Charles Pierce: The Moment You Realize Trump Finally Crossed the Line

[babylonsister]

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a47492/trump-hillary-assassination/

The Moment You Realize Trump Finally Crossed the Line

By Charles P. Pierce
AUG 9, 2016


OK, is hinting that maybe your political opponent should get shot The Line?

If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know.

Is that The Line?

You know, The Line, the one that He, Trump has to cross before the entire Republican Party, not to mention a good portion of the human race, finds him too revolting for their delicate stomachs? What say you, Paul Ryan? Is that the line? John McCain? Mitch McConnell? All you clowns in the tricorns and the Watering The Tree Of Liberty tank tops? What say you all? Do you stand by this?


How about the elite political press? Is this enough to push you over the line to admitting every day in your coverage that this is not a normal election because the Republican Party has nominated a public sociopath for President of the United States? Once, while contemplating the re-election of Richard Nixon, the late Dr. Thompson once wrote this, and it might be the best single paragraph of political journalism anyone ever wrote:

This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it—that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable. The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes... understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for. Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?

What he said on Tuesday is something Donald Trump does every day of his life, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for. It seems one could stoop even lower than Nixon to be president.

If that isn't The Line, then what in the hell is The Line? Actually doing it?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Update 5:45 p.m. ET: Here's the official explanation from Trump Campaign HQ:

"It's called the power of unification–2nd Amendment people have amazing spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power. And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won't be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump." -Jason Miller, Senior Communications Advisor.

They never should have outsourced the comm shop to Mars.

[Stuart G]

1. That is the line...plain and simple..

[Stonepounder]

2. There is no line.

We, as a nation, have collectively lost our moral compass. Every day brings a new Trump outrage. And the talking heads calmly and thoughtfully provide equal time to other talking heads. They report, you decide. We no condemnation, no analysis, no calling out of constant lies, moral outrages, sheer stupidity, just let Trump spokespeople explain, ad nauseam, that Trump didn't really mean what it sounded like he meant. Then let someone from the left speak for a minute or two to express, oh so politely, that Trump really did mean what he said.
And on we go.

And Trump stays in the race. And Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican power brokers go on about their business, letting Trump call for the assassination of political opponents. And it is Tuesday in America. And my country will never be the same, regardless of who wins in November.

[Cresent City Kid]

5. I second that

I don't think that being in the middle of the campaign is an excuse to not see and accurately describe to viewers/reader the big picture and the departure from acceptability.

[Hortensis]

3. The final straw was media admission of Trump's mental

debility, right on top of the probability that the Kremlin has influenced Republican policy through Trump and his staff and has meddled in our election.

I agree there is no "line" in an age of relaxed morals and almost no concept of honor in politics, but there is definitely a point beyond which recovery is impossible. We still have to put a final defeat the forces who would nevertheless elect this dysfunctional buffoon, but the big battle still to be fought is for all the other offices that are within our reach as a result of this catastrophic candidacy.

[Sunlei]

4. republicans keep making excuses for their disaster

[mcar]

6. Well beyond the line

[LAS14]

7. We keep waiting for "the line." Trump keeps trying,

but he can't seem to cross it. What does this say about our country?

[pamela]

8. "It's called the power of unification"

Was that another dog whistle to the White Nationalists? The various factions of the alt-right have been throwing "unification parties" to bring the groups together.

Clockwise: The stage at the Georgia Peach Oyster Bar; a white nationalist gets tattooed during the Aryan Nationalist Alliance unification party; white nationalists prepare for a swastika-lighting ceremony

[canetoad]

9. I was just about to head over to Esquire

To see if Charles P has anything to say about the threat.

[C_U_L8R]

10. The line was crossed way before he announced his candidacy

Sometime between going orange batshit birther and
being dropped on his head as a small handed youth.