Former President Donald Trump urged members of a crowd in Florida to vote and said that if he wins, they “won’t have to vote anymore.”
Speaking at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach on Friday, Trump, who tried to overturn the 2020 election he lost, delivered a cryptic message.
“And again, Christians, get out and vote!” he said to a cheering audience. “Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine! You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians! I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again.”
People asked the question before. It went something like:
"You do realize that he'll be a dictator, right?"
" We don't care. He'll be our dictator and that's all that matters."
And then they'll say they do it for freedom and democracy.
Or the more common answer:
"He misspoke and the media is taking out of context."
Even though he has said it thirty different ways and this just happens to line up with the narrative.
And he kept a running mate who keeps saying it.
Both groups exist and both ignore that the other exists. Just like every "anti-woke" comment is made. Half of them say it's about some made up nuanced take, while the other half say "no it's really just racism/sexism/homophobia". Which pretty much sums up what Hillary said back in 2016.
There's another angle to the dictator thing-
A lot of people essentially think the president already is a dictator. That's why even people on the left say things like, "why doesn't Biden raise the minimum wage?!" when that requires an act of congress.
Considering how little help the English songs have been, I doubt that they were paying attention to I'm Just a Bill either.
My favorite is "Why did Biden make shit so expensive!?" And all I can do is laugh, because my brain plays on a loop Biden sneaking around to all the stores swaping price tags and chuckling maniacally.
And then I get sad because these were people I once respected as "intelligent"...
I think it's less "they think the position is already a dictator" and more "the general public has absolutely no idea how the office of the president works, or how the powers and limitations on various branches work in general" which is a failing of their education, and a poor reflection on the country as a whole.
Of course that's exactly the way the republicunts like it, "keep the population dumb and they won't even question why you're oppressing them"
If your only experience with the president and their powers comes from (for millennial anyway) various crises (manufactured and non) where the president says "I'm signing this thing to do this" and because the vast majority of congress is behind them, as well as the regular) rest of the population, and it gets done (I'm thinking of things like Iraq), I can see someone thinking "well the president signed a paper, so it MUST happen"
Which is sad funny since I hear the minimum wage comment a lot, but like... How well do you think that will go? It will go just like the student loan bullshit.
And republicunts are such fucking insecure losers, they will happily drag the entire planet down into their bullshit to prevent even one single other person from getting help that they believe they're entitled to the entirety of.
You know. Like Toddlers.
Where did you get any indication from what I said that I thought it was okay? I'm talking about why people aren't more concerned about it like they should be.
Same with the "migrants out" thing. If immigrants actually left, farmers and business would be desperate within days because all their hardest and/or cheapest workers just vanished and now there are no more truck drivers, no more field workers so crops left rotting on the field, no more waiters, ... Prices of stuff would shoot up. UK tried this recently and that's what happened.
"We want our dictator for... what are the good words again?"
"You mean freedom and democracy?"
"Yeah, whatever, for those!"
Many don’t think he can pull it off, which is the scary part that might let him do it.
“Oh, that’s all talk. He can say what he wants but can’t do shit without the House and Congress, and if he wanted to change things to get more terms? With states majority agreement that’s required? Not in his lifetime. You worry for nothing, PassingThrough, it’s all showmanship, as it always has been. And no, the Army wouldn’t help such an obvious fool overthrow the government either.”
It's crazy.
"Oh, your drunk uncle Mike who has three arson convictions, thinks you turned the family against him, and is in your attached garage with gas and a lighter threatening to burn it down? Don't worry about him, he's harmless!"
Trump said it in a way that he could have meant that you won’t have to vote for him again. He kept saying “vote for me now and in 4 years you won’t have to vote again”. I’m sure if you made this criticism to Trump’s face he would act like you’re being unreasonable and pretend that of course he meant that he can only do 1 more 4 year term. Trump’s supporters would respond similarly. But that’s why it’s called a dog whistle, the message gets to the people he wants it to while it forces his detractors to debate what’s going on inside Trump’s head.
I’m guessing it’s cryptic because he can just say that he meant “for me” and not “in general.”
"In four years, you don’t have to vote again."
Yikes.
Your country is insane.
In any other democratic nation in the world, a politician saying this would be finished.
I hope for the sake of humanity that all the sane people in the US go out and tells everyone they know that cares about democracy and the rule of law what Trump is planning to do, especially in the swing states.
Our country is full of proudly ignorant bootlickers
Turns out all you need to do is make up some bullshit about "American dreams" and "bootstraps," make them believe they too can (and probably already should!) be a billionaire, and the one thing stopping that are those goddamn Marxist Democrats and their "progressive taxation," and "social safety nets for the blacks (please ignore the fact that I'm on disability, it's different)".
