I was sitting with a small group, and someone looking at his phone blurted out, “Trump was shot in Pennsylvania!” The person sitting across from me said, “Good.”
At first, I was shocked. Later, I was disheartened.
What happens when people you have known for years advocate violence, censorship, or intimidation to achieve a desired conclusion? Do those means justify any end?
Fear and harassment
I know people in our community who support Donald Trump for president, but they fear possible retribution from placing a yard sign in their yard or a Trump sticker on their car. They fear violence or the destruction of property.
Just last week, a 22-year-old man driving an ATV ran over an 80-year-old man in his front yard for displaying his support for Donald Trump. The elderly man is in critical condition in a Michigan hospital.
We have seen videos from past years where people were beaten in the streets for merely wearing a red Trump hat.
What should we do when people, most anonymous, in Fayette County ferociously troll and intimidate our neighbors on the internet simply because they support a particular candidate? We witnessed this in the Peachtree City mayor’s race three years ago up to the present.
I saw it personally when trolls with fake Facebook accounts began posting horrible lies about my immediate family members because I was writing columns three years ago about city council races in Peachtree City.
Months ago, I had Mayor Kim Learnard telling nasty, fabricated rumors to the public that my wife and I were divorced and our marriage had fallen apart, which is a total lie. I found out about it because one of the gullible recipients of her defamatory email offerings made the correspondence public on the Nextdoor app, thinking Learnard was being truthful.
I assume that Learnard took her malicious actions simply because I had written columns explaining to the readers how she was performing in elected office. Only once has Learnard ever attempted to counter a claim I made about her, and that did not go so well (see: https://thecitizen.com/2024/05/06/welcome-to-the-taxpayer-supported-mayor-kim-learnard-channel-all-kim-all-the-time/).
Who can forget Congress Member Maxine Waters in front of an angry crowd of young adults, directing them to intimidate cabinet members of the Trump administration, saying, “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd, and you tell them they’re not welcome.”
Plotting further against cabinet members through intimidation, Waters exclaimed, “The people are gonna turn on them, they’re gonna protest, they’re gonna absolutely harass them until they decide that they’re gonna tell the president ‘no I can’t hang with you.’”
There are people living in our community, people you know personally, who approve of these tactics. Why do they support it?
Hamstrung nation
Our nation is now incapable of debating many of the fundamental political problems facing this country.
Gee whiz, we have a city council in Peachtree City where council members cannot even get simple city government data regarding a $55 million fiscal year 2025 budget proposal because the mayor and the interim city manager will not permit it. Stop asking and just vote in favor of what they handed you (see: https://thecitizen.com/2024/07/11/council-nastiness-behind-the-scenes-of-massive-peachtree-city-budget-battle/).
“E pluribus unum” has tanked, and the national mainstream media is largely responsible. There is no such thing as a meaningfully significant policy discussion. It’s all pundits spouting catchphrases.
We can no longer have serious debates, much less civil conversations.
If you don’t like a Supreme Court ruling, threaten the justices like Senator Chuck Schummer did, propose adding more justices to the court, and don’t provide any protection for the justices from the crowds protesting outside their front doors.
Disagree with the CNN/MSNBC crowd, and you are a “racist, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic bigot, literally Hitler, and a Nazi fascist.”
If the lawfare is not working against Donald Trump and he is winning in the polls, just kill him.
Can’t see the forest for the trees
One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that many of the people who will be voting for Donald Trump are voting for Donald Trump himself. Honestly, I would never allow my daughters around Trump, and I do not appreciate his lifestyle. I would prefer someone more conservative.
Trump’s Queens, New York, trash-talking style only works because his political opponents are so shallow and self-serving that many voters believe the Republican and Democrat scoundrels deserve the verbal thrashing.
While Trump is an interesting figure, outside of the traditional mold of a modern president, his support derives from not being part of a large two-party bureaucracy that has shackled our independence as individuals, created legislative favoritism, and established a two-tier justice system.
Many of the Trump votes are against the forces that profit from holding Americans down, not necessarily for Donald Trump.
