Ready..Aim..Fire! On Sunday June 2. 2024, the Guardian ran this headline, “‘No way out without bloodshed’: the right believe the US is under threat and are mobilizing.”
The posts are ominous.
“Pick a side, or YOU are next,” wrote conservative talkshow host Dan Bongino on the Truth Social media platform in the aftermath of former president Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions.
The replies were even more so.
“Dan, seriously now,” one user wrote in response to Bongino. “I see no way out of all this mess without bloodshed. When you can rig an election, then weaponize the government and the courts against a former President, what other alternative is there? I’m almost 70 and would rather die than live in tyranny.
Calls for revenge, retribution and violence littered the rightwing internet as soon as Trump’s guilty verdict came down, all predicated on the idea that the trial had been a sham designed to interfere with the 2024 election. Some posted online explicitly saying it was time for hangings, executions and civil wars.
In this case, Trump was charged with falsifying documents related to a hush-money payment made to an adult film actor to keep an alleged affair out of the spotlight during the 2016 election – a form of election interference from a man whose platform lately consists largely of blaming others for election interference. The verdict has been followed by a backlash from his followers, those who for years chanted to lock up Trump’s political opponents, like Hillary Clinton.
“White America isn’t prepared for a civil war”, said Thomas Robb, the National Director of the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Harrison, Arkansas. “It’s one thing to threaten civil war, than it is to actually go to civil war. In 1989, I took control of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. My dream was to build a Political Party like that of our forefathers. Based on God’s laws, not mans. I changed the name from the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan when we became a legally registered third political party back in 1989. Since that time, it has been myself and my members duty to get the name of the Knights Party into every household. People need to become familiar with our organization and see that they probably agree with 90% of our beliefs. You probably can’t say that you agree with 90% of the Republican or Democratic Parties. Trust me, our goals are being reached, but not as quickly as I had hoped. I hear people everyday say they wished America could be returned to its former glory, but they don’t get involved in helping to do so. We have been here since the inception of the Knights Party 35 years ago waiting to see our people get on board. Yes, many have, but we need more support from our fellow White population. This is why I say White America isn’t ready for a civil war, because for 35 years we have been trying to gather supporters for our Party, and for some reason, White folks are hesitant to get on board. If a civil war did break out in America, how many White folks would be hesitant to fight in that war? Talking ‘smack’ about civil war on a keyboard is a far cry from commiting to fight in a civil war.”