Republicans have been sabotaging our country's own public education system for 25+ years at this point. Selling the future prosperity of our nation down the river for a voter-base with cult-like devotion, and a unique ability to ignore objective reality.
Unfortunately for the planet, it seems to have been wildly successful.
The next step is to do away with democracy altogether.
It’s been the Koch brothers and the John Birch Society’s dream (amongst others) to propagandize so many people of the “American Dream” and evils of anything other than capitalism. They were ecstatic when the Tea Party movement worked out for them, but they lost control of it with Trump. It’s a monster of their own making.
and evils of anything other than capitalism
*other than WHAT THEY CALL capitalism
They look at monopolies where the market leader buys laws, lobbies for protection and muscles competition out of the game unhindered and then they decry anybody calling it out as communists or socialists or the devil or whatever other bad word is en vogue that day.
You're almost there, comrade...
It's not just what they call it, this is capitalism working as intended. This is the end game. Always has been. It's just now they have the tools to essentially brainwash millions using modern tech, and a wealth disparity that has been growing constantly for what, 100 years now?
That's why it seems different this time; they learned from past attempts. Not only can you just make them not revolt (or shit, why not just Orwell it up and make it so they don't even think they want to), you can direct that hate, anger and vitriol at your "enemies" to sow more chaos and division.
I don't think any of the people responsible for planning and carrying out this decades-long coup could have predicted it would be this wildly successful.
It's like Putin tossing a million bucks to a state sponsored hacker group (because meh why not, what could it hurt?), and ending up with a fucking Manchurian candidate and an army of loyal GOP politicians terrified enough of what might leak from those hacked emails that they are literally willing to destroy their own country from the inside. Unreal.
Kochs lost control of Trump to the JBS types. The Kochs are more Mitch McConnell type power brokers, all about the money and corporations. JBS is more MAGA, with the heavy undercurrent of conspiracy.
Exactly - I started noticing prideful ignorance in the early 2010s. People around me made bad choices and would not be corrected. Their ignorance was just as valid as someone else's actual knowledge. That's when, strengthened by their own baseless pride, their shame disappeared. I'm not saying shame is good, but when it's the only thing keeping the deplorables in check, maybe a little of it helps.
It used to be that I'm general, horrible people realised they were horrible and at least went through the motions of being decent. They were like cockroaches scurrying for the shadows when you turned on the light. Now they're like a cat peeing on your bed - they pause long enough to lock eyes with you, then continue peeing.
Speaking optimistically, at least now we know exactly who they are.
They were like cockroaches scurrying for the shadows when you turned on the light.
Oh, I actually used this comparison once when such people still generally did that. They were pissed. I didn't directly address them BTW, they decided which side they're on for themselves.
Turns out all you need to do is make up some bullshit about “American dreams” and “bootstraps,” make them believe they too can (and probably already should!) be a billionaire, and the one thing stopping that are those goddamn Marxist Democrats and their “progressive taxation,” and “social safety nets for the blacks (please ignore the fact that I’m on disability, it’s different)”.
Well, to generalize your statement a bit, I've had a conflict with people who thought that the only thing preventing them from living in socialist heaven were jerks like me talking about human rights, market economy, transparency, accountability, governments actually changing, putting thieves in jail and getting activists out of jail, legalization of various substances, any consensual sexual activity, privacy, freedom of speech, competitive judicial system, culture of protest, yadda-yadda once a few years ...
They sincerely thought all this prevented life in my country from being good, while themselves being thieving ignorant intriguing insecure shits was normal. You know, the kind of people who contribute clearly negatively to the society, but think life is unjust to them, they should live better and somebody has stolen everything from them.
The GOP have been selling these people hope and magic since Reagan. It’s no longer about hard work for republicans, now all they have to do is destroy cities and kick out everyone they don’t like, and we will return to the magic that never existed in the 1950’s.
It may be the most successful example of indoctrination of parts of the populace of a supposedly developed nation by the ruling class though.
Probably because it's one of the worst examples of many bad things. Source: am American. The only way you can avoid criticizing America as a thinking person is to focus on the ways it's a little better than other countries. For example we mostly have clean drinking water while other countries don't. But if you for a moment focus back on America itself it's hard not to find things that just damned well ought to be better. Never be sick in America. Our healthcare is a pathetic piece of shit!
I've got no problem with reasonable criticism of America. In fact I have many of my own. My issue is that here, shitting on America is well received regardless almost completely regardless of how reasonable it is.
100% agreed. But that's not what I'm talking about. People just mindlessly shit on America here all the time. Just because I recognize the unreasonable American hate does not mean I'm an unreasonable American supporter. Not every is simple and black and white how you would like it.
