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Trump's Not 'Bluffing': Inside the MAGA Efforts To Make a Second Term Even More Extreme (www.rollingstone.com)

submitted 4 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] JimSamtanko@lemm.ee 46 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

And yet there’s still a bunch of clowns pushing people to not vote.

Imagine what it is they want, knowing that not voting doesn’t stop an election, and most of them have been outed for not giving a shit about Palestine knowing Trump will do much worse.

[-] lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

I'm one of those people who answer the polls. "Party?" Republican. "Do you support Donald Trump?" Hell ya! (Hell no) I have a few friends who do the same thing. I hope it throws the polls off enough to give Trump false hope, or at least lights a fire under Biden's ass. Another 4 years of Trump and we'll be fighting Civil War 2.0. Just hoping all those McDonald's burgers catches up to him and he has the big one.

[-] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Careful as having polls that make it look like candidate X is going to win for sure might make it so people who would have voted for their opponent will not show up to vote as they assume they'll be wasting their time...

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

I have zero expectations for him to win. I'm more wondering what they're going to try this time when he doesn't. 'Jan 6: Part II' isn't going to happen, and I fear we're all going to be dealing with militia insurgency bullshit for the foreseeable future.

[-] mutant_zz@lemmy.world 33 points 4 months ago

Why would you have zero expectations that he'll win? Were you not around in 2016?

[-] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I honestly doubt he's going to lose. It would be nice to have faith in this country, but...

[-] RattlerSix@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Not to speak for the other person but I feel the same way. His win in 2016 was a fluke. He barely squeaked out an electoral college win aided by a bad Democratic candidate that nobody really liked, a steady drip of disinformation from Russia/wikileaks, and Comey. Then in 2020 when the incumbent has a huge advantage, he got his ass kicked hard. I've wondered for the past 4 years is he's gained any voters and after Jan 6th, 80+ indictments, 34 guilty verdicts, and more criminal trials to come, I have a hard time believing he's gained millions of votes.

But goddamn, everybody ignore that and VOTE!!

[-] Irremarkable@fedia.io 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I wish I had the same mindset, but moderates have shown time and time again throughout history that they will side with outright fascism rather than any amount of actual social progress.

The conclusion is the same though. Get your ass our there and vote

E: words is hard

[-] Dragomus@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

It was a fluke indeed, no one really expected him to win, he himself the least, he was mostly there for the attention.

But once he was sworn in and the dust settled, the country was stuck with him and would need to ride it out. Problem is, Trump liked playing with the big boys, feeling important and enjoyed being gawked at on his golf course... Not to forget he could use the cash flow, billing the government millions, putting his friends and family in places they had no right to be, it was all useful, and he made himself useful for those keeping him in his seat.

But near 2020 Trump realized he needed to stay there or his world would come crumbling down from debt and his illegitimate activities hidden by his white house shine. So he would go and try to keep the position. Alas that decision did not come with enough time beforehand to cement his position. So they had no preparations on hand when the time was there and his force of headbobbers plainly was too small to push him past the election results.

But that was a lesson learned, and he and those helping him come with the 2025 plan, try to get as many pro-trumpers in useful positions before the election, years in advance, so that they can help push him back in the white house, no matter what the actual vote says...

And here we are; The judiciary system is heavily tilted towards stalling all Trump court cases beyond the elections. The electorate is slithering its way through covert adjustments of voter rules and registration zones. And the legislative shows all signs on this time really refusing to certify losing results.

Meanwhile Trump has a more focused mob now that he can rile up and has more solid plans/experience on what kind of action or roadblock is needed where.

I really do hope cooler heads will prevail. But the months before and after the switch to 2025 will be quite the ride. And possibly bring enormous changes for the whole world.

[-] Boddhisatva@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Not to speak for the other person but I feel the same way. His win in 2016 was a fluke.

It won't be a fluke, this time. Republicans in Red states have spent the last couple years ramming through laws making it harder to vote. And they will certainly be claiming massive fraud again, sans evidence, and tying up certification in their states for as long as possible giving SCOTUS the chance to step in like they did in Florida 2000 when SCOTUS handed the states votes to Bush.

