The question that is on everyone's mind the last few days is who is behind the sending of the pipe bombs to Democratic officials. Certainly, whoever sent them wants us to think about this and point the finger at Trump supporters. But let's analyze the bomber's motives at a deeper level. Obviously, whoever committed this terrorist attack wants Trump to be blamed, and wants the Republican Party to lose the midterm elections.
So who wants the GOP to lose the midterms? Clearly moderate liberals and want the GOP to lose. But a moderate liberal isn't going to resort to actual threats of violence in order to achieve their political goals. Moderate liberals are those who voted for Clinton and Obama. They obviously wouldn't be sending bombs to the very politicians that they voted for a few years ago. So that leaves the extreme left. Who's on the extreme left. It can't be a democratic socialist or a Bernie supporter because Kamala Harris was among those that received a bomb in the mail. Again, these groups actively support Harris, and almost certainly wouldn't threaten a leader that represents their political beliefs and is one of the visible leaders of the movement.
That leaves Antifa. There's certainly a motive here. Antifa sees the Trump presidency and the base that supports him as leaning toward fascism if not fascism outright. By sending these bombs to Democratic politicians, and getting the public and the media to blame Trump supporters and the far right, they can increase the chances of a Democratic victory, and thereby stop what they see as a fascist administration. If the Democrats win Congress, either the House or the Senate or both, the wall either won't be built or it will be delayed at least two years. Fewer illegal immigrants would be deported, and so on. As for Antifa, they have committed acts of violence against persons and property, but these acts have thus far taken place only where another group that they perceive as fascist has gathered to demonstrate and express their views. In other words, Antifa is a reactive, not a proactive movement, or at least has been thus far. Antifa doesn't just show up and start demonstrating on their own where nobody else has done so. So if Antifa did it, it would be a marked change in their tactics. Organizations that have a long established pattern of operations rarely suddenly change in this manner, so I think it's safe to exclude Antifa. I believe that the organization that committed this act has already committed similar acts in the past.
We can also exclude moderate Trump supporters because they wouldn't act in such a way as to hurt their own chances for victory in the upcoming elections. This leaves the extreme right. Here is why I think the extreme right are behind this. By extreme right, I am referring to groups farther right than even the alt-right. Groups like Atomwaffen SS, whose members have already killed several people across the nation and are actively planning acts of terrorism around the country in order to overthrow the government and start an apocalyptic race war. There's a huge difference between believing that America should remain a majority white nation, and that all illegal immigrants should be deported and a wall should be built, on one hand, and actually killing people in order to achieve these goals. Trump supporters don't want revolution. They want the existing laws to be enforced, and enhanced border security. These far right groups want to overthrow the government and to start killing people now. If Trump and the GOP are blamed for this incident, and the Democrats win Congress, and the moderate reforms that regular Trump supporters are advocating for are blocked, then the hope is that these moderate Trump supporters will be radicalized, believing that all hopes for a political solution to the immigration issue have now been exhausted. But if Trump wins, and the moderate policies proposed by Trump end up passing in the next few years with a Republican congress, Trump supporters will have achieved their desired goals and will move away from radical solutions, which is exactly what groups like the Atomwaffen SS don't want.
This group and others on the extreme right see themselves as the vanguard for the alt-right movement. They are hoping that a critical mass of Trump supporters who are presently moderate and oppose revolution will be converted to their radical cause of overthrowing the government and replacing it with a Neo-Nazi "Fourth Reich." And the only way they can achieve this objective is for the Republican party to be defeated in the midterms. In other words, both the motive and the prior record of violence is there.
The problem is, the media isn't making a distinction between these extreme right groups and moderate Trump supporters. They are as different as a Bernie sanders supporter and the Weather Underground.
I'm a centrist who is trying to be objective and level-headed here. I think it's dangerous for Trump supporters and moderate Republicans to blame the left. Calling the bomb threat a "false flag" is offensive and only serves to fan the flames. Instead, the smart thing to do is for the GOP to dissociate itself with these extremists who have the motive and the will to carry out these acts. They are not Republicans, they are not Trump supporters, they want Trump to lose because they think it will radicalize moderate Republicans.