Well, first, judging what's right based on what's popular is dumb on it's own, but it's even more dumb here because the up vote/down vote is current equal for my post, making it clearly not "everyone."
To this day, I will never know how it didn’t end the moment he made fun of that photographer who had the deformity on his arm.
It's because the country has a long history of treating disabled people like shit. This country literally gave the germans the inspiration to do eugenics shit.
In any other democratic nation in the world, a politician saying this would be finished.
Unfortunately not anymore, no. Bolsonaro (luckily voted out) and Orban and the Polish potato (also luckily voted out) have been spouting similar bullshit for 10+ years. Also, Erdoğan talks bullshit like that.
All of them a little less incoherent than the fat orange turd, but still, they say this kind of bullshit.
The craziest part is that, even with the absolute insanity this election has already been (and it will absolutely get worse), I'm seriously worried there's going to be a worse turnout than 2020. 30% of voters are holding the country hostage, but another 30+% still can't be bothered to get out and do the most basic thing they can do to fix it. It's absurd. The nutjobs in the US are dragging the country to the gallows, but apathetic voters are tying the noose.
I'm seriously worried there's going to be a worse turnout than 2020.
2020 had the highest voter turnout in any US election. Donald Trump got more votes in 2020 (more than 74 million) than any other Presidential candidate, winner or loser, in history.... except for Joe Biden in 2020, who got 81 million.
I am aware (hence my point of 30%), and that was still abysmal. 60% turnout is not much of an achievement, and that only happened because of the pandemic (which is also still happening, though easier to ignore now). Existential threats to the country just aren't going to motivate the chronically apathetic the same way, even if they are actually a bigger threat overall.
Don't automatically assume the 30% who don't bother voting are guaranteed to vote against Trump. Historically, it has been younger voters who don't bother voting, and they do tend to be more liberal. But this time around, young voters are starting their adult lives in a world that is stacked against them, and they know it. They have felt the effects of post-pandemic inflation but have not had their pay raised to match. Those who were old enough to be adults pre-pandemic might very well conclude that they were better off personally when Trump was in office, and may be dismissing all the alarm at his re-election.
There have been several studies indicating that "disengaged" voters, if they show up, would break toward Republicans this time around. This article is from before Biden quit, but shows a clear preference for Trump among these voters:
Your country is insane.
You don't say! I simply hadn't noticed! What's so crazy about people voting for someone with no experience whatsoever except for being a rich asshole which he proved every second breath? I mean that's just normal!!
It's especially weird because he's a Republican. Traditionally they're the party more sensitive to controversies like that, and older conservative folks I used to know would squirm if they saw the tapes or statements.
But honestly Trump just drowns everything out. Most people don't, and never will, know the controversies because there are simply too many to keep up with.
Gingrich has been married three times. In 1962, he wed Jacqueline May "Jackie" Battley (February 21, 1936 – August 7, 2013), his former high school geometry teacher, when he was 19 years old and she was 26.
Throughout his congressional campaign in 1974, Gingrich was having an affair with a young volunteer. An aide who worked with Gingrich throughout the 1970s stated that "it was common knowledge that Newt was involved with other women during his marriage to Jackie."
In the spring of 1980, he filed for divorce from Jackie after beginning an affair with Marianne Ginther.
In September 1980, according to friends who knew them both, Newt visited Jackie in the hospital the day after she had undergone surgery to treat her uterine cancer; once there, Newt began talking about the terms of their divorce, at which point Jackie threw him out of the room.
Although Newt's presidential campaign staff continued to insist in 2011 that Jackie had requested the divorce, court documents from Carroll County, Georgia, indicated that she had in fact asked a judge to block the process, stating that although "she has adequate and ample grounds for divorce ... she does not desire one at this time [and] does not admit that this marriage is irretrievably broken."
According to L. H. Carter, Gingrich's campaign treasurer, Gingrich said of Jackie: "She's not young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of the President. And besides, she has cancer."
Following the divorce, Jackie had to raise money from friends in her congregation to help her and the children make ends meet; she later filed a petition in court stating that Newt had failed to properly provide for his family.[262] Newt submitted a financial statement to the judge, which showed that he had been "providing only $400 a month, plus $40 in allowances for his daughters. He claimed not to be able to afford any more. But in citing his own expenses, he listed $400 just for 'Food / dry cleaning, etc.'—for one person."
In 1981, a judge ordered him to provide considerably more; in 1993, Jackie stated in court that Newt had failed to obey the 1981 order "from the day it was issued."
In 1993, while still married to Marianne, Gingrich began an affair with House of Representatives staffer Callista Bisek, more than two decades his junior.
