POST 1102
Congratulations To The Crazies
Donald Trump said at the presidential debate,
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in [Haitian immigrants], they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Rolling Stone reported on Thursday,
“’City of Springfield received a bomb threat that has prompted an immediate response from local and regional law enforcement,’ the city wrote on its Facebook page. “
Authorities found no bomb. What they did find was a verbal trigger from Trump and Vance, both jolting a shot from Trump’s extremist supporters.
Consider this bomb threat following Trump’s vile statement, in the context of what follows.
There Is Far Worse Than Trump To Fear
Trump will go away, either by death at the polls, imprisonment or death from Big Macs and fries. But what will not go away are the millions who follow him, some of whom worship him, many of whom respond as reliably as Pavlov’s dog, only violently.
Trump has little power that is his own. His power comes from the consent of his MAGA hordes and he wields it with stunning cruelty, capriciousness, selfishness, ignorance and a lot of other words you yourself can append to this sentence.
Traditional legislators who caved to Trump didn’t do it because of his power. They caved because of the power of the voters, who gave Trump their consent and he primaried those who wouldn’t bow down to him. The power lies with the 30 million who follow Trump.
Trump will go away. He will find a new calling as a full time criminal defendant and then change professions and relocate from Mar-a-Lago to a prison cell. But those angry, aggrieved, temper tantrum MAGAs will not go away. Someone will take Trump’s place to prey upon their willingness to be manipulated.
So, the question is not how to get past Trump. We’ll do th
at on November 5. It’s how to deal with 25% of the 30 million angry MAGAs who think their threats of assault and their violence are good and appropriate acts of patriotism. They are people who want to tear it all down, like a kid who lost a game of Monopoly and is throwing tokens, money, Chance cards and the game board.
For nine years the focus has been on keeping power from Trump. Books have been written, podcasts have been podded, political blabbers have blabbed, but I have not heard much about how to deal with the angry people who still will be here after Trump is gone.
They get cattle prodded regularly by right wing hate mongers, know nothings and liars, so the fire of their anger gets replenished constantly. They wave the flag and believe that they are true patriots – maybe the true patriots, which means that they believe that you aren’t. They will not go gently into a Trump-less night.
The radicals’ obsession with controlling women’s bodies, their plan to impose a 13th century patriarchal tyranny upon us and the sometimes entertaining but most often infuriating weirdness of Trump and Vance are huge turnoffs for millions of non-extremist righty Americans. Perhaps good sense is slowly bleeding into our political reality.
Keep in mind that Project 2025 extreme tyranny isn’t repulsive to the MAGA far right. With or without the White House or Congress, they will still want to impose that domination on all of us. Even after Trump is just a horrid chapter in the history books we will be left with that long term challenge. It is a citizen-made fire stoked by long held resentments over both real and imagined wrongs and insults, disrespect and broken promises. That has to be dealt with in an effective manner or the consequences may be terrible.
Meanwhile, the first step is to do what is necessary on November 5, because
Trump Must Never Get His Hands On Any Power Greater Than The Flush Handle Of A Prison Toilet.
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Eventually, Trump will go away, either by death at the polls, imprisonment or death from Big Macs and fries – but.
We’ll still have big work to do, because while the dogs and cats in Springfield, OH are safe, we are not.
From the “What Trump Hath Wrought” Department
1. From STAT:
ONE BIG NUMBER
1,104
This is the number of U.S. counties in which there is not a single birthing facility or obstetric clinician, according to the annual March of Dimes report on maternity care deserts, released yesterday.
Think: Anti-women, crazed politicians. Votes to criminalize doctors, nurses, hospital executives and drive them away, leaving vast maternity care deserts.
They claim to be pro-life, but that’s a lie. They’re for capital punishment and weapons of war in the hands of anyone. They’re against programs to benefit our vets and IVF, against programs to help poor children and pregnant women at risk of disease and death, and they’re for programs that limit and warp children’s education.
2. Here’s reproductive life to come, if Mississippi, Louisiana and Idaho are our models – from the Lincoln Project:
Click me
3. And just in case you still think there isn’t grave risk:
Click me
Sane-Washing
It’s what our print and electronic media do when they treat Trump’s bumbling rambles and nonsensical idiocies seriously or when they attempt to translate the babble.
Read David Corn’s explainer. Sane-washing is a journalistic lunacy, like whataboutism and both-sidesism. It is a voluntary surrender to insanity, an effort to translate gibberish into something meaningful. It’s like man-splaining misogyny or explaining racism by contorting the words of Jesus.
Helpful Quotes For Our Undecideds
An idiocy metaphor.
To put [undecideds] in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked. [emphasis mine]
―
Speaking to traditional Republicans who refused to stand up to Trump:
I have a simple message to all those Republicans I helped elect. When your careers are studied, this is what you will be remembered for. You failed a test as Americans. Shame.
―
Actions
With early voting now underway, join Focus for Democracy’s next event as they reveal the most effective programs to reach swing state voters. Connect this Sunday, 9/22, and find out how directing your support to these programs can have an outsized impact on the election.
- Sunday, September 22nd
5:00pm PT / 8:00pm ET
It’s not the vibes, it’s not the polls: it’s the votes.
Are you registered to vote? Check it out here:
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https://www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/
https://www.usa.gov/confirm-voter-registration
https://www.rockthevote.org/how-to-vote/am-i-registered-to-vote/
“Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.”
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– Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), 2016
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JA
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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