Might as well start this now, as it has already started. Trump is again lying that the election will be stolen if he loses. He wants his supporters to never accept his loss. He’s going to proclaim that he won the election before the night is over. He’ll demand that the counting stop, just as he did in 2020, and his supporters and Republicans will echo the same message. He’s going to say he won all 50 states. Georgia will again be in the crosshairs, but this time, there is a good chance a Harris win there will not be certified by the state. ps Yes, a convincing Harris win might avoid all of this, but that’s not how elections should be. It should not be that a Trump win by one vote is accepted while a Harris win by one vote is never accepted.
What I find puzzling isn't that die-hard MAGA will buy into Trump's claim. What I find crazy is that there are people who know the election wasn't stolen from Trump in 2020, understand that if Trump loses in 2024, it won't be stolen, but they don't find these claims from the Donald problematic, or potentially dangerous. They feel that way even after witnessing Jan 6th. They feel that way even after seeing Trump endorsing and in some cases getting election deniers in positions of determining the election in office in various states. They basically claim "Sure all that stuff happened, and yes, Trump is making claims about if he doesn't win in 2024 it will be stolen... But that's just Trump. I don't take that seriously. If others would just ignore it, it wouldn't be a problem and go away" They say this having already seen what happened before. It's the ultimate ostrich move.
I can’t fully explain it, but my guess is that they saw the system hold after Jan6 and believe that 2024 will be fine. Authoritarianism often takes root because people underestimate the danger, how quickly it can seize power, and mistakenly believe it can be contained.
I believe that might be their thinking, but while the system held, it wasn't fine. People lost their lives, the certification was delayed and didn't even happen until January 7th. I don't understand why they think that would be okay again even if the system held. With almost all issues, I don't believe people will change their opinion based on anything said here. But I am genuinely interested in understanding the 'why'.
This is from today—Trump is intentionally making another premature claim to seed his narrative of election fraud in case he loses, this time based on an expert interviewed by a Russian—I mean, Tucker Carlson.
It’s three things. One if you repeat a lie enough many will believe it. Two is that a lot of people have very short attention spans and memories. I think a lot have forgotten about how bad and how much Trump tried to overturn the last election. Three is they given how fragmented our information sources are and how so many rely upon partisan sources it’s very easy to muddle up trusts in our systems. This is why it’s important to remind people that Trump himself has acknowledged he lost on more than one occasion.
His pathological lies have reached new highs daily. It's absolute madness that anyone trusts a word out of his mouth. He really is a despicable human being.
If we ever get past this madness, and if we ever again have two sane main candidates for POTUS again, we should never forget the people who decided to follow the orange one and set a shared sense of civil governance aside completely. I have sympathy in my heart and will have forgiveness, but we cannot afford to forget or let anyone forget what they did and said. We especially need to hold the politicians accountable for the rest of their careers. "Well, he was the candidate, so I had to support him." Nope. You didn't. Many of your party chose not to do so.
Maga was a slow cook from the failed bones and tears of Gingrich, Rove, Palin and tea bag years. They need a bigger and more inclusive base where the diehard bigots from the Southern Strategy start dying off hard. Idiocracy might be the norm until a bigger shock wakes up gerrymandered moderates who don't vote.
The only way we will get there is a sound electoral defeat of the Republican Party. You would think that losing in 2018, 2020, and having a red wave turn into a red trickle in 2022 would convince many in the GOP but it’s not.
You’re too old to fall for the bullshiit lies. Jan 6th was a set up all the way. Unless your woke liberal mind is totally gone and there is no way back to reality. If that’s the case, please carry on.
I doubt there will be a decisive electoral defeat because of the deep political divisiveness. Even if it happens, Trump would claim the Democrats cheated, bringing us right back to the same issue. It feels like all we have now is time... and time heals. Trump won’t be around forever. The real question is whether the system can hold up until that happens. It’s a bleak outlook, but the '60s were also a dark time. The '70s forgot the '60s, overnight. Things can change quickly, for better or worse. If things improve, past generations will be forgiven, and the next generation will move on. These 'bad' politicians will be forgotten, only for another version to rise in the future. It seems like we never really learn from history.
Trump pledges to jail opponents, baselessly suggests election will be stolen from him https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/08/trump-election-threats/ Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump threatened to jail people “involved in unscrupulous behavior” related to voting in the 2024 election, suggesting without evidence that the election could be stolen from him — and prompting widespread condemnation from election officials who said such rhetoric could provoke violence. Trump’s remarks, made in a social media posting on Saturday night, represent the most overt signal yet that he may not accept the result in November if he loses. Trump has a history of railing against election officials and raising unsubstantiated claims of fraud when his political fortunes appear uncertain, as they do now in his extremely close race with Vice President Kamala Harris. His comments are his most direct threats made against those tasked with administering elections this year. In reality, illegal voting is exceedingly rare. But Trump appears to be replaying his efforts to sow doubt about the voting process ahead of the 2020 election — actions that contributed to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol….
Trump also said they will be "prosecuted at levels never seen before in our Country". It's the language of Putin and Maduro, dictators who use arrests and intimidation to silence opposition. Maduro has recently arrested more than 2,200 political opponents since claiming victory in an election that the US, EU, and other Latin American countries have rejected. This rhetoric is designed to intimidate, daring people not to cross him and forcing them into silence and inaction.