Gingrich filed for divorce from Marianne in 1999, a few months after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
On January 19, 2012, Marianne alleged in an interview on ABC's Nightline that she had declined to accept Newt's suggestion of an open marriage.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich
It's been a thing for a while. They do a performative squirm and vote for monsters anyways
"I love you, christians. I am a christian!"
Who the fuck talks like that? And who the fuck votes for a guy that talks like that?
Hello my fellow human beings, I'm a human and love doing human activities.
These people who talk equally as phony.
Behold: a black person.
Quite a few of those on social media.
I read something that put conservatives into greater context, just changed one word.
“Imagine how stupid the average Republican is, then realize half of all republicans are stupider than that.”
Median would be the more generally correct number to use, but apparently IQ (debatable as a proxy for intelligence...) is roughly normally distributed, so either is likely close enough.
Oh yeah, they normalize IQ every year, and 100 is always used as the median.
But thanks to the Flynn Effect, getting a 100 (the number they always choose for the middle) in 2024 means you're significantly smarter than someone who got a 100 in 1990.
So when Carlin said, "think of a person with average intelligence" he was calling to mind (to his 1990 audience) a person who was average in 1990 but would score [EDIT: I originally said 70s to 80s, but I was off by a lot. Such a person would actually score right around 90 points] today.
This is what happens when you take the lead out of gasoline.
The word average is used to signify mean, median or mode freely, depending only on context. For example, "he's just an average Joe" is to say he's like most other men in his demographic. In that case average means mode. In Carlin's joke, average means median.
Christians, apparently.
Trump using the language of a tyrant is not an accident. When people say that democracy is on the line this election, we're not being hyperbolic, we're saying that because of statements like this. Please get out there and vote this November.
Him saying it out loud is an accident. People with dementia often forget that they're not supposed to say certain things out loud.
While that may be true, I also think it’s because he feels comfortable enough to say it out loud. These people and a fanatic third of the US are that far gone.
At this point we have found out that he can say or do anything and half the country will still support him. There is no convincing anymore for most of them.
We outnumber them we just need to get higher turnout and we win every time
Idk, the crowd was cheering for him. Think he just doesn't have a grasp on what the average person thinks.
When people say that democracy is on the line this election, we’re not being hyperbolic
The election system in the US has been under siege since the end of Jim Crow. The conservative response to the civil rights act has been to egalitarianize disenfranchisement.
We've had Republicans chipping away at the functional organs of democracy since Eisenhower's Red Scare leveraged the Hoover FBI to infiltrate and eradicate self-sufficient communities and their unionized labor leadership back in the 50s.
Meanwhile, the Democrats' leadership have never sat particularly well with the influx of minority voters following the Civil Rights Act. They've had to digest racist backlashes within their own party from the George Wallace Dixiecrat break away campaign under LBJ to the Hilary Clinton "birther" attacks launched at Obama during the '08 primary.
The end result is Republicans openly embracing fascism at the state and local level, while Democrats dissolve their own primary system in pursuit of a rigid corporate sponsored nomination process.
This isn't something that's going to be fixed in an election cycle. Trump losing won't make Republicans less fascist. Kamala taking the nomination of the discarded carcass of an establishment insider like Biden won't heal the divide in the Democratic Party. And it certainly won't undo the fascist GOP takeovers in Texas, Florida, and Ohio.
We're in for a rocky road ahead under either Presidency.
It's not just one person. There are years of hijacking that the republican party has done to the us system, like packing the supreme court. Those must be fixed as soon as possible.
Oh shaddup
oh yeah, so cryptic. gotta bust out my cryptography degree for this one. might need a couple quantum computers too. wow, the crypticity is at an all-time high. its over 8000, i tell ya.
Wait, I had the scouter on upside down.
As an outsider I honestly just don't get what people see in this idiot. How can you take someone that talk like that seriously? He sounds like a nutter that is promising crazy stuff that would literally mean the end of the USA as we know it.
If he'd get his way with this and the other project 2025 stuff it'd honestly be the end of America I think.
Trump is a cult leader in all but name. His zealots support worldviews that have been made illegal, taboo, obsolete, or otherwise unacceptable, like white supremacy and racism, fascism, theocracy, homo-/transphobia, and mysogyny; they perceive this as an attack against their lifestyles by "the others." They will rally to the loudest voice that speaks out against "the others" and support him as long as that remains true.
Trump cultists are irrational creatures, you can't apply rational expectations and deduce a satisfactory answer.
As an insider, it's even worse. You didn't have to suffer 4 years of continuous clusterfuck and embarrassment only to be topped off by a planned insurrection that they still try to gaslight everyone about.
You're absolutely correct that it would be the end of America.
I'm Canadian and whenever I'm abroad, the locals ask me what the fuck is wrong with Americans. Expecting I'll know better bc we're neighbours.
Which is true, since we're more likely to interact.
