(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Brother Flynn's Traveling Salvation Show, the Nightmare ReAwakening Hate... [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-28 “Pack up the babies, grab the old ladies...” Move over, Brother Love, here come Michael Flynn’s evangelical ReWakening America Tour. And the word is out, in tents the shape of Klan hoods, the gospel message is pure hatred— fire and brimstone for the libs: “Let’s be clear. Accountability is God’s job. But it’s not solely God’s job. No, it’s our job too,” Peters said. “When [Fauci] is convicted after a short and fast but thorough trial, he will hang up from a length of thick rope until he is dead. ... When [Hunter Biden] is convicted ... he will get ... death! ….In the world that we are going to build, traitors will hang.” — Stew Peters, far right radio personality and ReAwakener Can they say that? Free speech in America is hardly “free” as the quote above suggests. Someone has to pay a price. The outlandish claims, grotesque iconography of the Trump family as celestial beings, and the hate-filled apocalyptic prayers are all hallmarks of the Michael Flynn traveling circus known as the ReAwaken America Tour. The tour has stops in many red-state hotspots, some in small rural haunts that are the repositories of the dwindling MAGA base. The attendees are whipped into a frenzy by tour-featured speakers from the criminal former president’s underlings: “We know the one in charge up above, and I can tell you that I believe that he has his hand now on Donald Trump, that no weapon formed against him shall prosper, ...“God is a part of this race. I’m telling you guys this. I feel it deep down inside.” — Lara Trump “Just as Jesus Christ our heavenly father saved me, I am absolutely convinced that he will deliver Donald Trump and save this nation in our greatest moment of peril...”— Roger Stone and, “If we don’t wake up and we don’t reset, it will also be the beginning of the end of everything that we know,” — Donald Trump, Jr., Keynote speaker The victims of MAGA hatred pay dearly for their free speech, preaching violence while invoking the almighty amounts to blasphemy in better tents, in pews and benches that seat real god-fearing folk. ATTENDEES pray at the ReAwaken America Tour near Las Vegas. The church revival had an apocalyptic drumbeat: that the country will be destroyed if Donald Trump doesn’t become president again. (Wally Skalij Los Angeles Times) As they listened to the speakers, ReAwaken participants fanned themselves with handwritten prophecy screeds claiming that the end of the world is near. Sweat trickled from their hairlines. — LATimes, “At this religious roadshow, Trump’s the ‘anointed one’,” aby Sarah D. Wire, October 24, 2023 The Brandenburg Test The tour’s intent is clearly as a recruitment tool for lone wolves and protest fodder in the Trump name for a cause that serves no one but himself. The fevered charge sent through the crowds at these rallies is designed to rationalize the violence and deaden the minds of followers toward perceived enemies— not all of whom are “the libs” and prominent Democrats, because “RINOs”, immigrants, and non-Christians are equally disparaged. Like all things Trump, the messianic message to his “faithful” is always couched in the mundane. In an LA Times article by Sarah D. Wire that chronicles the Las Vegas stop on the tour, the merchandise is as vital as the demagoguery: Attendees could also browse through merchandise booths in a rambling bazaar, where T-shirts, dietary supplements, water purification systems, handwritten manifestos, art and fitness equipment were available for purchase. A company called Redemption Shield vowed its products would protect users from 5G cellular frequency bands. Dr. Stella Immanuel, a proponent of the theory — heavily criticized by public health authorities — that the drug hydroxychloroquine cures COVID-19, manned a booth selling her supplements. Children’s books about Trump and the so-called deep state written by Patel were prominently displayed .Lindell greeted buyers at the MyPillow booth after his speech, which included a plea for donations to his legal defense fund. — LATimes, “At this religious roadshow, Trump’s the ‘anointed one’,” by Sarah D. Wire, October 24, 2023 An Atlantic article written by Garrett Epps in 2014 argues the point, A system that tolerates "hate speech" is probably superior to the alternatives, but defenders of an absolute right can't pretend no one gets hurt. — The Atlantic, “Free Speech Isn’t Free” by Garrett Epps, February 7, 2014 In the pre-Trump era, Epps's concern, while pertinent for that time, takes on new significance today. We are no longer talking about a societal choice to protect speech that is offensive or even hateful as a consequence of maintaining an unfiltered public forum. What has evolved is the consequence of speech specifically meant to promote violence. We have experienced the results of what is recognized in law as the crime of incitement Inciting others to target individuals or groups for the sake of harming them has been determined by the courts to be not protected under the First Amendment. That principle was held in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969) in which Clarence Brandenburg, A Ku Klux Klan leader in rural Ohio had his conviction by Ohio courts overturned despite his words at a rally of Klansmen held despicable views and advocates for harm to Blacks and Jews: "This is an organizers' meeting. We have had quite a few members