Worse still, republicans in swing states have been trying to use the theory of the independent sate legislature to enact legislation granting themselves the power to overrule the will of the voters and award the state's electoral votes to the candidate of their own choosing. Don't shake your head too quickly at that idea. At least three members of SCOTUS support the idea.

Even so, three justices—Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas—have spent two years campaigning for the independent-state-legislature doctrine in judicial statements and dissents. None of those writings carried the force of law, but together they served as invitations for a plaintiff to bring them a case suitable to their purpose. A fourth justice, Brett Kavanaugh, wrote a concurrence in which he invited the North Carolina Republicans in the Moore case to return to the Supreme Court after losing an emergency motion. Where John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett stand on the doctrine is unclear.

You can be certain that there will be lawsuits filed within hours of the election claiming fraud and that the legislatures in those states can name their own electors. I wouldn't even be surprised to see right wing terrorists attacking polling stations, disguised as AFTIFA of course, in order to give the legislatures ammo to support those efforts.

This could be the ugliest election in the history of this nation. The forces of evil are doing all they can to hand Trump another term.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 3 points 4 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Indeed, this sentiment is shared widely among the upper echelon of Trumpland and the MAGAfied Republican Party, with various officials and conservatives with a direct line to the former president insisting that so-called “moderates” or alleged “establishment” types will be tamed or purged, if Trump retakes power next year.

Trump’s outbursts that were once shot down by fellow senior administration officials — including ones about invading and bombing Mexico — are now so thoroughly accepted as reasonable positions in the mainstream of the GOP that there are entire legislative and nonprofit apparatuses pushing the idea.

The list runs profusely long, but it includes criminally probing and possibly imprisoning political enemies and the prosecutors who’ve gone after him; unleashing troops on Democratic-controlled cities whenever he wants; cracking down on legal and illegal immigration on a draconian, unprecedented scale; further solidifying his anti-democratic lies about the 2020 election into policy and party dogma; insulating himself from his own array of indictments; and turning the Department of Justice and other nominally independent organs of the U.S. government into his own personal protection racket.

Those involved with diligently crafting these legal and policy blueprints — including at an array of conservative think tanks aligned with Trump — will often brief the former president and provide regular updates and ideas for his campaign.

Numerous sources with direct knowledge of the situation say it is widely expected in Trumpworld that if the ex-president wins back the White House, hard-right conservatives in the vein of Stephen Miller and Mike Davis will be handed positions of considerable power and influence.

Davis, a prolific tweeter, has threatened to indict, detain, denaturalize, and deport a handful of Trump critics with whom he argues on Twitter, including former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan and Tim Miller, a former GOP operative and now a journalist at The Bulwark.

The original article contains 2,456 words, the summary contains 305 words. Saved 88%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] Nobody@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Even if he somehow wins, Trump will find a way to fuck it up. He has been failing upward with daddy’s money his entire life.

[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Why do conservatives insist on being evil pieces of shit? Why do they work so hard to cause harm to innocent, vulnerable people who were just minding their own goddamned business?

Conservatives are consistently incapable of empathy, unable to engage in any interaction in good faith, and seem incapable of the most basic human decency. I cannot see any reason they should be permitted to continue to endanger humanity. Yet, here we are. Tolerating the existence of those who are working as hard as they can to kill and oppress everyone around them. They don't hide it. They celebrate it.

Nothing good in all of human history has ever come from conservatism, yet we continue to politely pretend it is in some way a legitimate political position. It is not. It is not normal to be a conservative. It is simply an excuse to justify causing harm to others. That is the only purpose of identifying as a conservative; false legitimacy for one's inability to be a decent human.

There is no place in a modern culture for harmful, hate-based ideologies like conservatism. It should be rejected outright wherever it is seen. Conservatives should not be tolerated any more than any other hate group. It is unethical to do business or keep relationships with such trash.

this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024

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