Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 07:12 pm
Political conventions are generally raucous affairs full of passion for the Party and its chosen standard bearer, including soaring expectations for running the nation. If reports are true, and there is no reason to believe they are not, the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week looks to be full of passion, certainly raucous, and possibly quite violent; just the way Donald Trump expects from his rabid supporters.
Trump’s base, theocrats, white supremacists, and nativists don’t have much to anticipate at the convention because their hero has clinched the nomination and chosen a bonafide bigot and theocrat as his running mate in Indiana Governor Mike Pence. With their champions chosen, there is little left for the Trump folks to anticipate other than which demographic they will lash out at first.
If the Trump acolytes aren’t calling for a race war, including organizing ‘small units’ and stockpiling thousands of rounds of ammunition, they were gathering support for Trump delegates to attend the convention fully armed and dangerous; against almost everyone who is not white, not evangelical, and certainly not American.
An insurance executive and self-professed economist, James Klein, concluded he had to go to Cleveland armed and urged his fellow delegates to do the same. “We’re talking about ISIS…and we’re talking about people who have shown a propensity for violence” in reference to protesters outside Trump rallies.
Klein may be a typical Trump supporter; a lifelong NRA member who carries a gun every day he was quick to note that his particular concern and reason for being armed at a political convention is international terrorism.
“I’m not a terrorist, okay, but I’m an academic and a theorist, and I would think that if I were an ISIS guy that I might want to attack the Republican National Convention. People will attack you at your weakest, at your softest.”
He is fairly certain that attacks will not occur at the convention hall, but elsewhere around the city where police and the Secret Service are unlikely to stop an attack, delegates have to be prepared for the worst.
Another Trump delegate, Ash Khare, acknowledged that guns aren’t allowed inside the convention hall, but Trump’s supporters still have to be armed once outside the building. Khare said,
“There are a whole bunch of things happening: You go to various events, receptions, whatever, outside the convention hall. And you walk on the streets and, you know, people know that you are a delegate, and who knows what the crazy people are going to do? So you’ve got to be vigilant about what’s going on and prepare yourself.”
Khare, like no small number of Trump supporters, has been sufficiently impacted and frightened by Trump’s perpetual fear-mongering. He is so worried, in fact, about being prepared for people that may know he’s a delegate that he applied for, and expects to receive, a concealed carry permit in time to attend the convention. However, he attempted to stress that delegates carrying concealed weapons are not looking for trouble: “You gotta have a proper mindset and the proper training…This is just in case you get into a situation where you can make a difference.”
Apparently Donald Trump’s month’s-long fear-mongering has achieved its desired effect on many delegates who will not feel safe unless they are armed. One Harrisburg area delegate, Marc Scaringi, said Pennsylvania delegates have spent the past few weeks exchanging ‘many emails’ discussing the need to bring weapons to Cleveland.
Scaringi specifically pointed out the violence that occurred at a San Jose Trump event in June. Anti-Trump protesters apparently jumped on cars, and did throw eggs at a female Trump supporter. Scaringi predicted that,
“This is going to be the most riotous political convention since 1968, and maybe even more so. In addition to just your average political protester, you’re going to get serious people here who want to do harm and want to create mayhem.”
There are other Trump supporters who seemingly are traveling to Cleveland specifically to create mayhem and do harm. These supporters are the white supremacists that claim their “European-American identity is under constant attack by members of American institutions such as the state, education, and multi-culturalism. It was reported last week that the white supremacist group involved in a violent brawl with anti-racists in Sacramento announced that it would be at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland specifically to protect Trump supporters. The Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP) involved in the Sacramento stab-fest informed McClatchy that about 30 members would be at the GOP event. “We’re essentially just going to show up and make sure that the Donald Trump supporters are defended from the leftist thugs.”
The group, which was joined by the Golden State Skinheads (GSS) said on its website that they had “to make a statement about the precarious situation our race is in.” The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) noted that the TWP head, Matthew Heimbach, was the manly white racist who was caught on video “physically assaulting a young Black woman at a Trump rally;” he had tweeted prior to assaulting the young woman that “We won’t bow down to leftist scum.”
It is impossible to know for sure just how dangerous and violent, much less disruptive, a group of white nationalists looking for violence will be at the convention. These white supremacists are drawn to Trump because they are certain that white people are being victimized by what they claim is an abominable multicultural society. A society founded on equality they claim increasingly denies them their god-given power, white rights, and special privileges they say is their due entitlement as the real Americans.
It is beginning to appear that after months of Donald Trump’s fear mongering and demagoguery against any and all non-white and non-Christian groups, and Republican delegates planning an carrying weapons, there will be passion at the Republican National Convention and a very real possibility of deadly violence outside, particularly after Trump regularly encourages violence as the only solution to every issue.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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