here today which are-we have hundreds, hundreds of members throughout the State of Ohio. I can quote from a newspaper clipping from the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch, five weeks ago Sunday morning. The Klan has more members in the State of Ohio than does any other organization. We're not a revengent (sic) organization, but if our President, our Congress, our Supreme Court, continues to suppress the white, Caucasian race, it's possible that there might have to be some revengeance (sic) taken. "We are marching on Congress July the Fourth, four hundred thousand strong.” — Clarence Brandenburg, as taken from per curiam decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio While Brandenburg’s conviction was overturned, the Court established a three-part “Brandenburg Test” to help determine when speech crossed the line into incitement which is unprotected. The test also known as the “imminent lawless action” test could be applied to distinguish speech that was odious from that which was dangerous. The three-legged test cited speech for which the speaker had a specific intent, demonstrated an imminence of lawlessness, and produced an expectation of lawless behavior. The Brandenburg Test, then, was a procedural framework for distinguishing speech that could be deemed inflammatory from that which incited lawless behavior in others. The classic limitation on the power of the First Amendment to protect speech comes from Justice Holmes’ “clear and present danger” argument in the 1919 Schenck v. United States in which Holmes rejected the First Amendment protections for some speech in specific circumstances: "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic… The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree." — Justice Holmes, Schenck v. United States Brandenburg essentially muted Holmes’ argument because Schenck was decided during a time of a declared war which was the crisis defining the “clear and present danger” barometer used by Holmes. The danger Holmes foresaw was sedition. Incitement to Violence In the case being made by Jack Smith against Donald Trump for his actions leading up to and including his rant to the gathered mob on January 6, incitement is at the core and sedition is the point. The speech is an almost textbook recital of incitement that passes Brandenburg's requirements for intent, the imminence of lawlessness, and the resultant disorder that placed Trump in Jack Smith’s crosshairs. As he directed the mob to attack the Capitol that day, Trump was in essence creating a clear and present danger-— he was, in effect yelling fire in a crowded theater. A LIFE-SIZE painting at the far-right religious conference shows the former president, with his sons in the background. (Wally Skalij Los Angeles Times) The speech exhibited at the Las Vegas ReAwaken America tour stop skirts the limits of protected speech. The calls for harm to Dr. Fauci and Hunter Biden are probably a skosh or two short of passing the Brandenburg Test, but the incitement to violence was clear and even more pointed than Trump’s rambling tirade promoting a coup. The former president can hardly be called a linguist, yet his words have changed the direction of our nation even though the ideas he espouses are derivative of the fascists of previous eras. His singular addition to their depravity might be the dearth of personal agency in his movement. His reliance on the willingness of others to act on his behalf and his ability to insulate his intent using non-verbal cues— like a mob boss-- may someday be considered his unique contribution to the annals of tyranny. Better despots demonstrated a modicum of competence (Mussolini and the train schedules, Caesar and the Roman calendar e.g.) Trump’s accomplishments have mostly been the product of inherited wealth and the renewed wealth earned at the vast wasteland of reality TV hosting. Like all despots, his end is both predictable and awaited not only by his opposition but perhaps even more by those closest to him. Trump famously covets the power and riches of modern-day tyrants like Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Xi Jinping. When America truly awakens and their coopted biblical prophecies finally come to pass, Donald Trump and his acolytes will be lucky to escape the personal apocalypses of tyrants past. History often treats the fall of tyrants as good news. Dying Words Shakespeare’s reputation was built in part on his telling of the demise of tyrants. Were he to come across a history of our time, he would likely take a pass on the narcissistic bully with rare powers to manipulate others. We love to hate Macbeth. We wish that Hamlet would make up his mind— that Othello would get a grip. Their tragedy lies in their fall from grace. Their flaws make them more human-- their sins, more relatable. History will record Trump’s passing with a note of relief. His flaw was that he lacked character, and was devoid of grace. Given his ability to spread deviance and subvert others, bringing slightly better men down to his level, Trump was never “better” before. And so, he suffers in comparison to Shakespeare’s flawed villains, for him, the crimes are venal. He will always be among the universe’s lesser villains— in the end, a loser who, when gone, will not be missed. “The rest”, as they say, “is silence.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/28/2201295/-Brother-Flynn-s-Traveling-Salvation-Show-the-Nightmare-ReAwakening-Hate?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/