A few comments on lynching

From Merriam-Webster:

lynch: to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal approval or permission

An example from the same page:

The mob, which was out to avenge the killing of two white law enforcement officers, would lynch at least three black males, including a 13-year-old, and leave the Carswell Grove Baptist Church in an ashy heap.

Now, what you'll notice in the definition is that it's not racially conditioned. It doesn't apply exclusively to African-Americans. But you'd have to be a fool, an utter racist, or (most likely) both, to not recognize that the act of lynching in the United States was meted out primarily to its black citizens, as a means of control over the black population.

Today, Donald Trump tweeted out in diarrheal fashion that the constitutional, legally-prescribed act of impeachment was, in fact, a lynching, a mob action without legal approval. He's evil and a moron, so you can expect nothing else from him.

But look at this defense from his lickspittle, Senator Lindsey Graham:

Graham just angrily doubled down on agreeing this is a political “lynching”

“What’s happened to your profession?” he scolds reporters

“It’s not just racial my friends. No. I’m from South Carolina I understand it very well. Mob rule is what lynching is all about”

— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) October 22, 2019

Ah yes, Mr. Graham. You're from South Carolina, and you understand it very well.

What you should understand is that the lynching of black bodies was a white communal affair. White parents would take their young white children to view the murder, bringing along a picnic lunch and fortified drink. It was a festive atmosphere, full of fun and frolic. It was a reminder to everyone involved who held the power—such a power that a murder would go unprosecuted and unavenged, because the watchmen supported the action.

I expect nothing better out of a fetid ignoramus like Donald Trump. He literally tried to lead a lynching of five black and Latino youth for a crime which it would turn out they didn't commit.

But he would have no power were it not for toadies like Graham, who felch him both out of fear but more so out of a love of power. They know their time is near an end. Despite their best efforts, white America will soon not be the dominant part of the commonwealth. And for a few more fleeting moments of power, they will break any norm, subvert any law, traduce any tradition. They, in error, think they can maintain their power through fear and violence. They will instead find their own quietus.

We should not be surprised that fascists like Lindsey Graham openly mock some of this nation's darkest moments. It's what cornered, dying animals do. Finish them off.

(To learn more, please visit The Legacy Museum. It's the history people like Graham sully.)