How Trump Supporters Came to Hate the Police

[catbyte]

At the Capitol riot and elsewhere, MAGA Republicans have leaped from “backing the blue” to attacking law-enforcement officials.

By Luke Mogelson
September 10, 2022

In early August, after agents executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, allies of the former President were quick to villainize the F.B.I. Although the raid had recovered more than a hundred classified documents, at least eighteen of which were labelled “Top Secret,” Republican pundits and politicians questioned its legitimacy and denounced the federal agency as a “gang of dangerous criminals,” “wolves,” the “Gestapo,” “the K.G.B.,” and “the enemy within.” Calls for retribution spread online. A forty-two-year-old Trump supporter named Ricky Shiffer wrote, “You’re a fool if you think there’s a nonviolent solution.” Shiffer then attempted to enter an F.B.I. field office in Ohio, equipped with body armor, an assault rifle, and a nail gun. After triggering an alarm, he fled the scene in his vehicle, and a high-speed pursuit ended in a shoot-out with state troopers, during which Shiffer was killed. Three weeks later, Trump gave a speech in which he called F.B.I. agents “vicious monsters.”

Given the broad support that Republicans have historically enjoyed from law enforcement, their escalating hostility toward the F.B.I. may seem paradoxical. Right-wing extremists, however, have always viewed state agents as pernicious antagonists, and so the institutionalization of that mind-set should come as no surprise as the G.O.P. embraces the ideas and attitudes of its radical flank.

In the early days of the pandemic, as Trump supporters began mobilizing against lockdowns and other public-health measures, much of their rage was directed at law enforcement. On April 30, 2020, heavily armed conservatives descended on the Michigan state capitol, in Lansing. Facing off against police outside the barred doors of the legislature, they denounced the officers as “traitors” and “filthy rats.” Some members of the mob belonged to the Michigan Liberty Militia, whose founder later told me that he had created the outfit in 2015, after “seeing what happened with the Bundys.” Cliven Bundy, an elderly rancher in Nevada, had declared war on the government when the Bureau of Land Management impounded his cattle over his refusal to pay outstanding grazing fees. After a tense standoff in which Bundy supporters surrounded law-enforcement agents and trained rifles on them from nearby hilltops, the Bureau of Land Management released the livestock and withdrew from the area.

Following the incident in Lansing, Mike Shirkey, the Republican Senate majority leader in Michigan, condemned the protesters as “a bunch of jackasses” who had used “intimidation and the threat of physical harm to stir up fear and rancor.” Shirkey seems to have quickly realized, though, that such principled nonpartisanship was no longer tenable in American politics. A couple of weeks later, at an anti-lockdown rally in Grand Rapids, I watched him publicly laud the Michigan Liberty Militia and assure its members, “We need you now more than ever.”

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Yeah, those thugs only "back the blue" when "the blue" is attacking all those people they hate -- brown folks, black folks, and liberals. Fuck them. I still shudder at this disgusting scene from March 2021:



And it was even worse knowing that they were a mile away from my house. Awful, awful. Just imagine if their skin had a bit more melanin in it. So disgusting.

[peppertree]

1. Once they decided the Blue was - mostly - NOT on board with their fascist fantasies, it was over

They never "backed the Blue."

They only backed their image of what the police should be: Brownshirts and Gestapo who'd enforce their idea of how things should be (and, of course, terrorized 'undesirables').

Absent that, the thrill, as B.B. King might put it, was gone.

[Demsrule86]

2. Republicans want to live in a fascist fantasy world...it won't happen.

[magicarpet]

7. They think American Democracy has let them down severely,...

... sold them down the river,.. and otherwise totally failed them badly. Their White Power,.. their White Supremacy,.. and their White Privilege means little to nothing any more. They feel they have been hurt, insulted, ignored, and marginalized because American Democracy simply does not work for them as nicely as the good Ole boy network daysp of the recent past. Where things customarily bent and flexed to provide for their immediate wants and needs without a whole bunch of questions being asked. It was more or less just automatic.

