Mob Talk by a Republican Candidate for President

Mob Talk By a Republican Candidate for President 

By Thomas Coffin

Apparently, I will get not much sleep between now and November as I attempt to keep up with the Trump Party and its ever-increasing full-scale war on our 200 + years of democracy. The ink hasn’t even dried yet on the piece I wrote about the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plan to remake the Department of Justice into the personal tool of vengeance for the “retribution” promised under a second Trump term, when we woke up to the threat of a “bloodbath for the country” if Trump loses the election again. 

Given the January 6th insurrection as background, his promise to pardon the insurrectionists if re-elected (and probably himself as well), the singing of our national anthem during a rally in honor of the insurrectionists, and his reference to the mob storming the Capitol that bloody day as “patriots”, one does not need to be Sherlock to see the “bloodbath” comment as a threat to reprise the insurrection but successfully the second time around.
 

Immediately after the bloodbath comments, his handlers rushed to perform damage control. Like good consiglieri, they explained the Don meant (ahem) car sales, and conservative commentators, in an attempt to decipher the confusing bloodbath statements, said he was just talking about auto industry jobs. 

We’ve seen the Godfather series and we know the subtlety used among the families: “It would be a shame if Vito drowned in his bathtub…”  So we are now treated to the same mob-speak by the Republican nominee for president, bolstered by his henchmen in his party and in the conservative media.

Who can trust them? Are they just waxing poetic for our entertainment? And how else should we interpret the word salad that Trump regularly spews? This guy is a crude lout who couldn’t give a damn about cars, only power and wealth. We can be sure he gets his cue cards from the likes of Putin and Orbán (who was recently the guest of honor at Mar-a Lago.)

Sheeze—wake up, America, so I can get my sleep. This is a nightmare that won’t go away until we quit drinking from the cup of poisonous rhetoric being served up at the bar of the wanna-be dictator of America. He means exactly what the whole world heard. 

 ______________________________

Thomas Coffin was the keynote speaker at the Blackberry Pie Society’s Political Party in February, 2020 and at Politics and Pie in October, 2022.  He is a retired federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon and a former professor at the UO Law School. Thomas retired in 2016 after 24 years on the bench, prior to which he had a career as a federal prosecutor spanning 21 years. He is married with 7 children.  The Blackberry Pie Society is pleased to include a collection of his essays on our website.  We will post them as they become available.

Posted 4.4.2024