I don’t know how to describe this email from TPM Reader DC other than to say it’s deeply disturbing and you should read it.
I have edited out a few portions from this email that might be personally identifying. Nothing is changed. Just one brief passage removed and some geographical locations redacted.
Josh’s brief pieces on “Getting Violent” is a recording of an unfortunate trend.
Here is our experience on Sunday in [city in central California].
The Incident
In the Save Mart grocery story at [redacted] on Sunday, Oct.9, 2016, As we checked out the man in front of us was having a loud, aggressive verbal assault on the retail clerk. – Kelly.
He was pronouncing a series of statements about Hillary Clinton. These were wild and abusive statements.
My wife – in line- said, “Well not everyone in line agrees with you.”
“I am particular about who I discuss these issues with.”
He responded by directing his abuse toward my wife, Dolores.
After checking out, he left the store.
We checked out and took our grocery cart to the parking lot.
I noticed him driving through the rows searching for someone (us?)
He looked at me from across the parking lot and shouted something inaudible.
We took the groceries and went to our car. I opened the trunk to put groceries in the trunk.
He drove up and stopped behind my car, blocking our ability to leave.
As I loaded the groceries, he began a tirade of abuse and yelling about Hillary Clinton. I told my wife to get into the car and to not respond.
As a 75 year old man, I usually try to avoid physical confrontations.
As I loaded my groceries, he noticed my bumper sticker- Defeat Trump: Defeat Racism. He switched from anti women abuse to anti Obama comments. He called President Obama a N’gger, and made wild claims about racial offenses.
After about 10 minutes he left.
Developing a response:
So, why do I tell you this?
I think that this incident is but one small example of pre-election violence encouraged by the campaign of Donald Trump.I recall an incident I had in 1973 when I was picketing a super market in support of the UFW’s grape boycott. A driver came into the parking lot and deliberately ran into me with his car. I saw him coming and fell between two cars where he could not cause more damage. He drove off. We completed a police report and it was ignored.
On Sat. we were watching the HBO movie, the Free State of Jones. The film continues past the civil war to the period when the racial hierarchy was re-established through terrorism, including the rise of the KKK. Violence and intimidation was used to force the black population back into submission.
Some call this time pre-fascism. Or, as Cornel West calls it neo-fascism. Arun Gupta does a good job of warning about this possibility in, “The Left Underestimates the Danger of Trump”.
To me it is not the pre fascism of the Nazis, it more resembles the pre-fascism of the Benito Mussolini campaigns and the Francisco Franco campaigns in Spain.
It must be resisted. Individual cases such as described can be dismissed as just the actions of a deranged individual. However, unchallenged these cases grow into a movement. And, the movement will not end with the election. I sense a growing number of these assaults. We should be compiling records.The rising tide of violence will not go away after the election. These movements have gained considerable ground, audacity, and media coverage. They will be a more significant organized political force after the election.
The question is, how do we respond?