Voters recognize that upholding our revolutionary U.S. Constitution is our lifeline to real freedom and prosperity. Trump just happens to be the only candidate from outside the clutches of institutional politics.
If you oppose the movement to shred the Constitution and foster some forms of tyranny, such as fascism, Marxism, or any other form of oppression, think carefully about who to vote for this November.
Democrats appear to believe that Trump is their problem. Consequently, they fail to see the significant number of people who oppose the Democrats’ willingness to promote a government that de-emphasizes basic freedom in exchange for a totalitarian model that selects the winners and the losers in the most brutal of ways, all under the guise of fairness.
What they do not understand is that most are not voting for Donald Trump; instead, they are voting against those willing to dismantle our Constitutional protections that offer the greatest chance at a free and meaningful life.
Plenty of us have problems with Donald Trump, typical problems you have with politicians, including morals and trustworthiness. Donald Trump is not the first politician we have ever said these things about. They all have weaknesses and are broken vessels in a political system.
Trump voters recognize that in a free country, what we cannot survive is the weaponization of our institutions against our survival. There are plenty of examples in world history to prove that point.
They cannot help themselves
Eight shots were fired, one dead, and two injured. People are already saying it was a made-up “false flag.”
President Biden briefly called for cooling the rhetoric, but that was short-lived.
Just when you think the left-leaning politicians and media outlets might retract the hyperbole around Trump and stop painting him as some sort of modern-day Hitler who’s a threat to democracy, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez immediately filled the void, saying, “Donald Trump is also very old and a racist and a neo-Nazi.”
Threat to democracy
A lot of Democrat elites like to throw the “threat to democracy” tagline out there. They keep painting Trump with that brush, but I have yet to see one threat he has posed to democracy. On the other hand, those same Democrats appear to be cheering the threats to our representative democracy.
Not prosecuting criminal behavior is a major urban Democrat rally point. Here is what Vice President Kamala Harris had to say: “Let’s talk about America’s failure when it comes to understanding how you create safe communities, and by that, I mean this: it is outdated, it is wrong-headed thinking to think that the only way you’re going to get communities to be safe is to put more police officers on the street. What we have to do and what we will do is reimagine public safety.”
How are those reimagined public safety measures like cutting law enforcement budgets going in the urban areas?
Stealing up to $1,000 in merchandise and getting away with it does not seem like such a good idea now. Stores are leaving. Likewise, putting accused rapists and murderers immediately back on the streets without bail does not give off that “safe community” vibe either.
CBS News pointed out that Donald “Trump falsely accuses Harris of donating to Minnesota Freedom Fund, bailing out ‘dangerous criminals.’” You will recall the Minnesota Freedom Fund was created to bail out the Antifa and BLM members charged with arson, assault, and other serious crimes.
Of course, Elon Musk called out CBS for lying about Trump lying and reposted Harris’ tweet that reads: “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota” (June 1, 2020, 3:34 PM Minnesota Time). The tweet also contained a donation link.
What about the seven million illegal immigrants allowed across our southern border? It’s a massive violation of federal law. Illegal drugs pour through, and people on the terrorist watch list come across.
Remember when Harris was finally asked about her failures as the border czar? Harris declared, “We are going to the border, we’ve been to the border, so this whole, this whole, this whole thing about the border, we’ve been to the border, we’ve been to the border.”
Interviewer Lester Holt corrected Harris, replying, “You haven’t been to the border.” Harris came back with, “And I haven’t been to Europe.”
Thanks to Elon Musk’s release of the “Twitter files,” we know that the federal government was actively pressuring social media companies to censor certain political conservative accounts, many of which dealt with the 2020 election and health issues around COVID-19.
Who is the real threat to democracy?
Is political unity a good thing?
According to Tho Bishop of the Mises Institute, “Unity in the hands of most politicians is a word that should send shivers down one’s spine. Political unity means bipartisanship, the triumph of the regime. National unity gave us the New Deal, the Civil Rights Act, the Patriot Act, and the Iraq War, among other disasters. It is wrapped up in the state’s most powerful propaganda, usually some form of paternal patriotism.”
