Sectarian Violence: The Trump Caravans Signal a New Stage in the American Crisis

In the wake of the shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the American Right quickly and shockingly closed ranks around the vigilante, weaving a narrative that extralegal, paramilitary violence had become a necessity in a time of protest. After years of escalation, signaling, and fearmongering, it was the natural evolution. We have, unfortunately, been on this track for decades, if not generations, now. The Right has radicalized white Americans and warned them their political rivals are both corrupt and possibly violent, creating a powderkeg that was destined to blow.

This weekend, things took a new turn as so-called “Trump Caravans” of supporters organized and rolled into cities like Portland and Los Angeles, the participants primed for violence. Some shot paintballs and threw things at protesters. Others outfitted their massive diesel trucks with pepper spray-delivery attachments. It was an obvious escalation and hints at something much, much larger to come.

Though Americans are in deep, deep denial about the potential for this to escalate, we have seen in this country around the world a tendency for sectarian violence. Of course, the Civil War is the glaring example, but bloody violence roared across the state of Kansas prior to that conflict. And in one failing state after another, groups of men, armed to the teeth, carrying flags and markers of their affiliation, have brazenly and aggressively entered the territory of their “enemies” and slaughtered with little regard.

This may sound foreign. It may sound outlandish. But we are watching the beginnings of a sectarian violence the likes of which we have not seen in this country for centuries. In the recent past, the Right has pushed its followers to the point of violence, but leaders in the party have shied away from promoting widespread aggression. Donald Trump has not and will not pause to use any means to maintain his hold on power.

With his opponents he has continually accused them of being enemies of the people and engaged in a war on rights, liberties, and religion, a claim that, if believed by his supporters, would necessitate preemptive violence, a key to this type of conflict. Similarly, Trump has, at all times, shown a completely disregard for the wellbeing and lives of anyone who does not support him. In the pandemic, he allowed thousands upon thousands to die because they weren’t “our people”, a stunning, yet telling, worldview that previews what may be to come.

Hopefully this will all be a blip on our history, a moment of shame that we might look at in the future and shake our heads at as we wonder at what might have happened had the better angels of our nature not prevailed. Perhaps the Trump Era will constitute such a blip and will be what forces to back away from the abyss in horror and abject shame.

Muckrake EIC Jared Yates Sexton’s weekly Bourbon Talk Q&A for August 30th, 2020 touched on the violence in Portland and Kenosha and the rise of sectarian, fascistic violence.

But there is also the potential for this to be the opening of something larger and much more sinister. The Right, drowning in the muck of Trumpism, white supremacy, and growing fascism, has shown a capability to become something much worse. Their lack of concern for “the other,” or anyone they see as outside of their group, not to mention their willingness to accept murderous violence as “necessary” and “a defense against perceived future aggression” is a toxic cocktail that could lead to unfathomable suffering. It has happened here before. It has happened around the world. The pieces are in place, unfortunately, and until we recognize the potential for this entire situation to rage out of control, we will not sufficiently deal with it or mount the the necessary campaign to prevent it.

We cannot hide behind the myth of American Exceptionalism any longer. We must see this for what it is. A deadly, growing threat to all of us. A poisonous ledge which we must retreat from as quickly as humanly possible.

Jared Yates Sexton is the author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed its People, available for pre-order from Dutton/Penguin-Random House. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Politico, and elsewhere. He currently serves as an associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University and is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast. You can support his work and The Muckrake by becoming a patron on Patreon.