When the fear and loathing on the campaign trail is real

This week, a woman named Michelle Fields, covering the Trump presidential campaign for the conservative Breitbart news empire, told of a disturbing incident that occurred when she tried to ask The Donald a question as he strolled out of his primary victory party on Tuesday. She'd barely uttered her query when someone -- witnesses said it was Trump's top aide, Corey Lewandowski -- grabbed her arm hard enough to bruise her, and wrenched her away, toward the ground. Audio of the event backs up her account.

While this case was being litigated on social media, news emerged that a 78-year-old man named John McGraw had been arrested for assault and battery because he'd sucker-punched a black protester who was being escorted from a Trump rally on Wednesday in Fayetteville, North Carolina -- an act of violence that was captured on video. "Yes, he deserved it," McGraw told Inside Edition. "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don't know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization."

As another 2016 candidate once said, enough is enough! The violence that oozes from the Trump campaign has gone well beyond coincidence. What gives? The Atlantic had a good analysis today:

The police seem eager to remove even protestors whose presence is barely registering. Many of them are silent and out of the way; Trump and his security could easily just ignore them. But the extractions seem to serve the interests of all involved. Since posturing, rather than policy, is the point of Trump's stump speech, he doesn't mind turning his attention to protestors. The baying crowds love the chance to boo, and to chant "U-S-A!" as they're taken out. The protestors want the attention. The press wants the photos.

But the violent undercurrent is palpable:

But the uncomfortable racial dynamic was on display as I chatted with Bell [a Trump supporter, who is black]. Outside the arena, a large group of protestors had gathered—mostly young, and largely black—holding anti-Trump signs. As attendees, mostly white, streamed out of the rally, they gathered around the protestors, with a mix of curiosity and menace. Some looked like they just wanted to take a look, while others shouted at the demonstrators or chanted. I ran into Donovan Williams, the young man in the "IDK NOT TRUMP THO" shirt who'd been ejected earlier. What had happened? He said they'd just tossed him out, though he complained police had twisted his arm painfully and that he'd done nothing wrong. As he watched, a couple children taunted him with Trump signs. He snatched the sign from the hand of a teenage boy and ripped it apart. Suddenly, the boy's mother and another woman jumped in. It looked like a fistfight was about to break out, but a Fayetteville cop quickly intervened and sent the women away.

"I wanted to see what this is about," Williams said. "They showed me exactly what this is about." Then he walked back into the fray.

It's impossible to not think of the phrase "fear and loathing," and of all the conversations I have would people who wish that circa-1972 Hunter Thompson could be reanimated to cover this campaign. HST wouldn't have feared for himself (heck, he'd probably be starting some of the fights) but I think the man who tried to warn us about Nixon and his goons would be very afraid for his country.