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AUGUST

**31, 2020**

Kuttner on TAP

Defining the Meaning of Violence

****

The election could well turn on which candidate does a more compelling
job of defining the nature of the violence now plaguing cities from
Kenosha to Portland.

For Trump, the violence is the fault of radical protesters who are no
better than common criminals, and who are representative of what Joe
Biden stands for. "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America," as
Mike Pence told the RNC, is the mantra.

What's clear, of course, is that Trump promotes the violence, eggs on
right-wing provocateurs and out-of-control cops, and hopes that the left
will respond in kind. In the general chaos and definitional confusion
that ensues, he stands for law and order.

Trump's definition of events doesn't fool most people who are not
already part of his hardcore base. But it needs to fool only a few swing
voters in key swing states. The pictures of violence, and the occasional
far-left agitator welcoming the clashes, may give a few queasy suburban
moderates the permission they need to vote for Trump.

On Sunday, Biden put out a strong statement condemning violence whether
of the left or the right, and saying of Trump: "He may believe tweeting
about law and order makes him strong-but his failure to call on his
supporters to stop seeking conflict shows just how weak he is."

But the violence of the left and the right is far from symmetrical. Ever
since 2016, Trump and his storm troopers have been escalating the
violence and engaging in hate-killings that Trump foments and then
excuses.

It is Trump's America where people don't feel safe. Biden, speaking
today in Pittsburgh, nailed that. "This president long ago forfeited any
moral leadership in this country. He can't stop the violence-because
for years he has fomented it," Biden said. "Does anyone believe there
will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is re-elected?"

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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