Trump: Clinton's bodyguards should be disarmed; let's see what happens to her

[GeorgiaModerate]

From what am I supposed to defend myself? I have argued that guns need to be confiscated and banned, except for in tightly regulated and highly limited situations (such as farmers and licensed hunters). In that context, from what am I defending myself? A man with a knife or a baseball bat? Then the answer is a knife, a baseball bat, my hands, or some other object or, ideally, the police. But, again, if we focused on de-emphasizing and de-glorifying violence, along with actually tackling poverty, then the threat of violence would not be so widespread. I'm not saying it's a simple process, but it is the only legitimate process.

In a hypothetical situation where all guns were banned, this might or might not be true.  But whether or not it's true, and whether or not it's even desirable (and I don't want to get into that discussion, which is really a separate question, or maybe two questions) -- you CAN'T get there.  There are too many guns already in circulation in this country, and no confiscation or ban could be anywhere approaching 100% effective.  That genie is out of the bottle, and it's not going back in again.  So it's rather pointless to speculate about banning guns, other than as an intellectual exercise.

The most effective course is to accept reality and try to come up with the best policies in view of that reality.  It's literally impossible to completely end gun possession in the U.S.  Now that doesn't mean there can't be effective regulations, and IMO there certainly should be; having no restrictions on the weapons you could own is a recipe for disaster.  (To carry this to an absurd extreme: should private citizens be able to legally own a nuclear bomb? Of course not.)

(In case you haven't noticed, I have an aversion to extreme positions on either end of the spectrum.)

[GeorgiaModerate]

The ss should visit this bastard and arrest him. Trump is scum.

Arrest him for the high crime and misdemeanor of being mean to Queen Hillary?

It seems that both Trump and Clinton have a YUUUUUUGE cult of personality on the internet.

It's clear that Trump was implying that "if Clinton is so anti-gun, why does she have so many armed bodyguards?"

That's what he's implying, but she's not that anti-gun.

[GeorgiaModerate]

The ss should visit this bastard and arrest him. Trump is scum.

Arrest him for the high crime and misdemeanor of being mean to Queen Hillary?

It seems that both Trump and Clinton have a YUUUUUUGE cult of personality on the internet.

It's clear that Trump was implying that "if Clinton is so anti-gun, why does she have so many armed bodyguards?"

That's what he's implying, but she's not that anti-gun.

And he is not a racist; his supporters are not deplorables. So f**king what?

The first point is not a given, and as for the second: of course not all Trump supporters, or even most of them, are deplorable.  But a bunch of them demonstrably are.  For example, the ones who punched out a 69-year-old lady protesting at one of his rallies.  Or the ones who pepper-sprayed a 15-year-old protester at another rally.  And then there are the ones who yell out "hang her" at Trump rallies.  We don't even need to go into details about David Duke and the other white supremacists who support Trump, do we?

There used to be something called civility and respect for political differences in this country.  And no, the Democrats are not completely innocent in this respect; but the Trump supporters are far, FAR worse.  Nor would I ever say that most Republicans are guilty of this behavior.  You didn't see this kind of thing at rallies for Romney, McCain, or any other candidate I can remember (and that's going back over 50 years).  I'd be willing to offer long odds that you wouldn't see it at Rubio or Kasich rallies if they had won the nomination.  Nor, I suspect, would they have tolerated it, let alone encouraged it as Trump does.

Trump is the problem.  He's a horrible person and encourages horrible behavior in others.  God knows I'm no fan of Hillary Clinton, but her negatives pale in comparison to Trump's, and at least she'll probably be a reasonably effective President if she wins.  If Trump wins, I truly fear for the future of this country, and that's not hyperbole; he's spectacularly, dangerously unfit to be President.  I've batted about .500 in Presidential elections, but I've always had the feeling that if my candidate lost, the country would still be OK.  Not this time.