Donald Trump’s campaign was warned about not taking photographs before an altercation at Arlington National Cemetery during a wreath-laying ceremony earlier this week to honor service members killed in the Afghanistan War withdrawal, a defense official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter concerning Monday’s events. It came a day after NPR reported, citing a source with knowledge of the incident, that two Trump campaign staff members “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It’s easy to say that behind a screen but as someone who has been threatened by MAGAs, it’s no picnic. And I have guns.
This is the problem with our current justice system. We have a chilling effect on bringing real consequences to these assholes because their acolytes will threaten if not beat you for going against their Dear Leader.
What we should be doing, instead of blaming this one soldier, is to tell Congress to pass judicial reform to make these kinds of threats punishable by the same minimum sentencing laws that we use for drugs.
I get what you’re going for, and I generally agree, it’s easier to say it than actually deal with it: but if more people stood up to it, these bullies wouldn’t be so emboldened. Everyone backing the fuck down every time is literally part of why they’re so fucking bold about it now. This has been going on for a decade now. Do you think a decade is long enough to let them become more emboldened from people pissing themselves and giving up?
And secondly… Dude congress has gotten jack fucking shit done in 20 fucking years. We would have to completely blow the Republicans out of the water with major majorities in both the House and Senate, and even then at best we’ve got two years to get anything done.
We literally have half of Congress in the bag for the people committing these crimes. They won’t go out of their way to punish them. We have the Supreme Fucking Court tell us that a President is totally immune to whatever as long as his name is Trump.
So yeah, sorry, the only thing we can actually functionally fucking do at the moment is to stand up to the bullies.
EDIT:
Also, if Trump wins, they will become super emboldened and basically become Trump’s Brownshirts, terrorizing the country at large. Will you still have the same position? That it’s better to turn tail and just give up?
When fascism has already won, will you think it was worth it to have saved your own skins? Because your skins are up for grabs if Trump wins. Everyone’s is. Saving your own skins won’t last forever if he wins, will it?
When the fascist dictator is putting innocent people to death, is the best solution to protect your own and fuck everyone else? No wonder this country is falling apart, nobody is willing to stand up for anyone else. No fucking unity.
EDIT II: Here is some poetry from someone who turned tail and kept his mouth shut during World War II because protecting his own was more important. He was pro-Hitler before the war.