After Donald Trump’s indictment on 37 federal charges, U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., posted a cryptic tweet: “President Trump said he has ‘been summoned to appear at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Tuesday, at 3 PM.’ This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. Hold. rPOTUS has this. Buckle up. 1/50K know your bridges. Rock steady calm. That is all.”
That June 8 tweet confused many journalists and observers unfamiliar with the language he used.
But Jeff Sharlet, a bestselling author and expert on right-wing militias, explained the meaning and called the Congressman’s communication “deep scary.”
He replied: “1/50 k refers to military scale maps and publicly available U.S. Geological Survey maps of areas mostly surrounding military installations. This isn’t a metaphor. This isn’t slow civil war. This is a congressman calling for the real thing.”
Sharlet added more interpretation: “Prepare for war. ‘Know your bridges’ is militia speak for closing them down. County level insurrection.”
The tag “rPOTUS” apparently means “real POTUS” in the vernacular of right-wing militias and Trump allies.
Former U.S. Rep. Tom Malinkowski, D-N.J., called Higgins “dangerous” and “unhinged” after the tweet. “Most of this guy’s House GOP colleagues know he’s dangerous and unhinged. But they tolerate him. That is all.”
Unhinged history
The question for the rest of the nation, and in this case, specifically the 3rd Congressional District in Louisiana, is how long unhinged and dangerous people will be elected to office. There’s plenty of room for conservative and liberal points of view, but surreptitious calls for civil war go beyond the pale. A nation that tolerates unhinged politicians flirts with democratic disaster.
“There’s plenty of room for conservative and liberal points of view, but surreptitious calls for civil war go beyond the pale.”
And it is not as if this is a first-time, out-of-the-blue exception. Higgins has made other such outlandish posts in the past.
For example: “America is being manipulated into a new era of government control. Your liberty is being threatened from within. Welcome to the front lines, Ladies and Gentlemen. I suggest you get your mind right. I’ll advise when it’s time to gear up, mount up, and roll out.”
In response to protests of the police shooting death of Trayford Pellerin, in Lafayette, La., Higgins said on Facebook he would “drop 10 of you where you stand.”
In 2004, Higgins worked as a patrol officer for the Opelousas City Police Department. By 2007, Police Chief Perry Gallow, in a letter to the city council, wrote, “Clay Higgins used unnecessary force on a subject during the execution of a warrant and later gave false statements during an internal investigation … although he later recanted his story and admitted to striking a suspect in handcuffs and later releasing him.”
Higgins resigned before disciplinary action could be imposed. Yet he later was elected to Congress.
As the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office public information officer, Higgins made videos for the parish Crime Stoppers program. He deviated from the standard scripts to improvise in his own style, “appealing to suspects to surrender and sometimes threatening them by name.” He later was described by national media as the “Cajun John Wayne” because of his intimidating persona on the videos.
St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz had warned Higgins about his performance, saying he used disrespectful and demeaning language about suspects and was guilty of “a growing undertone of insubordination and lack of discipline.”
Once again, Higgins resigned before disciplinary action could be taken. Yet he later was elected to Congress.
Thus, the Congressman’s recent use of military language and his call for civil war didn’t appear out of the blue. His documented history shows he has been of this mindset his entire adult life.
He’s not the only one
Sadly, he’s not alone.
Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, said after Trump faced impeachment: “And I do want to make this prediction this morning: If the Democrats are successful in removing the president from office, I’m afraid it will cause a civil war-like fracture in this nation from which this country will never heal.”
Kari Lake, second place finisher in the 2020 Arizona governor’s race, recently said: “If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me and 75 million Americans just like me. And most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat, that’s a public service announcement.”
“If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me and 75 million Americans just like me.”
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., polled her 448,300 Twitter followers on whether they thought America should “have a national divorce.” She offered them three answers: “Yes, by R & D states”; “No, stay together;” and “Undecided.” Greene herself called for a “national divorce.”
In Northwest Wisconsin, the chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party was forced to resign after refusing for a week after the January 6 insurrection to remove an online post urging followers to “prepare for war.”
The incoming chairwoman of the Michigan GOP and her husband, a state lawmaker, have joined a conservative social media site created after the Capitol riot where the possibility of civil war is a topic.
Phil Reynolds, a member of the GOP central committee in California’s Santa Clara County, appeared to urge insurrectionists on social media during the January 6 attack, declaring on Facebook: “The war has begun. Citizens take arms! Drumroll please …. Civil War or No Civil War?”
Randy Voepel, a state assemblyman in California, backtracked after referencing an earlier war — the American Revolution — in a Jan. 9 San Diego Union-Tribune article: “This is Lexington and Concord. First shots fired against tyranny. Tyranny will follow in the aftermath of the Biden swear in on January 20th.”
Politicians, at least somewhat aware of the incendiary nature of calling for civil war, usually engage in the rhetorical strategy of paralipsis (“I’m not saying; I’m just saying”). Higgins has shown no inclination to equivocate on his call for combat.
Not the usual suspects
Don’t confuse these elected officials and preachers with Lost Cause advocates draped in Confederate flags. This is not the usual ranting of anti-government hate groups.
“In their eyes, they are reasonable, sober, honorable citizens acting on behalf of the good of the nation.”
We are dealing with people who will insist that even Jesus said he didn’t come to bring peace but a sword. The people using this rhetoric are losing all restraint. They have decided they are so righteous they no longer have to tolerate this age. They believe they have the freedom and the conviction to act on the threat of a civil war. In their eyes, they are reasonable, sober, honorable citizens acting on behalf of the good of the nation.
They believe a civil war would usher in a new age.
When politicians and preachers become unreliable narrators, mumbling about civil war, we should know we have a problem. Yet credibility seems not to matter much these days. Somehow a twice-impeached, twice-indicted former president lacking credibility remains the most likely Republican nominee for president in 2024.
Higgins may only be the tip of the iceberg, and we may be the Titanic.
America doesn’t need a civil war; we need civil servants who understand civility is still a virtue in working out our disagreements. We need elected officials with high moral character and credibility who are reliable narrators of democracy.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 10 books, including his latest, Good and Evil in the Garden of Democracy.