阿拉巴马州伯明翰。在一群总统暴徒袭击美国国会大厦后，类似战争的画面开始在共和党圈子里蔓延唐纳德·特朗普一些民选官员和政党领导人拒绝了缓和呼吁第二次内战的言论的请求。
在威斯康星州西北部，圣克罗伊县共和党主席周五被迫辞职，此前他在被围困一周后拒绝删除一篇敦促追随者“备战”的在线帖子。即将上任的密歇根州共和党主席和她的丈夫，一名州议员，加入了一个保守的社交媒体网站，该网站是在国会大厦暴乱后创建的，内战的可能性是一个话题。
菲尔·雷诺兹(Phil Reynolds)是加利福尼亚州圣克拉拉县共和党中央委员会的成员，他在1月6日的袭击中似乎在社交媒体上敦促起义者，并在Facebook上宣布:“战争已经开始。市民拿起武器!请敲鼓…..内战还是不内战?”
这种高调模仿了极右翼极端分子和白人至上主义者多年来使用的语言，此前一年，一名白人警察杀害了黑人乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)，引发了内乱，这与系统性种族主义有关。一些左翼分子使用了类似的语言，共和党人将其比作倡导新的内战。
弗洛伊德事件后的示威活动促使政府和企业都进行了重新评估，导致南部邦联符号的移除和种族不敏感品牌的退休。
然后在1月6日，特朗普谎称自己赢得了2020年总统大选，这激起了示威者的愤怒选举将旧南方的象征带到了国会大厦的围攻中，在里面悬挂着邦联的旗帜，甚至在建筑外面竖起了一个带有绞索的木架。
民主党人表示，战争言论的增加不是偶然的。加利福尼亚州众议员玛克辛·沃特斯(Maxine Waters)表示，特朗普几年前就开始让他的支持者抱着开始冲锋的心态，并且“有能力发动内战”。
“自上任第一天起，这位总统已经花了四年时间滥用权力，撒谎，拥护独裁主义，并使他的支持者反对民主，”她在支持弹劾时说。“这种腐败毒害了他的支持者的思想，煽动他们自愿加入白人至上主义者、新纳粹分子和准军事极端分子的行列，包围美国国会大厦，这正是美国民主的所在地。”
现在和内战前有相似之处，包括一个易怒的民族选举内战历史学家协会的联合主席尼娜·西尔伯说，以亚伯拉罕·林肯(1860年)和乔·拜登(2020年)为首的总统以数百万人拒绝为非法胜利者而告终。
林肯赢得了选举团，但在一场四人制的竞选中，他只获得了大多数的选票。拜登以700万票的优势战胜特朗普，在选举团中以306票对232票决定性地击败了他。特朗普和他的盟友试图推翻结果的几十起诉讼都失败了，其中一些被特朗普自己提名的联邦法官驳回。当时的司法部长威廉·巴尔说，司法部找不到会改变选举结果的广泛欺诈的证据。
西尔伯说，虽然今天不存在像1861年内战开始时那样的地理分裂，也没有为全面冲突做好大规模准备，但白人的愤怒和怨恨助长了两个时代。
“在南北战争时期，这表现为南方白人对联邦政府干涉他们拥有黑奴的权利的想法感到愤怒。在波士顿大学任教的西尔伯在一次电子邮件采访中说:“今天，我认为这是白人的表现，他们认为黑人和棕色人种正在以牺牲自己的利益为代价获得收益或特殊待遇。”。
阿拉巴马大学退休历史学家乔治·拉伯(George Rable)说，就像几代人以前发生的那样，游击队正在用刺耳的语言和图像来定义另一方——不仅仅是他们不同意的政策，而是邪恶的。
“我认为，无论是当时还是现在，我们都需要担心过热的言论和情绪带来的意想不到的后果，”他说。“分离主义者当时几乎没有预料到这样一场血腥的内战，他们的对手经常低估许多州分离主义情绪的深度。”
州众议员蒂姆·巴特勒(Tim Butler)是斯普林菲尔德的共和党人，他在州议会中代表着与林肯相同的地区，他在伊利诺伊州众议院发言时谴责了对国会大厦的袭击，并敦促更多的共和党人大声疾呼。
“如果你不站出来谴责这一点，不管你属于哪个政治派别，我都没有你的位置...，”巴特勒说。“这个城市最受欢迎的儿子在担任总统期间因内战而被谋杀。我可以告诉你，在我的任期内，我不会看到一场内战。”
问题是那些煽动战争言论的人是否能被党内更温和的分子所控制，或者他们是否会成为主导声音。
加利福尼亚州的州议员兰迪·沃佩尔(Randy Voepel)在1月9日圣地亚哥联合论坛报(San Diego Union-Tribune)的一篇文章中提到了早期的战争——美国独立战争，随后他收回了原话:“这是莱克星顿和康科德。反抗暴政的第一声枪响。1月20日拜登宣誓就职后，暴政将随之而来。”
三十多名退伍军人和官员呼吁将沃佩尔开除公职。自那以后，他修改了他的好战言论，谴责了国会大厦的“暴力和违法行为”，并呼吁治愈创伤。
另一名加州共和党人雷诺兹表示，他不打算辞去他在当地政党的职务。他告诉《旧金山纪事报》，他并没有试图用“战争已经开始”的言辞煽动暴力，只是简单地报道了他在电视上看到的情况:“我的声明是，这不可能发生。我在用我的话谴责它。这是断章取义，”他说。
民主党州议员罗达伦不同意。他呼吁雷诺兹辞职，告诉《纪事报》，这个他认识了20年的人是“一个真正温暖的人”，但被特朗普的“毒药和谎言”激怒了。
在密苏里州，共和党女主席让·埃文斯已经受够了这场战争。她在受到特朗普支持者的电话骚扰后辞职，其中一些人要求发动军事政变，“无论如何”让特朗普继续执政。
