"Trump kept the far right's paranoia and sense of grievance at a constant boil"
Under Trump, political pressure on federal law enforcement to ignore the far right would only grow. After a white supremacist killed 23 people in a Walmart in El Paso in 2019, Dave Gomez, a former F.B.I. supervisor overseeing terrorism cases, told The Washington Post that the agency was “hamstrung” in trying to investigate white nationalists. “There’s some reluctance among agents to bring forth an investigation that targets what the president perceives as his base,” said Gomez.
The violent far right appears to have been emboldened by the experience of being treated as valued constituents. “The problem existed before him, but it’s really flourished even more under his administration,” Johnson said of Trump.
This is a departure from previous patterns, Johnson said: Right-wing extremist activity usually abates during Republican administrations, when conservatives feel less existentially threatened. But Trump kept the far right’s paranoia and sense of grievance at a constant boil, and gave them permission to act. The people at the Capitol who said they were there because the president wanted them to be weren’t necessarily delusional.
But there’s no reason to believe that the threat will recede when Trump is gone. Johnson believes it’s going to get worse, and he’s not alone. A recent federal intelligence bulletin warns, “Amplified perceptions of fraud surrounding the outcome of the General Election and the change in control of the Presidency and Senate,” along with fear of what the new administration has in store, will “very likely will lead to an increase in DVE violence.” DVE stands for “domestic violent extremists.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/opinion/trump-second-impeachment.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
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Thanks for your post-I feel less like a complete moron, if smarter people were fooled a little too.
There is no method to Trump's madness and he is a live grenade. I think he actually believes his own bullshit, because it justifies his outrageous behavior. People who believe their own lies are more convincing I think. That must be his appeal.
All I can hope is that all of you can figure out some way to neutralize him. He may be out of office but he looks healthy enough. He will be stirring shit with his own propaganda networks for years unless he is an outcast in society. But it is unclear what effect even that will have on his rabid supporters. Save for dull platitudes about deradicalization programs, I got nothing....
It is not about reaching out to cons or healing. But 20% of your country going this insane, is a constant state of insecurity. And that in the middle of a pandemic and economic collapse and climate change.
I cannot believe I am actually missing Bush 
.