“It should also give us pause that the closest Trump came to a ‘unity’ moment during his first term was the nation’s response to Covid-19, resulting in the canonization of [Anthony] Fauci and prompting the greatest wealth transfer in modern history,” says Bishop.
Tax burdens grow, government spending accelerates, program outcomes are poor, and federal indebtedness can endanger future generations. These are generally bi-partisan problems.
There is no doubt that many of our governments, from local to federal, need reform, but unity on issues in the federal sphere seems to always favor the special interests.
Perhaps the answer is we need less government, a deeper understanding of serious issues, and average Americans to debate civilly with one another again.
[Brown is a former mayor of Peachtree City and served two terms on the Fayette County Board of Commissioners. You can read all his columns by clicking on his photo below.]
When I asked the lefty commenters here to make the case for Kamala without mentioning Trump, sex or race, I was hoping to learn, “why her?” If she is elected, as we found out with Biden, we have to live with the impact of their flawed policies and decision-making.
I’ll give points to Fiction for trying to make the case for Kamala, and I appreciate his shot at real debate. It is also true that the Democrat platform will tell us more directionally, but that will be the case no matter who is at the top of the ticket.
Gman did a good job of countering Fiction’s points, so I won’t address how flimsy I think most are (although I’m not anti-NATO as long as each contributes their share, nor against funding Ukraine if we make budget cuts to prioritize it.) Note to Fiction, there’s a “Christian nationalism” boogeyman hiding under your bed.
Missing is Kamala’s record of failure on illegal immigration as Border Czar; spending trillions that blew out the US budget and caused rampant inflation; withholding weapons from Israel and backing Hamas sympathizers; funneling billions to Iran; first delaying, then restricting Ukraine from using US weapons in Russia; and of course, the epic fail of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Her policy positions include hiking taxes on all taxpayers, seizing legal guns, open borders, ending private healthcare, banning fracking and offshore drilling, protecting illegals from deportation, defunding the police, free healthcare, education, housing etc for illegals, and co-sponsoring the Green New Deal. She compared ICE to the KKK, and raised money for jailed Antifa rioters.
We also know she is a San Francisco, California socialist, named as more liberal than Socialist Bernie Sanders during her time in the Senate (GovTrack 2019). We don’t know more because she is using Biden’s “hide in the basement” campaign strategy with no unscripted interviews in the last 2 weeks.
Remember Bill. “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” You may claim Harrisw is responsible for everything Biden has done, but facts don’t show it.
There is no such title as “Border Czar,” though H.Res.1371 – Strongly condemns the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border. But we know how things work in the House. I’m sorry. They don’t. The term “border czar” was colloquially used to refer to Vice President Kamala Harris in 2021. However, Biden tasked her with addressing the root causes of illegal immigration into the United States, not overseeing border security or immigration policy. As VP, Harris hasn’t executed any of the federal budget, other than her staff appropriations. She hasn’t withheld weapons from Israel, Biden did to keep us from partnering with Israel to commit genocide. I would have done the same. As for restricting Ukraine, that’s simply a matter of keeping Russia from having an excuse to use strategic weapons on other sovereign nations. I don’t think it wise to get into a nuclear shooting match with Russia over Ukraine. By the way, if you advocate for Ukraine, who refused to provide Ukraine with any financial support for nearly six months to defend against a Russian invasion? As for Afghanistan, I didn’t like Biden doing what his predecessor should have done.
What’s wrong with being liberal? I’m only considered a liberal by those who have no idea as to what they are talking about. As for your other innuendos, provide facts. Harris has been a candidate for what, two weeks? One might give her a little time to develop her positions on a multitude of issues. It’s not like she has been running for Presidential office in the last three or four years like someone else.
Doug – Let’s start with Harris’s responsibility for Bidenomics, Afghanistan, Israel, et al. She’s the co-pilot on the Biden / Harris administration, and she has claimed she was “the last person in the room” when Biden made major decisions. She co-owns them.
CNN, MSNBC, etc news reports of the last several years include the term “Border Czar” for the responsibilities to stop illegal immigration that Biden gave Kamala. Everyone knows this. Or are you trying to re-write history to claim she had no results to produce? She had a task on the border and she failed.