So who wants the GOP to lose the midterms? Clearly moderate liberals and want the GOP to lose. But a moderate liberal isn't going to resort to actual threats of violence in order to achieve their political goals. Moderate liberals are those who voted for Clinton and Obama. They obviously wouldn't be sending bombs to the very politicians that they voted for a few years ago. So that leaves the extreme left. Who's on the extreme left. It can't be a democratic socialist or a Bernie supporter because Kamala Harris was among those that received a bomb in the mail. Again, these groups actively support Harris, and almost certainly wouldn't threaten a leader that represents their political beliefs and is one of the visible leaders of the movement.
That leaves Antifa. There's certainly a motive here. Antifa sees the Trump presidency and the base that supports him as leaning toward fascism if not fascism outright. By sending these bombs to Democratic politicians, and getting the public and the media to blame Trump supporters and the far right, they can increase the chances of a Democratic victory, and thereby stop what they see as a fascist administration. If the Democrats win Congress, either the House or the Senate or both, the wall either won't be built or it will be delayed at least two years. Fewer illegal immigrants would be deported, and so on. As for Antifa, they have committed acts of violence against persons and property, but these acts have thus far taken place only where another group that they perceive as fascist has gathered to demonstrate and express their views. In other words, Antifa is a reactive, not a proactive movement, or at least has been thus far. Antifa doesn't just show up and start demonstrating on their own where nobody else has done so. So if Antifa did it, it would be a marked change in their tactics. Organizations that have a long established pattern of operations rarely suddenly change in this manner, so I think it's safe to exclude Antifa. I believe that the organization that committed this act has already committed similar acts in the past.
We can also exclude moderate Trump supporters because they wouldn't act in such a way as to hurt their own chances for victory in the upcoming elections. This leaves the extreme right. Here is why I think the extreme right are behind this. By extreme right, I am referring to groups farther right than even the alt-right. Groups like Atomwaffen SS, whose members have already killed several people across the nation and are actively planning acts of terrorism around the country in order to overthrow the government and start an apocalyptic race war. There's a huge difference between believing that America should remain a majority white nation, and that all illegal immigrants should be deported and a wall should be built, on one hand, and actually killing people in order to achieve these goals. Trump supporters don't want revolution. They want the existing laws to be enforced, and enhanced border security. These far right groups want to overthrow the government and to start killing people now. If Trump and the GOP are blamed for this incident, and the Democrats win Congress, and the moderate reforms that regular Trump supporters are advocating for are blocked, then the hope is that these moderate Trump supporters will be radicalized, believing that all hopes for a political solution to the immigration issue have now been exhausted. But if Trump wins, and the moderate policies proposed by Trump end up passing in the next few years with a Republican congress, Trump supporters will have achieved their desired goals and will move away from radical solutions, which is exactly what groups like the Atomwaffen SS don't want.
This group and others on the extreme right see themselves as the vanguard for the alt-right movement. They are hoping that a critical mass of Trump supporters who are presently moderate and oppose revolution will be converted to their radical cause of overthrowing the government and replacing it with a Neo-Nazi "Fourth Reich." And the only way they can achieve this objective is for the Republican party to be defeated in the midterms. In other words, both the motive and the prior record of violence is there.
The problem is, the media isn't making a distinction between these extreme right groups and moderate Trump supporters. They are as different as a Bernie sanders supporter and the Weather Underground.
I'm a centrist who is trying to be objective and level-headed here. I think it's dangerous for Trump supporters and moderate Republicans to blame the left. Calling the bomb threat a "false flag" is offensive and only serves to fan the flames. Instead, the smart thing to do is for the GOP to dissociate itself with these extremists who have the motive and the will to carry out these acts. They are not Republicans, they are not Trump supporters, they want Trump to lose because they think it will radicalize moderate Republicans.
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