Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab and The Network Contagion Research Institute performed a survey to assess support for political violence in the U.S. Among the findings: 55% of those who identify as progressive said murdering Trump can be justified. Forty-eight per cent said killing Elon Musk might be reasonable as well. Of the group surveyed as a whole, 38% said it was at least arguably justifiable to murder Trump with 31% feeling the same about Musk.
“The findings signal a threat to political stability and public safety,” NCRI/Rutgers concluded after thinking really hard about it. The NCRI/Rutgers survey also found that 39.8% of respondents said that they could justify destroying a Tesla dealership to protest DOGE.
Be proud, Democrats! You now are the party of violent morons.
David Winston’s opinion piece for Roll-Call accurately describes how dangerous this kind of “resistance” culture is for the party, never mind for its hit targets. He writes in part,
Today, rather than undertaking some serious introspection as to what voters want and whether Democratic ideology still has value for the electorate, Democrats have turned to an old playbook: the Resistance.
Voters have been bombarded with videos showing congressional Democrats staging “protests” at federal buildings, complete with coarse language and silly chants more reminiscent of the 1960s than a modern political party. Their “fight back” strategy so far has featured violent Tesla takedowns, “days of action,” fatuous Senate filibusters, obstructionist lawsuits, DOGE meltdowns and Jayapal’s own “resistance labs.”
There are three problems with this strategy.
First, going on the attack when a majority of the country has an unfavorable view of view of your party is likely going to have minimal impact.
Second, when you attack, you drive up your own negatives, exactly what the Democratic Party needs to avoid.
And third, the Republicans they are attacking have much higher positives than their own party. In a March 7-11 NBC survey, Trump was at 46 percent positive (19 points higher than Democrats), while Elon Musk and the Republican Party were both at 39 percent (12 points above Democrats).
Democrats’ vendetta against Tesla, once the darling of the green movement, isn’t just ineffective as political theater. It’s damaging to the Democratic brand. The irony of protesters targeting Tesla owners, most of whom are probably supporters of both climate programs and the Democratic Party, shouldn’t be underestimated.
Violence directed at people, businesses and property based on political differences is the antithesis of democracy. The silence from many elected Democrats in terms of this violence has very disconcerting. Charting the direction of the country is done through elections, not using violence against fellow citizens.
This is Cognitive Dissonance Scale 101.
On Facebook, following the meh anti-Trump rallies on April 5, a friend, lawyer and Facebook Friend of long standing wrote that he regretted not being able to join those protesting to “save democracy.” I had to wrestle my fingers to the floor to stop them from typing, “Declaring that a decisively elected President doing exactly what he promised to do during the campaign should be obstructed from doing so is the opposite of democracy.”
So is, incidentally, wanting to kill that President.
Ethics Alarms 
People that spew that kind of rhetoric are nucking futs! Every person that utters these kinds of words should be reported to the FBI immediately. What happens if they are reported…
Spewing out “Kill The President” rhetoric in any form puts a giant red flashing light on their head with the secret service, FBI, DHS, and all local police departments. Because of those threatening words alone, the person can be temporarily detained and thrown in jail or forced to wear an ankle tracking bracelet whenever they are within 200 miles of the President? If they fly into the Washington DC area and the President is in DC, they will be detained as they leave the plane, so they must be flagged with TSA. As far as I know that rule, or a rule roughly equivalent to that, is still in place.
Verbal threats against the President of the United States of America are not taken lightly.
The fact of the matter is that the Democratic Party has been the opposite of democratic for more than a decade. The violent methods that emerged in 2020 and still remain in use today have been around in one form or another since 1848 and the revolutions against monarchy in Europe (which don’t get talked about much here). They just retreat underground when conditions are unfavorable, emerging when they are favorable.
Different people have different ideas as to when conditions are favorable, and that’s why there will always be a few idiots who want to talk violent revolt at all times. The large numbers only came out in 2020 because the conditions were EXTREMELY favorable between a population already cowed by being locked down, fear because of the pandemic, a focusing event in the form of the killing of George Floyd, and a plethora of governors, mayors, and other public officials who had one goal: get Trump, and use whatever means needed to do it.
However, I think those who pressed the attack in 2020 to the point of assaulting the White House did it because they had the numbers. A lot of folks are now back to work and can’t get involved in crazy protests, and the political leaders that were behind the support are gone, or at least many of them (Cuomo, Wheeler, Durkan, Lightfoot, DeBlasio) are. On the one hand this is good, because mass and destructive protests are less likely, but, on the other hand, this is bad, because those still at it are the hardcore people who would (and did) actually consider crazy acts like an attack on the president, or his chief advisor, or on someplace or something that appears to be a supporter of either man.
The president has also learned a few things and gotten rid of a large number of people who would betray him and sent a message to those considering it: don’t do it, or you will find yourself on the outs. I’m sure the Joint Chiefs (all white men now) got the message loud and clear when he sent General Brown and Admirals Franchetti and Fagan packing: don’t give the president a hard time, or out you go too! I think Federal law enforcement got the message too: don’t get in the president’s way, and if he says arrest, you arrest.
The message has probably made its way down to a fair number of people as well. They know that what happened in Portland could happen anywhere now, and that Trump has the backing of the people. If local law enforcement goes soft (maybe, maybe not, a lot of them are unhappy with all the defund the police nonsense and want to take a few scalps), then the Feds will step in. For those that didn’t get the message yet, getting arrested and locked up for a while will.
“Democrats have turned to an old playbook: the Resistance.” (bold mine)
PWS
Jack: “he regretted not being able to join those protesting to “save democracy.” “
I have started pointing out that Elon is dismantling the bureaucracy, so if you are opposing him, it is the bureaucracy you are trying to save,
-Jut