Capitol Riot Was Trumpism’s Essence on Display
“This is what self-righteous ‘patriotism,’ devoid of any real commitment to the country’s form of government or its best traditions, looks like.”
What Trumpism means.
Photographer: Samuel Corum/Getty ImagesAll kinds of political movements, good and bad, can inspire acts of lawless violence. Rhetoric rooted in violence has long been a widely accepted part of political debate. Americans across the political spectrum routinely call for “revolution,” or say they want to “burn down” the system, or commend a politician for being a “fighter.” Nobody bats an eye, or should, any more than we pause to note that a “campaign” is both a political and a military event.
But President Donald Trump has gone further than most in flirting with political violence. Just weeks after his presidential campaign started in 2015, two men in Boston beat up a homeless man and said in their defense that Trump was right about “illegals.” Trump’s initial response was to call the incident a shame and then explain that his supporters were “very passionate.” As the primaries were underway, he told supporters that they should “knock the crap out of” anyone they thought might be about to throw a tomato, promising he would pay the legal fees.