All I can reply is, "They're just totally fucked!" It's that simple!
Also, when I meet Americans abroad now, the first thing they do is apologize for America. That's the only Canadian trait that's rubbed off on them.
As an American, neither do I. The man was a national joke for 30+ years, and all it took was a shiny new coat of paint in the form of a reality TV show where they just straight up constantly lied about his wealth and business acumen, for people to literally begin worshipping him.
Watching your loved ones fall into this shit is heartbreaking.
He promises simple solutions with no sacrifice, essentially just "I'll fix it." Certain people love that. Don't care what the solution is, don't care that the problem has been simplified beyond recognition, just fix shit.
Paraphrasing here:
"Let's just take the guns away. Due process after."
"I'll have Medicare fixed. Just wait a week."
"Mexico will pay for it."
This is the insane dribble this fuck spews on the daily, and people eat it up.
I think what Trump's following kind of reveals is a sad truth about humans generally; about a quarter of people are very stupid and very susceptible to cult-think. It doesn't always manifest as support for a politician, it could be anti-vax beliefs, or racism, zionism etc.
Wherever you are, about 25-30% of people are simply not equipped to think critically, and that stupidity is activated or weaponized under various conditions, most often during times of economic stress or social chaos. People who can't understand the complex causes of a problem are easy to manipulate -- you give them a simplistic answer.
"It's the jews" or "trans people are the root of your problems" etc.
It can happen anywhere because a certain demographic of people are just dumb, and there's no way around it other than trying to reduce human suffering across the board and making it less likely that anyone is struggling.
I think if Trumps plan plays out and if If Project 2025 is enacted it will likely have more than an effect on the US, it will likely have profound effects on the world. It will change geopolitics and economies through shifts in alliances, trade dynamics, nationalistic sentiments, and domestic economic policies.
Thinking it through, it'll probably move towards an increasingly complex global landscape, overshadowed by uncertainty and potential conflicts.
The documentary “The Handmaid’s Tale” is about this
Do you mean metaphorically?
Too all the Trump supporters, if you want, you can stop voting now. No, seriously, it is a hassle. Stay home, the rest of us can handle it.
I mean it quite a good soundbite for any democratic ad for sure.
Genuine national security threat.
What? Speaking to "Christians" and saying he'll be god king emperor and/or he'll help usher in the second coming...you know, Armageddon - the end of the world?
Nothing scary at all.
I'm not american, but I have a feeling this election is going to go into history.
Vote for Trump and he'll turn it into dictatorship.
Vote for Harris and she'll be the first woman president.
What will it be?
Not just the first woman president, but the first female mixed race president and the first to snap back when attacked in a long time. Trump is scared. He just went from saying "you don't need to vote because we have plenty of votes" to "please vote so we can put an to end voting"
Edited to say first female mixed race since Obama was first mixed race
First Asian President
First South Asian President lol
Buttery mails 2: electric bugaloo
RN is the time to do something cool so your name gets on the history test
I hope if Harris gets into office she will be more than just a token granted by the DNC to appease minority voters. We already saw Obama being a mediocre at best internally, and internationally brutal war criminal, president. Him being black did not make him a good president. And for Hillary Clinton the "she's a women" trope failed catastrophically and brought us Trump in the first place.
Harris needs to convince with policy and character, not with race or gender.
EDIT: I did not mean that Harris would only convince with ther background. It is important to move past the tokenism approach that the DNC used to take.
So far, I don't feel like she's appeasing to minorities.
It's more about replacing Biden and going against Trump.
There's nothing subtle about Trump. So when he say something blatantly stupid and evil, it doesn't need translation or interpretation. If he says, "we're going to 'fix' voting so that you'll never have to worry about voting ever again" there only ONE way to interpret that. Believe people when they show you what they really are.
It also doesn't help that our mainstream, "liberal news media" (you know, the one that's owned by only six corporations) is constantly running interference for Trump.
Chaos gets views... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Cryptically? This motherfucker is the most transparent asshole on the planet. He couldn't convince a bucket of fish they were out of the water.
He plain and clearly said "if I win it will be the end of democracy". There isn't subtext.
I don't have anything to add, I agree wholeheartedly, I just love that saying and somehow hadn't heard it before
Not even bizarre, just saying the quiet part out loud, again.
Wow, I mean technically the Antichrist and the False Prophet COULD be the same person, nothing in Revelation says they can’t.
With all the people wearing a bandage on their ear it looks like they already have their stigmata.
He's a riddle wrapped in an enigma...
There's nothing cryptic about that at all. He's telling you what you should be believing for once.
I think we all should have learned from last time that the only time you can believe anything Trump says is when he promises to do something truely horrible.
