More Paranoia about Coming Civil War

Newsweek essay:

America's massive and mostly Republican gun-rights movement dovetails with a growing belief among many Republicans that the federal government is an illegitimate tyranny that must be overthrown by any means necessary. That combustible formula raises the threat of armed, large-scale attacks around the 2024 presidential election—attacks that could make the January 6 insurrection look like a toothless stunt by comparison. ...

Both Democrats and Republicans are rapidly losing faith in the integrity of U.S. elections. Democrats worry that voter suppression and election interference from Republican state officials will deny millions of Americans their say at the polling booths. A PBS NewsHour/ NPR/ Marist poll in early November reported that 55 percent of Democrats saw voter suppression as the biggest threat to U.S. elections. Republicans claim, contrary to the evidence, that Democrats have already manipulated vote counts through fraud to steal a presidential election. An October CNN poll found that more than three-quarters of Republicans falsely believe Joe Biden's 2020 election win was fraudulent. ...

In October 2020, 13 men were charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat; all of them were aligned with the political right.

I am skeptical about this. That whole kidnap plot story seemed fishy. The plot didn't make much sense, but why would some FBI agents frame some right-wingers? The whole thing seems to have been carried out by FBI informants. A Michigan TV station reported some clues:

One of the lead FBI agents on the federal kidnapping case involving Michigan’s governor didn’t just betray the badge off-duty, he also showed questionable judgment online by posting an obscenity-laden, anti-Trump tirade.

“If you still support our piece of s–t president you can f–k off,” began the 2020 post on Richard Trask’s personal Facebook page.

As Trask, 40, prepares to enter a plea Monday on charges he beat and choked his wife at their Kalamazoo County home, Target 8 investigators are revealing the contents of a vitriolic, Trump-bashing post on Trask’s personal Facebook page.

Target 8 has also obtained police body camera video of Trask’s July 18, 2021, arrest for allegedly assaulting his wife after they attended a swinger’s party at a Kalamazoo-area hotel.

Trask’s Facebook declaration blasting then-President Donald Trump was dated March 28, 2020.

At the time, the FBI was in the early stages of its investigation into the alleged plot to abduct Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

Trask played a central role in the case, which has since become one of the most politicized in Michigan’s history, with defense attorneys claiming the FBI orchestrated the abduction plan itself through its direction of confidential informants.

This is one of several examples of outlandish plots that were supposedly broken up by FBI informants. I do not know whether to credit the FBI for stopping terrorism, or blame them for instigating it.

A lot of Americans are arming themselves, but I think it is mostly driven by police failures to curb crime, and by pro-criminal political forces.

The Jan. 6 protest was not an insurrection. The protesters were not armed. Donald Trump did win a big majority of the votes cast and counted on Election Day, and many people legitimately disapprove of how Joe Biden got into the White House.

Blacks are being told that they are suffering systemic racism, as shown by the jury conviction of a female Minnesota police officer. As Ann Coulter explains and the NY Times omits, she was arresting the young half-Black man for trying to choke a woman to death while robbing her at gunpoint. He also shot a guy in the head. The policewoman was trying to hit him with a taser when he was resisting arrest.

She will now serve many years in prison for using more force than was intended.