Given Donald Trump's hostility toward democracy, it's worth pausing when he asks supporters, "Why are we having an election?”
Given Donald Trump's hostility toward democracy, it's worth pausing when he asks supporters, "Why are we having an election?”
By all appearances, Donald Trump really doesn’t like it when Democrats describe him as a threat to democracy, and yet, the Republican keeps saying things that reflect a degree of animosity toward the American system of government.
Take the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, for example. The New York Times reported:
Trump said polls suggested he was at “93 percent” although it was not clear what that number was referring to. The former president said he responded by saying: “So why are we having an election? They didn’t have an election. Why are we having an election?”
51% of the voting population (66%) by the 2020 popular vote. That's what someone might call actually a big fucking problem if you stop and think about those numbers for a moment.
"Dear America: You are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while 1/3 watches."
Werner Twertzog aka Professor William Pannapacker
To be fair, Trump actually only got 47%, with the rest going to spoiler candidates.
So it's closer to 30% of America wants to kill 33% of America.
They're intentionally saying this to cast doubt and challenge the election results, no matter how badly they lose.
If we can't get some of them to turn their conspiracy theory around and establish faith in our fair election process, then we're going to be dealing with this forever and ever.
Bush v. Gore was the end of democracy for us it turns out. That set a precedent we're not able to recover from today.
Trump and his MAGA flying monkeys (who are not nearly as addled in the head as he himself is) have every intention of disrupting the counting and certification of votes in as many jurisdictions as possible in order to throw the election to the House (one state, one vote) or SCOTUS. When he questions "why are we having an election" it's because he's trying to stop us from having elections under his dictatorship and is floating the idea in advance to normalize it.
This is why he's going to keep repeating that he's winning by absurd margins. He'll have Magoos convinced that it was an obviously stolen election because "how could he have won 90+% of votes in polls but still lose???"
I think he’s referring to the DNC not having primaries. But with a sitting president parties don’t really have primaries to pick a candidate. But since Harris moved into Biden’s place on the ticket, Trump has been whining about how it’s unfair 🙄.
But then he gets all discombobulated and complains about having to deal with an election even though he was also just made the GOP candidate without any primary elections (I think?). At that point I lose the thread as he devolves into sundowning.
The best anyone can make sense of it is that the Dems didn't exactly have an open primary to select Harris. So he's ?? confusing that with why have a general election? Which still doesn't make any sense but that's the best explanation.
Which honestly is something the DNC can fuck right off about. Make it democratic, what do you have to lose? Are you scared the people might choose someone your corporate overlords dislike?
But it in no way is party candidate selection as important as ensuring the national election is democratic.
In days long ago, one could dismiss such rhetorical musings as fantasy. Then Jan 6th happened, and all that followed, including the GOP falling in behind.
Yeah, but this time he doens't control the army. I'm not nearly as worried if he's not in power while executing his coup. The republican traitors in congress would have gone along wtih it if he managed to pull of Jan 6th and he would have weeded out any general who wasn't a Trump nut-job right after he delayed the transfer of power. It's really was scary as shit.
They aren't banking on a military coup d'état, they want to delay and obfuscate until their crooked Supreme Court can award them the presidency, then start passing legislation that allows red states to do whatever they want with regards to elections. All this "never vote again" stuff is literal, the GOP wants to take advantage of the fact that there are more red states and that gives them unbalanced voting power, then stuff those governments with loyal cronies.
All this because Lincoln was killed and we subsequently fucked up Reconstruction. Should have changed the rules back to protect citizens instead of land.
True, however Trump is turning into an icon now. He will become the dust of history. What he leaves behind is not only a dangerous idea, but a party organisation willing to pursue extreme ideology. Plus almost half the country either disinterested or absolutely fine with it
I just want to be super rude to him. "Because the assassin missed. It's not like you are going to respect the results anyway. The demographics that were against you in 2020 have only gotten worse."
Alright, I’m more than a bit confused about this one. He stated that democrats didn’t hold a real primary and went on to question why they would need a presidential election. How is A related to B? It reminds me of the ubiquitous casual stochastic terrorism of the early 2010s in its complete absence of logic or adherence to reality.
Not that it makes it much more clear, but he's talking about the nomination. He's saying Harris didn't have to go through a traditional primary, so... either he's saying a) retroactively he shouldn't have had to either, or b) since he won the primaries, and Harris didn't have to... then he should just automatically be president and skip the whole "election where are people can vote" thing.
Probably he meant both, that he shouldn't have to go through a primary or national election. He should just get to hand-pick a poll and get his crown.
I just hope, for our children's sake, that they attempt their little temper tantrum on the actual date of Jan 6th again. So kids of the future only have one date to remember in history class while they're reading about the failed attempt to turn America into a fascist nation.
It is more than the GOP/Trump not liking the "American" way of government. I don't know anyone who particularly likes it. It is because they are opposed to the very idea of democracy.