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| Idiot Militia members at the "Nazis for Trump" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia |
We've all seen Trump's idiot militia in action. They were the ones who stormed the US Capitol building on January 6th of 2021. They've committed mass shootings, and published extended screeds claiming to be motivated by the "Great Replacement Theory" that has been widely promoted by leading GOP propagandists like Tucker Carlson and Republican members of Congress like Elise Stefanik and Paul Gosar. One of them attempted to mail pipe bombs to Democratic Party leaders, while numerous others have threatened the lives of school board members and elections officials all across the country. The group consists of individual "lone wolf" actors, as well as units with various degrees of organization and paramilitary structure, such as the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers. Overall, Trump's Idiot Militia fulfills the same role that the Nazi SA (Sturmabteilung) played in 1930s Germany. The SA were assorted drunks, thugs and brawlers who intimidated the Nazi party's political opponents by beating up political protesters, infiltrating and starting brawls at opposing political party's gatherings, and making constant death threats against and vandalizing the property of German Jewish families. The SA was a distinct organizational unit within the Nazi Party, seperate from the SS, who were elite military units staffed by individuals with a profound capacity for torture and savagery, and the SD, who were the Nazi Party's intelligence apparatus. The similarity between the Nazi SA's role in 1930s Germany, and the role of Trump's Idiot Militia in modern America should be obvious to any rational person.
The idiot militia represents a relatively small subset of all Trump supporters. While social and economic anxiety are common traits found among all Trump supporters, liberals should not go labeling every single person who voted for Trump a member of the idiot militia. A review of profiles of mass shooters and other domestic terrorists from the last few years suggests idiot militia members are especially dysfunctional individuals. An important distinction should be made when discussing these types of groups. In the context of radicalizing mass movements, there appears to be a substantial difference in the psychology of these movements founders and leaders, versus those groups followers. the founders and leaders of radicalizing mass movements appear to have a strong tendency towards anti-social and narcissistic personality disorders. The primary role of the leaders in these groups is to acquire wealth and influence for themselves, by appealing to the social frustration of their audience. Typical supporters of radicalizing mass movements often possess some authoritarian tendencies, along with little education, but they do not demonstrate the complete subjugation of the super-ego and lack of remorse for violent acts that idiot militia members do. The idiot militia consists of individuals who suffer from a variety of psychological disturbances, intelligence deficits, and lack of social skills, which renders them incapable of satisfying any of their goals in life. They have trouble maintaining regular employment or any kind of long-term interpersonal relationships, lack both the interest and ability to pursue academic interests, and frequently rely on family members for financial support. Additionally, they possess strong authoritarian tendencies, and a capacity for violence which dramatically exceeds that of the average Trump supporter.
That the Republican Party seems aware of the presence of this idiot militia and is taking steps to try to increase that militia's ability to terrorize Democrat and Progressive voters is without question. Any law that rolls back requirements for the purchase of a firearm puts more guns in the hands of idiot militia members. Across the United States, Republicans at every level of government have done everything in their power to make it easier for idiot militia members to acquire firearms and carry them in public. Examples of Republican efforts to enhance the arming of the idiot militia include defeated former President Donald J. Trump's rescinding of an Obama era executive order intended to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, "Constitutional carry" laws in multiple states that allow individuals to purchase a handgun without any requirement for a special permit, and a case before the Supreme Court where the courts conservative wing is expected to issue a ruling that favors domestic terrorists who want to be able to transport weapons into crowded urban centers, so they can achieve greater death tolls while committing mass shootings. Of course that characterization assumes Republicans are aware of the idiot militia's potential for violence and intend to benefit electorally from those acts of violence. The party's only real defense is to claim gross ignorance of history, politics and political radicalization.
Republicans have been able to benefit from acts by the idiot militia because of a Supreme Court Precedent in the case Brandenburg v. Ohio. That case, which dealt with a group of Klu Klux Klan members who were arrested under Ohio's criminal syndicalism law, which forbade groups and gatherings that advocated overthrow of the government. In that case, the court held that "Freedoms of speech and press do not permit a State to forbid advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action." That this particular case is on the mind of the modern day GOP is not in question. During Marjorie Taylor Greene's court hearing to determine whether she would be able to remain on the ballot in Georgia, her lawyer was shouting "Brandenburg, Brandenburg!" over and over again. The problem with Brandenburg is that it was decided in a pre-Internet age, and in an age where video, podcasts, memes and other radicalizing content can be retrieved instantly, how do you decide what is "imminent"? Within the experiential bubble created by social media, a sense of imminence can be manufactured by algorithms that keep feeding agitative content back to an individual, but as that machine generated sense of imminence is not related to any public act of speech, there is effectively no means in US law for punishing those who aggregate existing digital content for the purpose of trying to radicalize individuals, nor is there any reason to believe that the hand-picked Federalist Society judges who make up the majority of today's Supreme Court have any interest in addressing that disparity, and depriving the Republican Party of such a valuable tool for accruing political power.
Americans are disgusted by the violence in Uvalde Texas. It is now time to call out the GOP for their on-going attempts to arm t he idiot militia for the sake of trying to intimidate and harass their political opponents. Maintaining a secret army, pushing for allows that increase that private army's access to weapons, and utilizing online media to radicalize that army while hiding behind an out-dated Supreme Court precedent and hand-picked judges who have no interest in addressing that out-dated precedent should not be let go without comment. The Republican Party of the United States is using a subset of the most violent supporters of former President Donald Trump as a terrorist army. They will not be permitted to claim ignorance of their actions any longer.
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