Republican resistance to funding Ukraine earlier this year was based on 1) forcing Biden to address illegal immigration, and 2) a belief that the war is not winnable and we don’t have the money to fund it endlessly. Both are legitimate reasons to oppose funding Ukraine. The border is a national disaster, as is our national debt.
I’m a conservative, not beholden to any political party or politician. I do my own research and thinking. If I disagree, I disagree, and won’t just regurgitate talking points. I would have preferred funding Ukraine by cutting other federal spending.
Nothing “wrong” with being a liberal, depending on what part of the lefty spectrum you claim. A center-left Bill Clinton liberal is a far different animal than the Kamala Harris / Bernie Sanders / AOC socialist wing of today’s Democrats.
Kamala has said and backed all of the things I wrote. It’s not innuendo. Of course, her views do not represent the majority of Americans, which is why she has to flip-flop and hide from interviews during her campaign so low-information voters aren’t aware how far-left she is.
One last thing: Kamala had a front row seat to the mental decline and dysfunction of Joe Biden, yet she repeatedly lied to us about his capabilities, no matter what we observed ourselves. I doubt there has been a more consequential deception than hiding Joe’s cognitive problem from all of us. Inexcusable.
Let’s try to elevate the conversation here to the things that will matter to all Americans, namely whether each candidate’s policies will be good for America, and what the successes and failures of the two tell us about their likelihood of success as President. We’re not vetting a future son (or daughter) in law here, folks, just hiring someone to do a very big and consequential job.
Enough of this over-the-top Trump hatred and bloviation. Heck, Doug Tucker even accuses Trump of withholding funds to Ukraine against the Russian invasion, which happened in February 2022 on Biden’s watch (and after Biden said a “minor incursion” by Russia was OK).
Goodness knows there’s plenty not to like or admire in Kamala Harris’s personality, character and career, but we’ll set that aside for now as well.
So, here’s a challenge for the TDS-obsessed commenters: tell us why Kamala Harris will be the better President without mentioning Trump, gender or race. In other words, put down the emotional scars you wear on your sleeves and make the case for Harris based on her results in office and the policies she backs.
That will be the start of an honest debate worthy of discussion in our community.
The current Executive Branch already has Cabinet Secretaries, agency directors, and staff in place. We have seen them function and know what to expect in the future. The opposition party has demonstrated they cannot work together to accomplish anything.
The incumbent party has plenty of loose canons with extremely expensive demands, seemingly to buy votes. The opposition party wants to turn back time to the era when they were preadolescent.
As to which party is selling their support the most, I don’t know. Morality and integrity are not character traits among politicians.
When there is any doubt, I try to go with whatever is best for people.
MCBill, you are posting under an opinion piece headline of “Who and what are the real threats to democracy.” Stay on point. What matters most to many educated Americans, is their inalienable rights and freedoms that are grounded within a representative democracy. This is why our forefathers as immigrants came to this country; basically, for an opportunity and to participate within that democracy.
As for the term “TDS” coined by you and other MAGAs, its origins can easily be traced back to the Never-Trumpers within the Republican party that saw Lorde D-bag at Trump Tower come down the escalators to formally announce his candidacy in 2015. These very same sentiments formed the political action committee (The Lincoln Project) which was founded in 2019 by moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members opposed to Trumpism, and what it really stands for.
Taking Bill’s challenge. Harris’ presidency will hopefully restore (or at least not reduce further) women’s reproductive rights. Harris promises to take climate change seriously and enact legislation to ease global warming. She will respect our global allies, especially NATO, and continue to support Ukraine against the Russian aggression. She will appoint rational people to the federal courts who can actually read the Constitution. She will veto any legislation that promotes crazy gun rules. Very importantly, she will respect the 1st Amendment’s prohibition of the establishment clause and veto any unconstitutional “Christian nationalism” legislation. She is not likely to interfere with the independence of the Fed. to establish interest rates.
These are but a few items to mention. It will be more clear when the Democratic platform is officially presented.
