Rising Tide of MAGA Mob - Brownshirts?

Click here for a Substack article by Robert Reich entitled "Trump's Brownshirts."

I differ with Robert here (something I very rarely do), because the existence of a "Brownshirt" force is one of the signs of fascism that I've been watching for, and I don't think it has yet reached that level of organization; a splintered mob is relatively weak. 

But it's a frightening chronicle of the rising tide of Trump-incited violence. He begins: 

I apologize for the length of this letter, but the subject warrants it. Donald Trump has galvanized an army of vigilantes who are casting a fearsome shadow over the 2024 election. Please spread the word.

It’s impossible to know how large this potential army is, but last October, 41 percent of pro-Trump Americans agreed with the statement that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” (That view was shared by 22 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats.)

He mentions the SWATting of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows. Then there are death threats to Colorado Secretary of State JenHe mentions the SWATting of Maine Secretary a Griswold; Tanya Chutkin, a judge presiding over a Trump case (she was also SWATted); Fulton County DA Fani Willis and Sheriff Patrick Labat; and Jack Smith (who also was SWATted).

These are the tip of the iceberg. Trump has used incendiary, violence-inciting rhetoric repeatedly during his rallies. There's an audio recording of Roger Stone, the liasion between the Proud Boys and the Trump campaign, saying "Either [Congressman Eric] Swalwell or [Congressman Jerry] Nadler has to die before the election."(Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 attack.)  

Reich says: 

THERE IS A DIRECT AND ALARMING CONNECTION between Trump’s political rise and and the increase in political violence and threats of such violence in America.

He gives instances such as this:

Just before the House vote on impeachment, Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado said he heard firsthand from Republicans that fear was holding at least two of them back. “I had a lot of conversations with my Republican colleagues last night, and a couple of them broke down in tears — saying that they are afraid for their lives if they vote for this impeachment,” Crow said on MSNBC.

And this:

The Republican majority leader of the Pennsylvania state Senate explained why she signed a letter backing Trump’s attempt to overturn the results in that state: “If I would say to you, ‘I don’t want to do it,’ I’d get my house bombed tonight.”

There's A LOT more. Reich concludes:

As I’ve said before, America is not the Weimar Republic on the eve of 1933, and Trump is not Hitler. But it is important to understand the parallels.

That Donald Trump still has not been held accountable for encouraging the attack on the U.S. Capitol, or for provoking his followers with his blatant lie that the 2020 election was stolen, continues to galvanize an army of potentially violent Americans.

He's right when he says  "America is not the Weimar Republic on the eve of 1933, and Trump is not Hitler," but boy howdy, are there parallels -- all kinds of them.