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1) Some extraordinary polls came out today.

CNN finds 58% of Americans say Trump's response to protests has been "more harmful."

Ipsos finds 59% say Biden would do better at reducing violence.

This strategy is failing Trump. But what's driving this?

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
2) The polling all tells a story: That majorities see Trump's blustery threats of overwhelming force and incitement of more hatred and violence as a clear and present *danger* to the country.

Look at these numbers:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
3) Trump keeps telling us the only answer is overwhelming brute force. Local officials working to balance safety and civil liberties are "anarchists." Trump, by contrast, could solve the violence "in 15 minutes."

What if majorities are rejecting *that*?

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
4) The deeper argument between Trump and Biden is over the source of legitimacy of the state's monopolization of violence, or over whether perceptions of that legitimacy even matter.

Trump celebrates unshackled state violence and even vigilante-ism:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
5) Gary Gerstle, a great historian of white nationalism, tells me Biden is betting on a "Third Reconstruction." Are majorities edging towards an overhaul of our racial order?

That would broaden the possibilities for civil society. Great stuff from him:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
6) “When a majority is thinking that Trump is part of the problem, it is indicative that a Third Reconstruction may be underway — a multi-racial movement of Blacks and Whites to put America’s racial house in order."

Let's hope this holds. Full case here:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
7) One last point:

The celebration of vigilante-ism, the valorization of a white couple for waving guns at protesters, plays on a deeper historical idea, that racial peace is not attainable, and that White America must periodically prepare for race war:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
William Barr's latest moves on Trump's behalf are extraordinary.

They again confirm that only one of the candidates is a lawless extremist. And it isn't Joe Biden.

But Barr and Trump are operating from a genuine worldview. I tried to engage it here:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
This new Trump effort to deny funding to "anarchist" cities is based on the idea that officials are *deliberately* allowing violence.

That's disgusting: Officials are balancing competing imperatives. But the Barr/Trump worldview doesn't permit for this:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Both Trump and William Barr have delivered major speeches declaring open war on the left.

By painting the leftist enemy as an existential threat, they lay the groundwork to justify extraordinary and extralegal means of their own to crush that enemy:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
"Law and order" without rule of law is neither "law" nor "order." Any news org that says Trump is running on "law and order" is carrying his propaganda. He is the candidate of corruption, lawlessness, arbitrary violence, and civil breakdown. New piece:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Trump's "law and order" appeals as a candidate, and his open contempt for the rule of law as president, are often treated as separate things.

But they are part of the same story: Trump is running on "law and order" without rule of law. That's explicit:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
Trump is openly inciting *political* violence, and we need to say that clearly.

When Trump says the only way to control "Democrat run cities" is with "strength," he's explicitly declaring himself the candidate of arbitrary, lawless political violence:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
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Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
Any Dem who hand-wrings to the media about how violence will help Trump is him/herself helping Trump. You're feeding the storyline that violence is good for him, ie that voters will see him as "strong," and not as part of the problem, w/o doing a damn thing that's constructive.
Here's a better idea, hand-wringers. Draw more attention to the fact that a top strategist for Trump openly and explicitly declared that violence is "better" for him politically, and to the fact that Trump is a *total failure* on safety and law and order.
Some folks responded to this by asking for video of Trump's adviser saying violence is better for him, so here it is:
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