They already had. Back in February at CPAC
Cryptic implies there is something to decipher
"Be sure to drink your ovaltine"
Doesn't seem particularly "cryptic" to me. Essentially he's saying "If we win, you don't need to vote, because I'll make sure we win from now on by rigging it".
Seems pretty cut and dry to me what he's saying.
I dunno, I hate Trump as much as the next guy but it seems to me he meant "I'm going to fix all the country's problems in one term so you won't need to vote for me again", not "I'm going to abolish voting".
Are you fucking dumb? Or are you actively trying and failing to do propaganda?
You won't ever need to vote again was the meaning. If you can't see that as a red flag, then you deserve the r word in my opinion. The dude doesn't want a democracy. He wants to be a dictator to avoid his legal issues. This guy will absolutely take down democracy without a second thought. He'll drag America down with him.
I think it's more that he doesn't give a shit what happens because he can only be elected for one more term. Trump doesn't give a shit about anyone except himself, on other words. And even he's smart enough to know he's lucky if he's got four more years of health left in him. Cholesterol is the only thing holding him together.
I think it’s more that he doesn’t give a shit what happens because he can only be elected for one more term
That's what I was initially thinking. Maybe he doesn't give a shit what happens in 4 years because he won't be running and he doesn't give a shit what happens after that. He doesn't care about people voting Republican in 4 years because he'll be gone.
But, then I tried to imagine him peacefully handing power over just because the constitution limits how many terms he could serve... and I just couldn't picture that.
I mean sure, if he's elected he'll definitely do everything possible to destroy any legal cases against him. He'll also try to have anybody who pissed him off sent to Guantanamo or something. But, will he really want to just retire after that? Even if he feels safe because any potential enemy has been put away, can you really picture him giving up the spotlight and power that comes with the presidency? I can't.
I guess the damage is done and once there is an actual smart guy without conscience and morals it'll get really ugly for democracy in the US.
This is my worry too. We've survived Trump for this long because he's not half as smart as he thinks he is, nor is he as charismatic, either. But he's not alone in this. Republicans are chomping at the bit for "Permanent Republican Rule", and if they have to outlaw Democrats and Democracy to do it, they will. They're happy in a Banana Republic...as long as they are the ones in control. Which means merely getting rid of Trump isn't enough. We need a constant campaign to keep Republicans out of office, which the Left isn't keen on doing because the Left isn't one unified group, but instead a loose coalition of Scientists, Academicians, Artists, Environmentalists, Civil Rights advocates, and countless other small factions, that are easily played against each other.
What does it feel like to get raped in the ass by this fucker, Americans? You gonna do something about it or just take it?
Thx for the recommendation
Yeah! We should not let these ivory towered, elbow patched professors vote for us!
That one kid tried to do something about it, then everyone decried him.
Ancient Greece also fell, cults and ideologies outperformed their bickering through sheer dumb single-mindedness.
"I love you, Christians! I’m not Christian."
That's what he said. It's clear from the context, from his body language, from everything. You don't talk about a group as "you X" when you're a part of it, you talk about "we X". He talked about them as an outsider, then made it clear he wasn't one.
I need to try this on Christians!
Please give me 60% off this TV my beautiful Christian, I love you, I'm a Christian.
You can tell whether someone really loves anyone by how often they have to remind you that they know how to use the word "Christian" like it's some kind of magic spell.
That convicted rapist scumbag who does nothing but lie for a living doesn't have the slightest clue what the word love means.
My beautiful Christians. Jesus told me it was ok for me to rape that whore. I love you, Christians! And doing some insurrection was fine. I’m a Christian. Im a bit like the messiah. I love you. Get out.
So he wants to be a permanent dictator? Sounds legit considering the SCOTUS verdict about no criminal reponsibility
Yes. He wants to be a dictator on day one and then the rest of the days after that too.
His VP is an American monarchist.
The Founders DEFINITELY wanted us to be Able to Shoot up Kindergarteners. THAT'S Crystal Clear! But their views on Democracy are MUCH more newanced and Unknown!
It's not cryptic at all, it's rather straightforward.
Cryptic, nothing. What he means is that we won't be allowed to vote. This is precisely what happens when you tolerate tyranny for as long as we've tolerated Trump's brand of it. We used to fight tyranny whenever it raised its head, but corporate media and its demands for "civility" has turned us into a nation of neuters.
Pretty sure that warrants a second attempt.
Yes, I think we are on the same page ;)
That's the usual "if they killed hitler someone worse would have take power". That's not certain at all, what is certain is that hitler was very bad and removing him would have been a good thing.
Not really a reason not to
Assassinations usually make things worse. Just look at what happened to the string of coups in South Vietnam during the Vietnam war.
Or, can you think of a time when assassination actually did improve matters?