“现在有很多好的共和党人完全不同意正在发生的事情，”她告诉KMOX。“从我的角度来看，这非常可怕，非常不美国化，绝对不是我所信奉的保守党的一部分。”
威斯康星州共和党主席安德鲁·希特(Andrew Hitt)与圣克罗伊郡党(St. Croix County party)对抗，但没有取得初步成功，他认为宣战是一个“错误的措辞”，并敦促将其取消。
尽管他和民主党人以及一名共和党警长都提出了请求，但直到国会大厦袭击一周后，这一职位仍未撤销。该网站周三陷入黑暗，没有任何解释，县共和党主席约翰·卡夫特于周五辞职。他没有回复寻求置评的电话。
内战历史学家西尔伯说，她担心对国会大厦的袭击不是愤怒的特朗普支持者的最后一站。
她说:“我认为我们可以看到右翼民兵组织已经变得多么有组织，他们的武装有多么好，这就造成了一个极其爆炸性的局面。”。“我不知道这是否是技术意义上的‘战争’，但暴力袭击可能会持续一段时间。”
Some in the GOP parrot far-right talk of a coming civil war
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- War-like imagery has begun spreading in Republican circles after the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of PresidentDonald Trump's supporters, with some elected officials and party leaders rejecting pleas to tone down rhetoric calling for a second civil war.
In northwestern Wisconsin, the chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party was forced to resign Friday after refusing for a week after the siege 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 on insurrectionists on social media during the Jan. 6 attack, declaring on Facebook: “The war has begun. Citizens take arms! Drumroll please….. Civil War or No Civil War?”
The heightened rhetoric mimics language far-right extremists and white supremacists have used for years, and it follows a year of civil unrest over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer and its links to systemic racism. Some leftists have used similar language, which Republicans have likened to advocating a new civil war.
The post-Floyd demonstrations prompted governments and corporations alike to reevaluate, leading to the removal of Confederate symbols across the South and the retirement of racially insensitive brands.
Then on Jan. 6, demonstrators stoked by Trump's false claims that he won the 2020electionbrought symbols of the Old South to the siege of the Capitol, carrying Confederate flags inside and even erecting a wooden gallows with a noose outside the building.
Democrats say the uptick in war talk isn’t accidental. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Trump began putting his supporters in the frame of mind to make the opening charge years ago and is “capable of starting a civil war.”
