Former president Donald Trump has chosen the first stop on his reelection tour: Waco, Texas, where religious cult leader and anti-government extremist David Koresh led an infamous clash with federal law enforcement in 1993.
Trump and the Branch Davidians, now that is indeed an odd coupling.
“Waco is hugely symbolic on the far right,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told USA Today. “There’s not really another place in the U.S. that you could pick that would tap into these deep veins of anti-government hatred—Christian nationalist skepticism of the government—and I find it hard to believe that Trump doesn’t know that Waco represents all of these things.”
Oh, he has people telling him this kind of stuff. He shows little independent evidence of having a mind for the symbolism of places. If he did, he would have stood in that rain shower in France.
So we’ve gone from Reagan in the 1980 campaign giving a “state’s rights!” speech in the same place that civil rights workers were killed in the 1960s by white supremacists to Trump giving a speech in a place that symbolizes the right wing fringe fight against the government. That’s not really progress, in fact the call to white supremacists to take down the government is even stronger, and the racism even more blatant.
And Trump is the front runner for the campaign…any Republican who gets nominated is going to have to sink to these kinds of depths in order to win, and then we’ll just have to see if they can fool enough Americans into thinking that white supremacy is better than a presidency that’s producing jobs and a relatively strong economy. It’s really sad that we can’t say the election is in the bag for Biden against the obscenity of what the Republicans are going to use as the basis of their campaign.
“Trump has chosen the first stop on his reelection tour: Waco, Texas…”
Totally not a cult.
(“Come for the rally; stay for the Flavor Aid!”)
Yeah, the parallels are pretty stark. You beat me to the punch, but I was going to post:
““It is undisputed that [Philadelphia] Mississippi is Reagan Country…”
Kinda stupid to stage a rally in a city with two residents far more rich, famous and powerful than you are.
Damn it! Came to make the insightful 1980 remark, stayed for the camaraderie.
Dog-whistling retributory militia violence.
Waco, where all politics is yokel!
Even Republicans were concerned about the incendiary language and publicly urged that protests remain peaceful and calm.
The Wacko in Waco Tour 2023
Vernon Howell, AKA David Koresh, had multiple wives, so did TFG.
David Koresh used religion to intimidate, manipulate, and to generally abuse, so did TFG.
David Koresh’s cult following led to unfavorable outcomes for the adherents.
TFG’s followers will find the same result. It’s so Wac(k)o!
I know this goes without saying but Trump is such a coward. He’ll only campaign in the reddest of red districts where he feels safe from protesters and is sure everyone loves him. At least Biden won’t be afraid to campaign in a swing district.
They had a lot of .50 cal Barretts. Dangerous.
Who are they?
Next stops, Ruby Ridge ID, Kenosha, WI then Stone Mountain GA!
Why rile up only a portion of the domestic terrorists when you can activate ALL of them!
It will be wild!
Joanna and Chip Gaines who flipped houses, turned into a TV show, now have their own network, and a business mecca for their fans in Waco.