To anyone thinking, "well there is some subtext here we're not talking about." Gtfo the man wants to be putin. Since day one. Putin does have kompromat on donald. All the videos trump sends him of himself furiously masterbating.
The subtext is Armageddon.
If he loses, how many states would have to just flip their electoral votes? The supreme court would 100% approve it.
He's done this before and all that happened was a small crowd of idiots making mess in the Capitol.
I guarantee that THIS time there will be far more than a handful of cops on scene, regardless of who wins.
That's how he talks, even way before he ran for president. Trump was kind of a hyperbolic snake oil salesman in the stock markets before he got into politics, and he was surprisingly good at it.
Also.
Welcome to Costco, I love you
He was. Say what you will about Trump, but he's great at jawboning. And not technically lying to sell something for way more than its worth.
Look up the Motley Fool podcasts on him. They went to meet him in person.
He just sounds completely demented to me, every time I heard him talk. I wouldn't buy anything from him from fear of it being a scam, even if it seemed like a great deal
I think the silver lining is that he might be too incompetent to actually pull it off, like last time he obviously tried it. Unfortunately, the US judicial or whatever system is also too incompetent to punish him so I guess he just gets to try it again and again until it works.
If it's not him, it will be some other clown. The GQP got to the position it is in even when it wasn't brainwashing personality cult members and it wast that bad, now it is and all it takes is a non-ideal candidate on the democratic side to let them win. Democracy in the US can no longer be retained through the popular vote.
The fifth column of generational oligarchs is just trying to find its next figurehead Hitler to take leadership and if it fails, to take the fall while they sink back into obscurity to prepare for the next round.
As I recall when he was president he laughed at Christian dignitaries and called them stupid to his aides.
I think he enjoys being the wolf in sheep clothes, especially when addressing Christians.
I'm barely into politics, my high school teachings of the political system aren't terribly strong in my mind. All that to ask:
- Can he do that?
And, if so:
What would need to happen for a president to convert our system to lifetime terms?
What would need to happen for a president to convert our system to a dictatorship/monarchy/whatever? (so we actually never voted again)
Is it at all likely that Trump could make either of those things happen?
P.S. You don't need to make the 86th comment about how this isn't cryptic. Shitty headlines should be criticized, but it isn't adding to the discussion at the point. I mean, look at me, I managed to get through this entire comment and not menti- Oh crap, I'm part of the problem.
Go back and watch Star Wars Episode 3. That's actually a good description of how a democracy falls to autocracy. The Republicans have been openly dreaming of a "Permanant Republican Majority" since AT LEAST Bush 43's terms in office. And they've been laying the framework since Nixon -- a newsentertainment channel that caters to Right-Winger fantasies, judges who put ideology over legality, partisan gerrymandering that concentrates Republican voters for power and dilutes Dem votes into meaninglessness, and political theories that basically advocate for the dismantling of our political systems if that will keep Democrats out of power even if they have a majority.
To answer your questions directly:
Can he do that? Yes. He can. Anyone can.
What would need to happen to convert our system to lifetime terms? There are a variety of ways, but they all boil down to the President doing outright illegal things under cover of a friendly Supreme Court. After all, they granted immunity to 'official acts', which we believe is cover for an autocratic takeover of the country.
What would need to happen to convert our system into a dictatorship/monarchy/whatevs? This is just a hypothetical situation. It's July 2028. Mass incarcerations of Leftists, Immigrants, Muslims, and Minorities have begun and the country is in the throes of a civil war. Polling is reporting that Trump could lose the election, despite disenfranchising the Left's voting base through various means. Trump announces he's postponing the 2028 elections 'until things calm down, they have to get much better first before we can have a fair election." People sue. It doesn't matter what happens in the lower courts, because they'll appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court. The same 6 Conservative ideologues that said he has immunity for 'official acts' will rule that he has the right to suspend the election. And that, my friends, is how Democracy ends, with massive applause from the Alt-Right assholes that Clinton quite rightly fucking called "Deplorable".
Can Trump actually make either of those happen? Yes. Yes, he can. The framework is already laid out. HK-65 laid it out elsewhere. Essentially, you start by shutting the Other Side out of government. You then take over all the levers of government. Then you set them so you can't lose. You might need to just waive away the safetyguards that get in your way, and some you might use your lock on government to remove 'legitimately'. If the 22nd Amendment gets in the way of a Republican dynasty, they'll have it removed.
TL;DR? Never rely on checks and balances to stop authoritarianism. In the end, the Constitution IS just a piece of paper, and will be run over by authoritarian jerks if that means power.
Not an expert on the US political system, but legislative power, and thus changing the system, is vested in Congress, not the Presidency. So he'd need to get a supermajority there, and rewrite the Constitution. Point is, it's not Trump that can do it, but a theoretical Republican House and Senate 60% supermajority (or a supermajority of State legislatures).
