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| Trump tells Christians they won't have to vote anymore (Reuters) |
Do any reasonably objective Americans -- and by that we mean, those who have not been blinded by the MAGA light -- still doubt that Donald Trump plans to act as an authoritarian -- in other words, a dictator -- if elected to a second term as president in November?
Such doubts should have been erased some time ago, but in case they continue to bang around in a few craniums out there, We invite the owners of said craniums to read the following post with special care. The puzzle is not hard to solve. All you have to do is read Trump's words, straight from his own mouth, to understand that, yes, he does plan to act as a dictator if given a second chance at the White House. How many Americans truly believe our country would operate better under a dictatorship than it has under a democracy that has served us well for roughly 250 years? I can't imagine many Americans would honestly answer yes to that question. But let's suppose there are a few holdouts who can't quite bring themselves to trust Trump's own words; I guess those people should vote for Trump, but I hate to encourage anyone to essentially waste their vote -- or worse, cast a vote that could damage our country in ways that might never be fully repaired. (By the way, why would you vote for someone whose words you do not trust?) Everyone else. hopefully in droves -- like they are going to a Beyonce/Taylor Swift concert -- will vote for Kamala Harris in such overwhelming numbers that it runs Donald Trump and MAGA out of politics once and for all.
That's what the 2024 election comes down to anyway -- Democracy (Harris) vs. Dictatorship (Trump) Unless our body politic is more diseased than I thought, it should not be a close contest.
The crux of our post begins with a report at The Independent under the headline "Republicans try to brush off Trump’s claim Christians won’t need to vote anymore as ‘a joke’; New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu called the statement ‘a classic Trump-ism’ as he and other GOP members tried to downplay the remark."
U.S. News Reporter Katie Hawkinson isn't falling for the "it was a joke" rubbish," and you shouldn't either. Hawkinson writes:
Some Republican lawmakers are downplaying Donald Trump’s claim that Christians will never have to vote again if he is elected in November.
Trump made the remarks at the Believers’ Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida,, at an event hosted by Turning Point Action, a conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk.
There, Trump told the audience: “Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore...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.”
Now, some GOP lawmakers are looking to minimize the comments.
“I think he’s obviously making a joke about how bad things have been under Joe Biden, and how good they’ll be if we send President Trump back to the White House so we can turn the country around,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton told CNN.
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu called the remark a “classic Trump-ism.”
“I think he’s just trying to make the point that this stuff can be fixed,” the Republican governor told ABC News.
The Trump campaign also defended the former president’s comments.
“[Trump] was talking about uniting this country and bringing prosperity to every American, as opposed to the divisive political environment that has sowed so much division and even resulted in an assassination attempt,” campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Washington Post.
Anyone with three brain cells between their ears, should be able to tell that Cotton, Sununu, and Cheung are spewing nonsense. ("Bull excrement" would be another fitting term,) First, none of them mentions the obvious -- that Trump didn't just tell his Christian audience that he would fix what he thinks ails the country. he also said they would never have to vote again.
Why would he say that? Because that's what dictators do. They don't serve a certain term, they serve as long as they want to. And Trump has said publicly several times that he is game for being "President for Life", and he has no intention of leaving office again, as he did after losing to Joe Biden in 2020. To this day, Trump still claims that election was stolen from him, even though he never has presented a shred of evidence to back that up, and no judge in numerous court cases has agreed with him, either.
Bottom line: America would only need to discontinue elections if Trump refused to leave office. And that is precisely what he plans to do. One thing is clear: Democrats are not falling for this wobbly excuse for a hoax. Hawkinson reports:
Trump’s speech prompted an immediate backlash as Democratic lawmakers condemned the comments.
California Representative Adam Schiff called on voters to reject “authoritarianism.”
“Here Trump helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again,” Schiff said about the comment.
Democratic likely-nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign warned about Project 2025, a 900-page document developed by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and several former Trump administration officials to serve as a blueprint for the next Trump presidency. The document includes plans to expand Trump’s executive authority, replace civil servants with loyalists, crush abortion rights, attack civil rights for LGBTQ+ people and impose an anti-immigrant agenda.
“After the last election Trump lost, he sent a mob to overturn the results. This campaign, he has promised violence if he loses, the end of our elections if he wins, and the termination of the Constitution to empower him to be a dictator to enact his dangerous Project 2025 agenda on America,” James Singer, a Harris campaign spokesperson, said.
Wow, now that is a serious retort to Trump's tomfoolery. Every American needs to read Mr. Singer's words. Hawkinson writes:
Even some political leaders allied with Trump said the comments were unhelpful.
David Lane, founder of the American Renewal Project, a group dedicated to ensuring “every church in America” has a leader or congregant holding public office, told the Washington Post that Trump’s comments could discourage Christians from voting.
“[Trump] may have gotten a little over his skis,” Lane told the Post
Trump got "a little over his skis"? I would say Trump got "a lot over his skis." In fact, I doubt Trump even used skis. Why would you need them to spew copious amounts of lies at your Christian audience, while you assume they are too stupid to figure out what you are actually saying. This is where Trump's word salads come in handy. They tend to leave listeners so bored and confused that they can't begin to figure out what he is trying to say.
For more reaction from Democrats, we turn to an article at Politico:
Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.) posted the Trump clip on X and said: “The only way ‘you won’t have to vote anymore’ is if Donald Trump becomes a dictator.” And Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on X: “This year democracy is on the ballot, and if we are to save it, we must vote against authoritarianism. Here Trump helpfully reminds us that the alternative is never having the chance to vote again.”
Liberal commentator Keith Olbermann boiled it down to: “Oh. Trump just cancelled the 2028 election.”
Here is a final point for readers to consider. Elections are not just something we do out of boredom. They are constitutionally mandated, with key provisions found at Article 1, Section 4, Clause 1and Article 2). In short, elections are not just something we do because we happen to be passing by a polling place at a certain time and place. They are mandated by, and governed by, the U.S. Constitution. Would Trump have the authority to unilaterally suspend the constitution to do away with elections? I'm not a constitutional scholar, but my guess is "absolutely not." In fact, it might require a constitutional amendment to enact the kind of change Trump contemplates. and the chances or such an amendment passing likely would be close to zero.
This shows that Trump views the presidency as his personal plaything to do as he wishes without interference from the other two branches of government. In fact, he likely assumes there is only one branch, the executive, and the other two -- legislative and judicial -- could do nothing to stop his plans. But those two branches probably would sweep Trump's desired changes out the door, with dispatch. After all, they are supposed to provide checks and balances to the executive branch(Note: It seems Trump has never noticed that "beautiful Christians" don't just vote in presidential elections They also vote in state elections, for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, and more -- all of them governed by a bevy of laws about which Trump probably has no clue.
Perhaps the MAGAs have not considered this: Americans view voting as a privilege, not a chore. They want to vote -- sometimes to get slimy SOBs like Trump out of office -- and go out of their way to cast ballots. (Lord, knows our society and its laws don't make voting easy -- with elections generally falling on work days, with long lines except maybe early in the morning, at lunch, and late in the afternoon.) Trump's election changes will receive resistance from all directions, and he has neither the governmental savvy nor the experience to handle it.
Would you like a concise analysis of what Trump really is trying to do? We will have that for you in n upcoming post.)
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