worrisome."
READ MORE: Trump's closing argument: full-throated fascism
Read Axios' full article at this link and find the PRRI/Brookings survey results
'Unhinged': Defense writer urges military to draw up action plan in case Trump elected
Brad Reed
October 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead.
Bradley Peniston, the executive editor of the military defense publication Defense One, has written an editorial warning of former President Donald Trump's ambitions to potentially use the American military on the country's own citizens.
Peniston begins by citing Trump's recent declaration that he could use the military to take care of what he described as "the enemy within" the country that includes politicians such as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Although Trump has a long history of threatening to use the power of the state to prosecute his enemies, Peniston argues that the decision to invoke the specter of using the military is a "radical" escalation.
"By suggesting that domestic political rivals pose an existential threat akin to foreign enemies, he sets up his case for military action," he writes. "It’s a well-worn tactic of authoritarians, whose language Trump apes and whose policies he admires, right down to his stated desire to become a dictator."
And the Defense One editor also believes that Trump's ambitions to use the military domestically would face far fewer obstacles in a second term, especially after the Supreme Court ruled that a president is exempt from criminal prosecution for acts taken in his official capacity as commander-in-chief.
"One former acting vice chief of the National Guard said it would be easy for a president to turn Guard units into his 'personal police force,'" writes Peniston. "Randy Manner, a retired Army two-star, told CNN recently that if Trump found one state governor to go along, he could authorize funds to 'use the National Guard almost in any way that he wants. ... Most Americans don’t know how very easy it would be for an unhinged president to use the military against our own citizens.'"
To this end, he hopes the military is already considering how it will respond if Trump tries to order forces to attack demonstrators.
"What happens if he does give the order? The U.S. military, which spends the vast majority of its time contemplating and preparing for contingencies, should prepare for this one as well," he writes.
Brad Reed
October 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead.
Bradley Peniston, the executive editor of the military defense publication Defense One, has written an editorial warning of former President Donald Trump's ambitions to potentially use the American military on the country's own citizens.
Peniston begins by citing Trump's recent declaration that he could use the military to take care of what he described as "the enemy within" the country that includes politicians such as Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
Although Trump has a long history of threatening to use the power of the state to prosecute his enemies, Peniston argues that the decision to invoke the specter of using the military is a "radical" escalation.
"By suggesting that domestic political rivals pose an existential threat akin to foreign enemies, he sets up his case for military action," he writes. "It’s a well-worn tactic of authoritarians, whose language Trump apes and whose policies he admires, right down to his stated desire to become a dictator."
And the Defense One editor also believes that Trump's ambitions to use the military domestically would face far fewer obstacles in a second term, especially after the Supreme Court ruled that a president is exempt from criminal prosecution for acts taken in his official capacity as commander-in-chief.
"One former acting vice chief of the National Guard said it would be easy for a president to turn Guard units into his 'personal police force,'" writes Peniston. "Randy Manner, a retired Army two-star, told CNN recently that if Trump found one state governor to go along, he could authorize funds to 'use the National Guard almost in any way that he wants. ... Most Americans don’t know how very easy it would be for an unhinged president to use the military against our own citizens.'"
To this end, he hopes the military is already considering how it will respond if Trump tries to order forces to attack demonstrators.
"What happens if he does give the order? The U.S. military, which spends the vast majority of its time contemplating and preparing for contingencies, should prepare for this one as well," he writes.
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