Only STF took up your challenge bill and listed policies he thinks Harris will promote. Yes, I think she’ll try to restore abortion on demand as a national right which I disagree with. The Supremes got it right when they left that issue up to the States and their respective voters. And since that decision and a couple others the Dems want to change the composition and rules of the Supremes to suit their narrative. So we can expect that under Harris which I disagree with. Climate change and how to deal with it is a big issue. I don’t think any Party has a reasonable solution to it, certainly not one that doesn’t cost trillions in taxes, more government control and with no guarantee of being effective. Trump wants to make us energy independent and that will include fossil fuels while we search for improved cleaner methods but not disrupting the entire economy and creating inflation and job loss. As to foreign policy look at the state of the world during the current administration. We were much more stable under Trump. And now the economy is looking even shakier. So bottom line to me is Harris’s policies, like Biden’s will be bad for America.
I doubt anything I write will change any opinion. We all seem to be locked into our own beliefs based on our sources of information most of which sadly today are not reliable. We are a hopelessly divided nation politically and I don’t see anything onthe horizon to change that. But we’ll vote and hope for the best.
STF did a good job. I’m not that smart; I don’t have the Democratic Party’s platform. I can say the Republican Party’s platform is misinforming, if not downright lying on one or more of their declarations specific to the previous Humpty Dumpty administration. My sources are the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer, the Census Bureau, and the 43rd Republican National Convention’s “The 2024 Republican Platform Make America Great Again!” The Republican Platform states in its preamble, ” Yet after nearly four years of the Biden administration, America is now rocked by Raging Inflation, Open Borders, Rampant Crime, Attacks on our Children, and Global Conflict, Chaos, and Instability.” As facts will have it, after the first three years, the Biden administration reduced the violent crime rate more than the first three years of Humpty Dumpty’s, according to dividing the FBI’s national number of violent crimes by the Census reported national population. I’ll address the other items in the platform at a later date. I can’t compare Humpty Dumpty to our Vice President. I don’t have the Democratic Party’s platform yet. I’m sure I will report more of this rubbish as I sift through it.
I apologize. Please disregard my above comments for now. After sleeping on it, I want to verify my data again. The Census data for the years 2018 and 2019 seems a bit flakey and I don’t want to compromise my creditability. Please accept my apology.
I think it appropriate to say the Republican Party is off its rocker stating, “Yet after nearly four years of the Biden administration, America is now rocked by” … “Rampant Crime.” The best crime data I can ascertain for now does show considerable decreases in our consolidated national violent crimes data during the Biden administration. My sources are the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer, the Census Bureau, and the 43rd Republican National Convention’s “The 2024 Republican Platform Make America Great Again!” Unfortunately, for 2023 I have to use data reported by the “Guardian,” March 19, 2024. The “Guardian” stated, “Crime in the US fell significantly in 2023, according to new FBI data, with a 13% decline in murder and drops in reported violent crime and reported property offenses. Both robbery and aggravated assault dropped by 5% from 2022, the FBI data shows, while all violent crime declined by 6%. However, the statistics are based on figures collected from only 79% of law enforcement agencies in the US. Experts have previously warned that data can be “patchy” given inconsistency in reporting by the local agencies who supply the numbers. And the new stats are unaudited as the FBI is not scheduled to release its official figures and analysis concerning crime in 2023 until this upcoming October.”
Given the references, I can at this time post the following about violent crime in America: 2017 – 0.13464% decrease, 2018 – 2.45164% decrease, 2019 – -0.16017% decrease, 2020 – 5.01538% increase, 2021 – 2.14910% decrease, 2022 – 1.24564% decrease, 2023 (estimate) – 6.00000%.
Given COVID-19 and the Census for 2020, the data is probably as accurate as the biased “Guardian” article for 2023. I still have “Raging Inflation, Open Borders,” … “Attacks on our Children, and Global Conflict, Chaos, and Instability” to research for the truth. Finally, I apologize for not having my act together with my first post on this subject.
Mr. Brown, you say ‘They keep painting Trump with that brush, but I have yet to see one threat he has posed to democracy.’
Two days ago:
“That statement is very simple, I said, ‘Vote for me, you’re not gonna have to do it ever again,’” Trump told Ingraham.
