In U.S., Far Right Wing Prepares for Civil War

Below is a post from Milo Yiannopoulos, one of the right-wing extremists who, after a great degree of deliberation, has been banned from Facebook.  It provides some level of understanding the “rock and a hard place” dilemmas that our societal institutions face in dealing with when “free speech” is offered as the justification for inciting violence.  It makes us (me at least) feel sorry for university administrators who are forced to take a no-win position re: blocking certain forms of hate speech from their campuses.

This particular message seems to read: We white supremacists are peace-loving people, but when radical forces of democratic socialism, Islam, climate change activism, organized labor, antifa, environmentalism, gun-law advocacy, etc. back us into a corner that threatens violence and loss of liberty against us and our families, we will respond in kind.  Yet, even though such a Civil War is coming, some of us may be uninformed as to the ways such warfare is best carried out, thus they need a playbook, and I am best equipped to write it.

Of more practical importance here is that Yiannopolous doesn’t seem to understand that there are exactly zero scenarios in which all this ignorance and hate in present-day America leads to a civil war.  It’s true, rule of law isn’t what it once was, but people like Yiannopoulos (and Trump himself) are in for a terrible shock if they think that the 700,000 full-time law enforcement professionals and the 1.36 million active-duty soldiers, armed with billions of dollars of 21st Century weaponry, are going to abandon the procedures established in the U.S. judiciary, so they can defend a man who has been lawfully removed from office via the mechanisms set out in the Constitution.

The reason is simple: A constitution that is protected and enforced via rule of law is the only thing that separates democracies from dictatorships, and it’s treasured by all Americans of all political stripes, whether you’re an Elizabeth Warren progressive or a Tea Party Republican.  A democracy works on a single set of laws, and those laws apply equally to everyone.  Once that’s gone, so is your democracy.

To the consternation of many (and to the great amusement of some, like me), Trump said the other day, “I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”  You’re threatening the American people with violence???  Yes, as Commander in Chief, you have the support of the police and the military–until the exact moment in time at which rule of law removes you from office, and not a nanosecond longer.  If you believe otherwise, you’re as insane as almost exactly half of the people here think you are.

Having said that, what happens with the “Bikers for Trump” and the dozens or maybe hundreds of other small support groups that dot the map of the U.S. is anyone’s guess; I expect that a certain fringe will support Trump regardless of the outcome of the myriad legal proceedings against him.  In fact, Trump himself pointed that out in reference to his shooting someone on Fifth Avenue and not losing a single vote.

Again, though I’m not a military strategist, I doubt these fanatics, even with their AR-15s, will fare too well against the entirety of the servicemen and women who enforce our laws and fight the enemies of our republic and constitution, both domestic and abroad, who will be “discouraging mischief” with machine guns in vehicles like the one pictured here.  It took five years to win the first Civil War; this one’s going to be measured in minutes, or an hour or two at the most.

Trump’s most die-hard followers would be best advised to rethink their positions of racial hatred, and channel their energy elsewhere, literally anywhere.  Go do something else.  Sell real estate.  Deliver pizza.  Drive Uber.  Pick one at random and go for it.