There are 12 days left until we go to the polls. Is violence brewing from disappointed Donald Trump supporters? Here are nine quotes from a New York Times story that ran this morning:
Jared Halbrook, 25, of Green Bay, Wis., said that if Mr. Trump lost to Hillary Clinton…it could lead to “another Revolutionary War.” “People are going to march on the capitols,” said Mr. Halbrook, who works at a call center. “They’re going to do whatever needs to be done to get her out of office, because she does not belong there.”
…”It’s not what I’m going to do, but I’m scared that the country is going to go into a riot,” said Roger Pillath.
…”I’d probably go into a depression, because life is hard enough for us right now,” Ms. Olson, 69, said.
…”Unfortunately, I’m not a man of vigilante violence,” said Richard Sabonjohn, 48, of Naples, Fla. “I’m more of a peaceful person. But I do think there will be a large
amount of people that are terribly upset and may take matters into their own hands.”
Mr. Swick considers himself a “Bible Christian” and “Thomas Jefferson liberal,” and said he hoped to beat Mrs. Clinton “at the ballot box.” But Mr. Swick, by his own estimation, also owns “north of 30 guns,” and he said Mrs. Clinton would have trouble if she tried to confiscate the nation’s constitutionally protected weapons.
…”I am not going to take my weapon to go out into the streets to protest an election I did not win,” Mr. Weegens said, “but I think that if certain events came about, a person would need to protect themselves, depending on where they lived, when your neighborhood goes up in flames.”
“I’d go home and cry for four years,” said Ken Herrmann, 69, of Punta Gorda, Fla.
Kathy Maney, 61, a hairstylist from Fletcher, N.C., used the language of love lost. “I won’t feel hatred or mad or anything like that, but my heart will be broken,” she said.
Ms. Sanger added, she will dutifully accept the outcome on Election Day. “I would absolutely respect the result and support the next president,” she said. “Pray for the next president, whoever it is.”
This story ran under the headline “Some Trump Voters Call for Revolution if Clinton Wins.” But not a single one of these folks “called” for a revolution or said they’d participate in one. Just the opposite. They said they themselves wouldn’t do anything, but were worried that other people might. Even young Mr. Halbrook, who came the closest, only suggested that “people” would participate in “marches on the capitols,” which is perfectly legal and not necessarily violent.
So why is everyone worried that other people might riot on November 9? Is it because of headlines like “Some Trump Voters Call for Revolution if Clinton Wins”?
