"Christians, get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, 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, you got to get out and vote.
In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote."
.Donald Trump at Turning Point USA Believers' Summit, July 26, 2024
I watched the video of this.
I was looking for a smirk or a wink or some clear sign that Trump was just being outrageous for the sake of being funny. Or to get the media worked up. Or to make liberals react. Or maybe he was saying that he was only going to run this one time, in 2024, because whatever happened in 2028 was some other Republican's problem, not his, and Trump looks out for number one, not others, and we all know that.
This is classic Trump, doing "strategic ambiguity." He is putting an idea on the table to consider so that it becomes acceptable, maybe. Maybe not. It is sort of a flirtation. What is clear is what his campaign did not do. They did not hasten to dismiss it with something like, "Oh, President Trump is just horsing around to make liberals get their shorts in a wad. What's wrong with you liberals?" His campaign ignored it.
So, too, did the conservative media. A diligent search of Fox News and Newsmax websites show nothing whatever on this. It is like it never happened. They don't want to defend it; they don't want to oppose it. But now it is out there.
Trump is normalizing authoritarian delegitimization of elections. He is putting dangerous anti-democratic ideas into the political waters, daring Americans to say "no" to him. If he is elected, Americans will have tacitly said "yes." He will have told us his intentions and we voted for him anyway.
Trump isn't hiding who he is. Maybe he is dangerous. Maybe he is just a showman, being interesting. He is doing so by saying outrageous things.
That is a good foil for Kamala Harris, assuming that she says things that come across as reasonable. Reasonable versus crazy is a good matchup.
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8 comments:
I see some talk of a democratic revival in Florida with Harris golf cart rallies in 55 and older communities. Those Cubans won’t like talk about dictatorship, it reminds them of Castro, with whom they hate. Just dreaming, but wouldn’t it be great if he lost in Florida along with the rest of the right wing no freedom caucus? Trump is dangerous, cognitively impaired, and old. Trying to not see that is like trying to not see Biden is diminished. I hope Harris makes Trump reiterate that if he wins that’s the end of elections.
Trump’s remarks about “fixing” the vote if he’s elected got more play on Twitter than anything I’ve seen in awhile. He has so bamboozled his supporters that they wholeheartedly believe voter fraud in this country changes the outcome of elections. What Trump is promising in the here and now is voter suppression and harassment. His campaign is training poll watchers to assert merit less challenges against voters they don’t like the look of (hint: black). Voter intimidation is 100% on brand for the GOP. Trump’s attempt at dictatorship has started already.
Trump is well-known as a biblical scholar, with a focus on eschatology. Perhaps he has calculated the date of the Rapture, or the Second Coming itself. Christ’s, that is….
Sure, Trump is just a showman who tried to overthrow the government. Other similarities to Hitler are his deranged rallies and his propensity for calling people “vermin” and worse. His partner in crime, Vance, has promoted a book calling liberals “unhuman.” If that’s the kind of leadership Americans want, you can’t really blame them – it brought such glory to the Third Reich.
Kudos, Peter for showcasing this latest outrage by Trump. It was interesting, and infuriating to see that the MSM, led by the NYT and WaPo were days behind many Bloggers like yourself posting about this the day after he said it. Substack has many good essays about what he said, while todays EaPo features and OpEd saying he doesn't really mean what he is plainly stating in his rant.
The late Maya Angelou said it best;
""When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. People know themselves much better than you do. That's why it's important to stop expecting them to be something other than who they are" ~ Maya Angelou'
This is just setting the bar for the most extreme evangelicals, and is a trial ballon for the rest of them, and us. A christian nationalist autocracy will have no use for elections.
I'll take them at their word.
Former President Trump at a Friday event hosted by the conservative Christian organization Turning Point Action urged Christians to vote, saying they wouldn’t have to do it again if they got out there in November and elected him because “everything” would be “fixed.”
“Christians, get out and vote, just this time,” Trump exclaimed to a cheering crowd in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians” he added.
“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, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote,” Trump said.
Trump’s remarks point to the need for both parties to get their most fervent supporters to the polls in what is expected to a close election that may be determined by turnout.
Since more Christians in this country identify as Democrat than they do Republican, he's asking for something he might not want.
Source? Go to Pew Research, control for Buddhists, Hindus, Jehovans, Mormons, Muslims, and Nones.
You end up with: Dem - 50% Christian, Rep 35% Christian.
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