“Since his first day in office, this president has spent four years abusing his power, lying, embracing authoritarianism (and) radicalizing his supporters against democracy,” she said in arguing for impeachment. “This corruption poisoned the minds of his supporters, inciting them to willingly join with white supremacists, neo-Nazis and paramilitary extremists in a siege of the United State Capitol building, the very seat of American democracy.”
There are parallels between now and the run-up to the Civil War, including a fractious nationalelectionthat ended with presidents — Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and Joe Biden in 2020 — who millions rejected as illegitimate victors, said Nina Silber, co-president of the Society of Civil War Historians.
Lincoln won the Electoral College but came away with only a plurality of the popular vote in a four-way race. Biden won the popular vote by 7 million over Trump and defeated him decisively in the Electoral College, 306 to 232. Dozens of lawsuits by Trump and his allies seeking to overturn the results failed, some of them turned away by federal judges Trump himself nominated. Then-Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department could find no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the election's outcome.
While the same geographic split doesn’t exist today as when the Civil War started in 1861 and there is no mass preparation for all-out conflict, Silber said white anger and resentment fueled both eras.
“At the time of the Civil War, this took the form of Southern white men angry at the idea that the federal government would interfere with their right to own Black slaves. Today, I think this takes the form of white people who believe that Black and brown people are making gains, or getting special treatment, at their expense,” Silber, who teaches at Boston University, said in an email interview.
Just as happened generations ago, partisans are using strident words and images to define the other side — not just for policies with which they disagree but as evil, said George Rable, a retired historian at the University of Alabama.
“I think both then and now, we need to worry about the unanticipated consequences of overheated rhetoric and emotions," he said. “Secessionists then hardly anticipated such a bloody civil war, and their opponents often underestimated the depth of secessionist sentiment in a number of states.”
State Rep. Tim Butler, a Springfield Republican who represents the same area as Lincoln did in the state legislature, condemned the attack on the Capitol during a speech on the Illinois House floor and urged more Republicans to speak up.
“If you’re not stepping up and denouncing this, no matter where you fall on the political spectrum, I don’t have a place for you ...,” Butler said. “The favorite son of this city was murdered because of a civil war as he was president. I’m not going to see a civil war on my watch, I can tell you that.”
The question is whether those stoking the war talk can be controlled by the more moderate elements within the party, or whether they will become the dominant voice.
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.”
More than three dozen veterans and officials have called for Voepel to be expelled from office. He has since revised his war-like rhetoric with a condemnation of the “violence and lawlessness” at the Capitol and a call for healing.
The other California Republican, Reynolds, said he has no plans to step down from his local party position. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wasn’t trying to incite violence with his “war has begun” rhetoric, but simply reporting what he saw on television: “My statement was that this can’t happen. I was condemning it with my words. It was taken out of context,” he said.
Democratic state Assemblyman Evan Low isn't buying it. He called for Reynolds’ resignation, telling the Chronicle that the man he has known for two decades was “a genuine and warm human being” but was radicalized by Trump’s “poison and lies.”
In Missouri, state GOP Chairwoman Jean Evans had enough of the war talk. She resigned after she was barraged by calls from Trump supporters, some of whom demanded a military coup to keep Trump in office “no matter what it takes."
“There’s a lot of good Republicans right now who totally disagree with what’s going on," she told KMOX. “It’s been very scary and frightening and un-American from my perspective, and definitely not part of the conservative party I embrace.”
Andrew Hitt, the Republican chairman in Wisconsin, faced off against the St. Croix County party without initial success, describing the call to war as an “ill chosen phrase” and urging its removal.
Despite his plea and those of Democrats and a Republican sheriff, the post remained defiantly in place until a week after the Capitol attack. The website went dark Wednesday without explanation, and the county GOP chairman, John Kraft, resigned on Friday. He did not return a call seeking comment.
Silber, the Civil War historian, said she is worried the attack on the Capitol wasn't the last stand for enraged Trump supporters.
“I think we can see how well-organized right-wing militia groups have become and how well armed they are, and that makes for an extremely explosive situation,” she said. “I don’t know if that would be ‘war’ in the technical sense, but there could be an extended period of violent attacks.”
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