Ingraham did everything in her power to set the ball on a tee for Trump to clarify that point or change course and he doubled down on his original statement.
If you do not see him as a narcissistic, self-serving idolizer of dictatorship then you might want to have your eyes and ears checked.
Some of the commenters here proved Steve correct. For instance, see how the lefties come out to attack like piranhas on a steak at a mere mention of President Trump.
It would be one thing if progressives had facts or a logical argument to accompany their opinions, but sadly their views travel alone without much thought baggage. Bumper-sticker snark and wild overstatements take the place of real debate.
Take the misuse of Trump’s “dictator” remarks. Here’s Snopes(1/24/24), no friend of conservatives, on what Trump actually said:
“Trump’s remarks, when viewed in their full context, came as he pointed and smiled at Hannity and clarified that his usage of the term “dictator” — which came from Hannity’s own reading of reporting and remarks made in the news media — referred to two items: Trump’s policies regarding the U.S.-Mexico border and the drilling of oil (on Day One). “After that, I’m not a dictator, OK?,” Trump said, laughing and then agreeing verbally just seconds later when Hannity said Trump was only referencing his own policy proposals.
Lenin said that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. Some of you all have swallowed mainstream and social media exaggerations about Trump hook, line and sinker.
Our task is to hire someone to lead our country. We should be focused on substantive policy issues and the track records of the two candidates, not unsupported personal attacks on either one.
I think you’re spot on Bill. But I also think it’s hopeless to think that it’ll change anyone’s mind because the arguments are always over the person rather than the policies. I say compare the world today under the current administration and its policies as opposed to the former administration and vote accordingly.
Gman. Are you writing about Humpty Dumpty’s politics of irresponsibility (not funding the Government), withholding funds helping Ukraine against a Russian invasion, stacking a Supreme Court (with the aid of Ginsburg), denying election results to the point of VP/Senate President coercion, hush money trial toelicking, and discriminating against everything non-Trump. It’s the Trump Party politics that makes Trump the target. If he were just fleecing people in his real estate ventures we would leave him alone. However, he’s decided politics is a good investment, making him the head of the snake.
Doug, your criticisms pale in comparison to what has happened under this current administration. We were at peace with most of the world, the Mideast was calmer under Trump’s Abraham Accord tenets, Iran was being sanctioned, the economy was strong, unemployment was low as was inflation and the border was more secure. I’ll take that any day over our current state of affairs. Personally I’m very pleased that the Supreme Court is more Conservative. Trump said that was one of his goals and with a Republican Senate he helped achieve that. About the only thing you mentioned that does bother me about Trump is that he did help create discontent with his election denial rhetoric which indirectly led to the Capitol riot. But I believe he called for a peaceful march. I think he also offered the assistance of the National Guard which was refused. But fair point he should not have encouraged the protesters in any way. The hush money trial was a political vendetta with a series of misdemeanors somehow conflated into a felony. I do wish we had people of better character running for the highest office but since that’s not the case I’ll vote for the one who I believe will be a better leader for America with better policies.
Bill – Here’s a fact. 45 tried to overturn the fair 2020 Presidential election results. Over 50 courts have ruled against his claims, yet he persists in promulgating this lie. He has been indicted criminally both on the federal and state levels for these unconstitutional behaviors.
You don’t need any better reason to oppose him than this. Maybe you can explain away and minimize this illegal behavior, but it is impossible for me to support an insurrectionist for the highest office in our country.
Bill. What facts will you like? There are plenty. Do indictments mean anything? It’s difficult to focus on the Trump Party’s issues. There have been a few times the Trump Party toelickers have been offered compromises but refuse to come to the table (i.e., budget negotiations, aid for Ukraine, immigration, etc.). Rather than trying to move forward for the sake of the nation, the Trump Party spends its time trying to beat and manipulate the law, defeat anything and everything from the Democratic Party, and promote the Trump Party for its own sake. Trump can’t lead the country, anyone outside his family seems to get fired or quit. The man does not demonstrate integrity or any leadership qualities that I can see. I don’t think the man can stand on his own feet without an attorney.
