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

[Wells]

I don't know what he's saying, but I do know that the only people capable of doing anything to stop Clinton are Second Amendment People.

[Wells]

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.

This is what I've been saying for a while. I do think that extreme rhetoric on both sides was where we were headed eventually, but Trump has sped up the process immensely. It's very clear that the key to success in modern Republican primaries is harsh cultural and racial rhetoric, which is very disappointing. If Republicans had any sense, they would have buried Trump's candidacy alive and try again in 2020, but they care more about winning elections than the country. (If only Kasich and Collins could rebuild the Republican Party.) Trump is having a dangerous impact on this country without even winning, too. Future candidates will try to recreate his success for who knows how many more elections, the Alt-Right has grown their following and may even be able to vote in the next election, and there have been actual hate crimes inspired by his movement. Trump's candidacy is a malicious tumor on america, and the one treatment has a 55% disapproval rating.

Basically, either way, on November 9 we'll know whether America is going to survive or not.

[Wells]

Politicians have no more right to security than anyone else. If it is a good idea for them to protect themselves with guns, the everyone has the right. President, president-elect, and party nominee are not positions above citizen.

Of course politicians are in "positions above citizens."
We specifically elect them, and want them, to be in "positions above citizens."
You know ..... we have them debate and create laws which ordinary citizens do not do.
We allow them to make decisions in our courts (judges, justices) that ordinary citizens do not do.
We give them the authority to travel to other nations, and to discuss treaties, trade, allegiances and war ... things that ordinary citizens do not do.
So stop pretending that these people don't require more protection than you and me, because they do.
No one should be offended (or surprised) by the fact that their life IS more important than yours and mine.

That's not how republics work. Everyone is equal. They are elected to serve not rule.

But they are still part of the government, which makes them bigger targets for assassination. There are a lot of people I've seen online who either want Trump or Hillary dead. (They're probably joking, but Trump and Clinton's powerful status makes them targets for assassination.) Now how many people want you to die? You and I really don't need any bodyguards but celebrities, politicians, and icons do because it they get killed it will have a bigger impact than normal people.

[Wells]

Politicians do need bodyguards more than the rest of us. Say that there's a president and vice president who agree on everything except trade and abortion. Now there are some people who will badly want to assassinate the president, and a successful assassination could change a few of the major decisions (even possibly SCOTUS picks) that would be made during those four to eight years. Or if there was an important Supreme Court decision about to be made and one of the judges gets assassinated and instead of a 5-4 ruling striking down the lower court's decision, it became a 4-4 ruling which would uphold the lower court's ruling by default. Meanwhile, average inner city citizens getting shot wouldn't have the same drastic effect.