Incredibly Incendiary Comment from Mike Huckabee

“If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.” -Mike Huckabee (9/2/2023)

Speaking during his show on Trinity Broadcasting Network, the evangelical network that beams out to the masses,  here is what Mike Huckabee said in response to his own question, “Do you know how political opponents to those in power are dealt with in Third World dictatorships, banana republics and communist regimes?”

“The people in power use their police agencies to arrest their opponents for made up crimes in an attempt to discredit them, bankrupt them, imprison them, exile them, or all of the above. And if you’re not paying attention, you may not realize that Joe Biden is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024.

“Here’s the problem: If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.” [emphasis added]

First, that last sentence is an irresponsible and dangerous conclusion in a volatile political atmosphere after the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the nation’s capitol when MAGA Trump supporters vandalized the building and endangered Congressional representatives and staff. They called for Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged.

Second, Huckabee is wrong (and I always gave him more credit at being smarter than that). Joe Biden is not “using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024.” He’s out there governing, helping make life better for regular Americans with bipartisan leadership, working to pass bipartisan measures to help all Americans … unlike Republicans who don’t know how to govern but, instead, are too busy with investigations into any- and everything that is Democratic.

Unlike Republicans who are following a morally jeopardized man who is up to his eyeballs in corruption allegations with 94 criminal charges in four states because he refused to believe the results of the 2020 presidential election. He is also a morally corrupt man because he and his lieutenants convinced millions of Americans to believe their election lie. He has broken presidential protocol and traditions, and basically ignored a global pandemic that left 1.1 million Americans dead.

Ole Mike has a problem with the facts but he also has a problem recognizing what should not be said to prevent dangerous encouragement to those unhinged in the shadows of the GOP.

Sometimes I wonder if they – they being MAGAs and fringe elements – want violence against their fellow Americans … and that’s something that cannot be encouraged.

Looking back on my Fox News days that ended over a decade ago, conservative media always relied on fear and paranoia to manipulate the audience, something I didn’t realize at the time. I particularly remember Glenn Beck and his constant “sky is falling” faux warnings that made me quit listening to him all those years ago because there was a new paranoia trotted out on an almost daily basis.

I prefer the positive messages of Ronald Reagan’s shining city on a hill, and George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism, inclusiveness, and bipartisan leadership. Issues like national security and fiscal responsibility. Bipartisan governing to do what’s best for the American people, not what’s best for a single political party or an individual person.

The constant paranoia and fear may keep MAGAs in line but it has caused the rest of us to become jaded to the constant outrages, almost like a white noise to numb us to the news.

We cannot become numb. Do not become numb.

Pay attention to such comments from Huckabee and others. Remember Charlottesville in 2017 and Trump’s “there are good people on both sides” comment that signaled a green light to the far right? Look what followed.

Stay aware. Work like the dickens to be sure Donald J. Trump never again gets anywhere near the White House.

And most of all … remember that the bottom line is we are all Americans.