The question that Hannity asked was of the potential for abuse of power that was made (by others). The corruption of power claim was framed as possible retribution against his political enemies. Hannity even gave him an opportunity to walk things back after his response. But no, his supporters use it today how they wish, drilling & border security as stated in the interview. But most Americans knew what he really meant.
However what’s really disturbing is that his MAGA supporters today have no issues whatsoever with their candidate making this statement (dictator). It reminded me of the comment that was made about McCain’s status as a POW. Pretty darn messed up coming from any political candidate. So it only stands to reason that his MAGA supporters have no issues therefore with the US Constitution being curbed for at least a day so that they can achieve their ideological goals quickly. Yep, Victor Orban salutes with a wink this thought process from his global friend.
“Democrats appear to believe that Trump is their problem. Consequently, they fail to see the significant number of people who oppose the Democrats’ willingness to promote a government that de-emphasizes basic freedom in exchange for a totalitarian model that selects the winners and the losers in the most brutal of ways, all under the guise of fairness.”
This is true all the way down to the bone.
You state a hard truth. Trump is simply taking advantage of the situation, giving the Democratic Party a fake target and the Republican Party a fake leader. Knowing the fear and insecurity most Trump supporters have of anything representing a course correction for capitalism, I’ll still stick with speaking and voting against the Republican Party for now. If the people propping up the Republican Party come to their senses, I’ll support the Republican Party again. If they don’t, that’s okay. I’ll weigh in as a humanist rather than a hate-monger.
Quoting the Mises Institute is looking beyond democracy and the economics to support democracy. Using Rep. Maxine Waters and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez as typical Democratic Party spokespeople also stretches reality. In my opinion, there isn’t a Republican Party. They turned those lights out several years ago. Why attack Trump? It’s because Trump seems to demonstrate no respect for democracy or anything other than himself. To him, it appears, we are all losers. While his followers believe his lies and drink the punch, the rest of us have little option but to support the Democratic Party.
“Trump just happens to be the only candidate from outside the clutches of institutional politics.” Come on Steve, you could have gotten away with that line eight years ago. In a March 2016 town hall interview (CNN), DJT was asked about the top three functions of the US government. His response reinforced what many believed then, he’s absolutely clueless. Perhaps that it what made him so endearing to you. He was an outsider that wanted to drain the swamp.
But fast-forward in just a short time where he and his cronies learned some things along the way that you can try and circumvent the checks and balances of power within our government system that our Founding Fathers believed in for a more robust increased power of the Executive branch. Now that’s a threat to democracy. The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” is one example that outlines some of these policy steps towards higher Executive powers. Sure DJT distanced himself from these claims recently, but then make no mistake that most of his clueless supporters do favor this increased level of authoritarianism. Heck, there’s no talk of the swamp anymore and his supporters don’t even recognize or believe in a two-party political system any longer. One that would provide for overall checks and balances.
Things not to do:
Don’t shout fire in a crowded theater. Don’t tell citizens in a democracy that you are going to be a dictator. Don’t tell citizens in a democracy that there will be no future need for voting if you are elected.
Steve, do you really advocate this behavior?
Hi STF. I hope you are well. I seem to remember President Trump sending out a tweet asking supporters to stay peaceful on 6 Jan. I also seem to remember Capitol police holding the doors open for people to come into the capitol.
PS Haven’t watched FOX since they called Arizona in seconds after it closed.
Hi Neil – I trust that you are well also. I saw the testimony of Capitol Police at the Congressional hearings, and they hardly described their ordeals as a welcome party. Also, the presidential tweet was far too little and far too late. It would have been more effective not to have sent the masses to disrupt Congress in the first place.
We’ll just have to disagree on the 45th president’s success in living up to his oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Good luck with your news sources.
Steve writes,”but I have yet to see one threat he [Trump] has posed to democracy.” I guess he slept through January 6, 2020. It must be very comforting to live out on the range in Fox-world where “never is heard a discouraging word” about your team.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Steve Brown is a clear and present threat to the national security and the democracy of the United States of America. Prove me wrong.