I agree that his bark is worse than his bite; whether that’s because reality doesn’t agree with his rhetoric, or because the power to unilaterally imprison an opponent is outside the scope of presidential powers, or because he was only bloviating and never meant any of it.

I have always said that my main concern isn’t Trump himself. I don’t think he’s evil incarnate or a would-be dictator, largely because I personally don’t think he’s smart enough to be a supervillain. My main concern is that rhetoric like that whips up reactionary anger; it certainly motivates voters, which is almost certainly why he continues to do it (an angry mob is a force), but it’s also worsened an already deep political divide and created a situation where conservatives and liberals (I’m neither, for the record, I’m pretty far to the left of both) don’t even really see or hear each other anymore, they only see the masks that have been placed there by their own conditioning.

Feel free to respond again if you wish, I’m happy to let you have the last word since you were so kind as to engage civilly. I’ve enjoyed the interaction; thank you…