Mary Trump’s initial prediction was that Uncle Donald would not run for office in 2024 because he couldn’t risk the rejection, the “narcissistic injury.” She then modified that opinion and said that he would in fact run if the GOP could guarantee him that he would win because the election would be rigged.
To all intents and purposes it looks like rigging elections are the order of the day. The 2020 census led to new rounds of gerrymandering, which is obviously going to impact House races in a key way. Madison Cawthorn feels free to be outrageous and unaccountable because he’s running for office in the newly created 13th congressional district in his state and he believes he can’t lose. Paul Gosar has been surviving for years because of his own gerrymandered district.
And hand in glove with gerrymandering is voter suppression. And in tandem with that is the most sinister drive yet, the drive to run decent people out of office and run MAGAs in their place. We have seen this take place both at the local and county level, school boards and county commissioners. Holders of these local offices have been harassed and stalked. They fear for their safety and their families’ safety. And well they should. If you look at Dr. Fauci, he’s had people drive to D.C. to assassinate him.
So along comes Trump and makes this statement, and it fits right in.
Trump tells PA GOP why he is placing an emphasis on Supervisor of Elections races in 22: “We have to be a lot sharper the next time when it comes to counting the vote .. Sometimes the vote counter is more important than the candidate. They have to get a lot tougher and smarter.” pic.twitter.com/WdzStuLxFH
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 15, 2022
And then there is this.
In his speech yesterday, Trump called on AZ AG Mark Brnovich to “do the right thing” and start making arrests of people for “voter fraud” in Maricopa. Here is Brno, desperate for Trump’s endorsement for his Senate campaign, kissing the ring before the speech. Nothing to see here. pic.twitter.com/RtSWgln1jI
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 16, 2022
Trump’s saying the quiet part out loud because his goal is to erode democracy and get back in office by some means, any means. The first coup was unsuccessful, we don’t know if another one will be. I think it’s far too naive of us to assume that Trump can’t get away with it, when he came as close as he did the last time.
I agree with all of this. With respect to the first tweet, the Overton Window is being shifted. The idea that election fraud is actually taking place is discussed so openly and so frequently that even though there is still no evidence of it, the idea has become more acceptable.
Our best bet is to beat our own tom toms and proclaim that there is no voter fraud. We should have political ads prepared at once, shouting statistics from the sky, about audits and recounts and how nothing was found.
We need to fight back against this. There are too many crazy MAGAs who think all this is real. Maybe they will start to learn slowly from the stories of those who were convicted of crimes and sent to prison for their actions during the insurrection. Or maybe not. Remember this culture war also has overtones of religious war and race war and that is one toxic brew.
What scares me is state officials who will go along with the former guy’s fantasies of changing the past.
He always says the quiet part out loud. Focus on local elections this year is paramount. The Senate will probably not pass any voting rights bills this year, so showing up and voting this year, if possible, is our only recourse. We need presidential year turnout to hopefully blunt the suppression already built into the system in several red states.
Without a federal mandate for vaccines & voting rights, we’re in a footrace to be done in by a variant that slips through the net & to watch as the fascist in charge brings us collectively to the gates of hell. “You don’t need a weather vane to know which way the wind blows.” Bob Dylan(u do need a brain however).
I feel as if we are in some third world country where the vote has no meaning. Most of these countries are in hot, desolate areas of the globe ?. We don’t even get to bask in the warmth of a tropical climate. Of course, if trump gets back in power he will trash all the things that Joe Biden has done to fight global warming. If the moron does get in power we will possibly see desert wasteland where farms are today. Many people forget that our country already suffered it’s first climate disaster in 1930 or so when Oklahoma and surrounding states dried up and almost blew completely away. We are not that far away. In my lifetime I have seen blizzards that dropped two plus feet of snow in a single storm where the temperature went below freezing and stayed there. Look at this winter. I live near St. Louis and we have only had maybe two weeks so far of cold temperatures. It takes more than that to kill the bugs and stuff such as ticks. They are sayer will have major issues with this because ticks carry diseases and they will be out in massive proportions. And here we move back to politics. There was a country in the Middle East that had a vote with basically one candidate although they had some clown also on the ballot I think. Anyway when you voted there was a soldier there with a very sharp knife who cut your finger some o that you could sign your ballot in blood. There were several guys walking around showing off their bloody fingers in what obviously was a film to use as propaganda. And of course the dictator won in a landslide. And did I forget to mention the soldiers with their rifles “guarding” the ballot box. I can see trump doing this. Just the kind of sick crap they would go for.
Fascism has no heart & no conscience. Germany devolved from a Catholic nation & was considered a solid democratic Republic. They became the most efficient killing machine of innocents ever known. The Catholic church didn’t oppose them due to fear. Trump didn’t lose sleep over destroying thousands of children at the border, setting up a system, that not only separated children from their caregivers, BUT NEVER INTENDED TO REUNITE THEM. EVIL. PURE FUCKING EVIL.