Look at what happened in Hungary in 2010, that's a blueprint of that happening. Biden dropping out is good news, since from the outside it kinda looked like the US might have been setting itself up for that kind of thing to happen. I think with Harris running, it's not realistic the Dems will lose that bad.
That said, he could try another Jan 6th, basically take Washington under military occupation. Then it's up to which states go along with it and which ones don't, and you've got a civil war.
All he really needs is the supreme court to step in at any point there is a close contest to decide on the outcome. Also, there are only about 1,500 electors. Voting is kind of a sham.
The government is run by people, so he just needs a critical mass of followers in important positions in order to gum things up. That’s why the #1 and perhaps only thing he cares about in other people are how much they like him and how loyal they are. Also to him.
Its rhetoric for sure, but there are possible methods to suspend elections. We don't know what they are yet until a group starts publicly speculating about how it could legally be done. Not that it is impossible, who knows what the future may hold?
I would say its pretty doubtful you could indefinitely suspend federal elections, but cheetoh benito loves to dog whistle to his base.
Nothing cryptic about it
I think this is a bad example, because the Rosetta stone originally was cryptic.
Honestly, considering the master level narcissist Trim is, this is likely more a "after 4 more years I'm not going to run anymore so I couldn't give a fuck about what you guys do" instead of "I'll be dictator and democracy will be over"
Either way it's bad
To be fair, even thought that's not needed with this guy, what he could actually mean is that he doesn't give a crap who anyone votes for in 4 years since its not going to be him anyway, and for him he is the only person that counts.
But yeah, all the other theories are also plausible unfortunately.
Could be the only thing he cares about getting "fixed" are his impending criminal trials?
You are wrong. All you have to do is listen to the words he actually said.
27 seconds: https://www.commondreams.org/...
This is trump, he does word salad. Do you think there is context with his speeches?.
They don't have to vote now or ever.
The USA does not have compulsory voting.
Lol what the fuck.
You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years.
I think it was just his weird way to address the lazy ass demographic which can't be bothered to vote even once in 4 years.
But those are mostly people with executive dysfunction, so how does his speech help, I dunno
This brings me pain since I have the former, but don't have the latter. Despite being generally unattractive to women. OK, maybe not unattractive, but with the former you just don't use the chances given by being attractive.
You don't understand how leadership works, do you?
A leader's power comes from those who follow. Trump's followers are dangerous lunatics who believe they are willing to commit acts of violence. They care what he says and there's enough that we should care too, insofar as it tells us what to expect.
Trump says you won't need to vote if he wins. But here's the thing: It's not just Democrats who should worry. Trump's chaos could destroy the whole rigged system - Republican and Democrat. He might seem like an undertaker of the American democracy, but in doing so he will drown his own ship, too. But we need to help him steer it into the iceberg of organized social anger instead of isolated floes made of any expectations his mostly temporarily deluded and desperate voters may have or some single-cause activisms or culture wars that will only benefit him. Those will be shattered within the first few months of his term, as he won't have COVID to use as a convenient excuse for his failures to not only address, but at least not make worse the organic crisis of the system, like Genocide Joe has had.
EDIT: I'm not saying this to fucking endorse him or passivity. What I mean is that the world does not end at the ballot box and we need to reckon with the possibility of his victory and that there are countless other means of resisting him other than just depositing all our hopes in the Democrats. And that even though resisting Trumpism will not be an easy task, the instability and disappointment that a presidency of establishment's populist enfant terrible, in an era that breeds virtually no statesmen of great stature, is bound to engender, has the potential actually make it easier.
No citizen voted for Kamala. They can go ahead and never bring up democracy again thank you.
Akshally, I agree that democracy with votes is flawed at best.
Consensus is not it, but it's also bad in the situations where you have to make some decision. It favors sabotage.
Democracy through sortition and (ranked) vote combined is my favorite concept, with a lot of things being left to voluntary contracts with exterritorial jurisdictions, like a few states inside one in the same territory, where you can choose between a jurisdiction of ancoms, a jurisdiction of Christians, a jurisdiction of crackheads and so on.
Hell no, G-d no.
Gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you wouldn't find a progressive supreme leader satisfactory?
Hey what was being burned in that famous photo of Nazis burning books again?
Truth, Trump, pick one. Dude sharpies hurricanes. Also a weird goal for government. Would our leaders telling the truth be a good thing? Oh yeah, but "truth" won't help the hungry.
You are a dumbass, my man. Psychotic
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What the fuck is supposed to be cryptic about this? He's making it perfectly clear that he wants to overthrow democracy in the US. And everybody who votes for him is OK with that.
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