Scottie Nell Hughes thinks that riots “aren’t necessarily a bad thing.”

Besides being a rabid Tea Partier, and a darling of right-wingnut television and talk radio, her credentials for making this pronouncement also include, according to her, being the granddaughter of one of the men who organized the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  You know – the one where the whole world was watching.  Also according to her, if her granddad were still with us, he’d be proud of the fact that she’s supporting Donald Trump.

Maybe he would, and maybe he wouldn’t.  We’ll have to take Scottie Nell Hughes’ word for it, since granddad isn’t around to verify or dispute her contention.  If true, then when it comes to apples not falling far from their trees, I guess she’s the exception that proves the rule.

The interview took place on CNN yesterday (Wednesday, 16 March 2016), while Ms. Hughes was being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer.  When Mr. Blitzer expressed surprise at her comment, she elaborated (all quotes below are from articles on CNN.com and TheBlaze.com; the italics are mine):

“ ‘It’s not riots as in a negative thing,’ Hughes said.  ‘What we’ve seen — it’s the fact that you have a large amount of people that will be very unhappy.  I don’t sit there and think they’d resort to — in fact, I know they would not resort to violence.  I know they would not do it.  However, they would make sure their voices are heard.  That they can’t be ignored.’”

Mr. Blitzer asked her if she really wants riots to emerge from the Republican convention in Cleveland.

“‘I don’t consider riots to be a violent thing,’ Hughes said. ‘I consider it to be something where you have the majority of the people will be engaged and will be paying attention to what is going on.’ ”

I for one am deeply reassured that she is certain no violence would take place during these non-negative riots.  And it’s certainly true that, in a riot, the people are engaged – in throwing rocks, looting, setting fires, et cetera.  Whether they’re paying attention to what’s going on is another matter.

Be honest with me (and yourself):  Have you ever seen a positive riot?  What would that look like?  Girl Scouts fending off out-of-control cookie buyers by swatting them with their little green sashes?  Hare Krishnas driving the Tea Party Republicans from the land, à la St. Patrick and the snakes, with their cymbals and their incense and their flowers?  Because I have to say, there was nothing positive about the confrontations at the cancelled Trump rally in Chicago the other day.  Or the African-American man who got punched in the stomach by a Trump supporter at another rally.

The CNN interview and Ms. Hughes’ comments came in the aftermath of some things The Donald had said earlier in the day.  He was speaking about the possibility of a brokered (read, contested) Republican National Convention.  He said that by the time the convention was convened, if he had more delegates than the other remaining candidates, and if he did not then get the nomination, “‘I think you’d have riots.  I think you’d have riots,’ Trump said Wednesday on CNN’s ‘New Day.’  ‘I’m representing a tremendous many, many millions of people.’”

Yes he is:  millions and millions of angry, fearful, aging white people.

Oh sure, there are others who support The Donald.  A group of Muslims have put up a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Muslims-for-Trump-1676586042564566/).  They’re using a hashtag of  #‎makeamericagreatagaininshallah.  Seriously.  You cannot make up things like this.

Muslims for Trump (MfT) makes about as much sense as (and perhaps even less sense than) the Log Cabin Republicans.  Come on … the Republicans don’t love you, LGBTQIA people!  They don’t love Muslims, either.

Actually, there is an exception to that.  They love Muslims, LGBTQIAs, Latinos, African-Americans, and Socialists every four years, on the first Tuesday in November – but only if you vote for the Republican candidates.

One comment on the MfT Facebook page, from a woman of distinctly white European descent (I have omitted her photograph and name in the interest of protecting the stupid), reads, “I just want to say thank you to whoever started this page. Trump is the only candidate for 9-11 truth. Thousands of Muslims who were not responsible for 9-11 have been killed as a byproduct of this false war started by the globalist new world order.”

While the first part of her last sentence is true (“Thousands of Muslims …”), the latter part (“… globalist new world order.”) is not.  I think this sort of comment is attributable to one of three things:

1. Efforts by the American education system to teach critical thinking are an abject failure.
2. The Texas State Board of Education has too much influence over which text books American schools use (see #1 above).
3. It’s because of the fluoride in the drinking water!  (Fringe conservatives have been trying to warn us about this for decades, but did we listen?)

I am reminded now of a fake Time Magazine cover that came out just after George W. Bush was “elected” in November 2000 (yes, the quotes are on purpose, and if you were paying attention that year, you know why).  Here’s the cover:

Were The Donald to actually get elected to the presidency later this year (May Allāh Protect Us!), you could substitute his face for W’s and this would still be relevant.

Thomas Jefferson wrote that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”  Perhaps so, but he left us with no clear guidance as to how to tell the difference between the patriots and the tyrants.

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