I mean, not so long ago - if a white guy approached another white guy the red carpet would automatically be rolled out - and your needs got special preferential treatment because of the inherent benefits of White Privilege. Automatically this would happen - and you never had to beg or work extra special hard to get what you feel you should be entitled to. Certainly before anybody else who is not white, or who is not Christian, or who is not a virile heterosexual male. All these other minorities should be sent way to the back of the line and white folk should get any and all hand outs and special favors.

It just doesn't work like that any more and they blame the failed system of American Democracy.

For them it is long past time for a change. It is time to try something new.

That something new is FASCISM.
FOX News encourages and supports fascism.
Other right wing media encourages and supports fascism. Right wing politicians encourage and support fascism.

Maybe it is time to dump American Democracy and give Fascism a serious try. Political extremists, Neo-Nazis, right wing conservatives, the MAGA crowd, and most Republican Party voters all seem to sympathize with the plight of the White man and his immediate needs above all other races.

For decades white men feel they have been losing financial ground.it is time they once again demand preferential treatment. Fascism seems to be the answer to vastly improve their financial lot so they can once again have a chicken in an occasional cooking pot instead of just porridge and oatmeal cereals for every meal.

Fascism just might be the answer to get the White man back on top. Returning and restoring the special White Privileges that they long to receive once again.

This is why Fascism is encroaching deeper and deeper into American society.

For those inclined toward toxic masculinity and are ripe and ready for change. It is out with the old failed concept of American Democracy. And in with the new concept called FASCISM. The more deeper you delve into it - Fascism looks better and better as the answer to many white man's prayers. That is why it is becoming more popular and fashionable.

FASCISM possesses the strength and the might to become the popular panacea that will cure all of society's ills. The most macho of men among us think this is the God's honest truth.

Jesus Christ Almighty - talk about toxic masculinity running rampant and amok.

Here we are presently. A frightening portion of the American male population is openly embracing FASCISM. The little secret is they have been quietly doing this for quite some time now. If FASCISM IS allowed to continue and expand unchecked - Americsn Democracy is reluctantly going bye-bye. It will be smothered and snuffed out of existence.

Fasten your seat belts and strap on your crash helmets. We are in for a very very bumpy ride before this journey is over.

[Silent3]

3. The MAGAts are still just fine with state and local police

Last edited Sat Sep 10, 2022, 06:10 PM - Edit history (1)

...especially the ones who are "tough" (i.e. who put "keeping order" over following the rules and giving a damn about the rights of anyone who isn't a straight white Christian).

And they do, unfortunately, have a lot of cops on their side who love Trump too.

[madville]

6. Exactly

They are fine with local and state police harassing people “who deserve it”. They have always hated federal law enforcement, especially the IRS and ATF.

[Clash City Rocker]

4. Some idiot in my neighborhood

was hanging a Trump flag and a banner that said “Support the police” at the same time. I was tempted to knock on his door to discuss why the two statements contradicted each other, but that would have meant talking to him. The Trump flag would occasionally come down and later come up, suggesting to me that someone in his household may have understood why it was dumb. The flag hasn’t been up since NARA-Lago, so maybe that person came to his senses.

[RobinA]

9. I Have a That Guy

on my way home from work. HIS outdoor regalia has only increased lately. And he's got a Canadian flag up next to his Trump flag and upside down American flag. Is he moving to Canada? But what about the Biden Is A Socialist sign over there next to the RV?

[madville]

5. Right-wingers have always hated the FEDS

Going all the way back to Waco, Janet Reno, Ruby Ridge, etc that I can remember.

[catbyte]

10. Agreed, but the creep screaming in the picture I posted was at a Michigan State Police officer and

that seems to be a fairly new development.

[madville]

11. Looks like he's screaming at something behind them

Looks like he’s screaming at something behind them, through that opening to the left in the picture.

[catbyte]

12. There where cops behind the front line.

[RobinA]

8. I Have Noticed

this and wondered about it, but it's such a "up is down" world anymore, I figured it was just one more thing.