Trump's appeal: "whatever bugs you, he will fix it if you make him a dictator"

One of the most disturbing conversations I have had recently was with a local small businessman. We were bemoaning specific neighborhoods in Denver and Aurora, Colorado, which we avoided because of street crime.  His response: don't worry, Trump will fix it. How? I asked. He didn't respect the cops on January 6.  The inference of the Trump media whining about high grocery prices has left unsaid how Trump will fix it.  On reflection, I think this fantasy thinking has to do with Trump saying he will be a dictator and, zap, he will fix it.  Trump paints himself as the law and order guy, the friend of everyday Joe's.  This so-called populism, economic or political,  has little to do with people and much to do with his lust for power centralized federally in his own hands. My immediate response to my friend's belief that Trump would fix it was, "Trump is only interested in amassing power for himself, and once there, he will not care about you or me."  A recent YouGov poll puts my view in the majority: "In contrast, a full 50% of Americans (and 53% of registered voters) agree with Biden that “Donald Trump's campaign is about him, not America. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power.” Few, if any, of them are likely to vote for Trump in November." https://www.yahoo.com/news/new-yahoo-newsyougov-poll-shows-why-biden-trump-rematch-is-still-neck-and-neck-193252126.html

Let me say something positive about Donald Trump: He is a great salesman. He makes a national security adversary like Putin into a role model and sells the majority of his party on a fraud, that dictatorships are better than democracy. He knows a gullible and vulnerable audience when he sees it. Ken Burns said it best: Trump is the "opioid of all opioids".This explains how he got away with fraud in his business dealings until he got caught scamming the state and insurance companies by lying about the value of his property or taking Trump U students for suckers and had to pay them back. Despite more than 60 courts and an exhausting number of "forensic audits", no evidence of enough fraud to make a difference in the 2020 elections.

Four years later, the gullible still believe the election was stolen, or, to show their loyalty to Trump, must swear it was a fact because it was the only belief line that allows him to give an excuse for his 2020 loss and to justify his refusal to accept the results against I'm in 2024.

Trump is neither an economic populist nor a political populist.  Trump's reliance on American oligarchs for his campaign financing and his promise to use political violence, those thinking their small businesses and consumer fixes will benefit from a dictator is jaw-dropping.   Where are they coming from? Trump is no small guy economic populist, but a crony capitalist, promising American oligarchs he'll keep their taxes and consumer and environmental regulations low. However, the good salesman he is is selling his flock a bill of goods that only he can fix their economic woes. He is no political populist either, promising not to accept the results of the 2024 election if he loses it, as he promises to put his hard-core loyalists in place to rule over the majority of the rest of us. 

Since when has Trump done in the past that benefitted consumers and small businesses?  In fact, he has a history of using what powers he has had to sabotage consumer protections. He calls Obamacare a disaster but never offers a replacement. Law and order are only respected if they benefit him and his devoted followers. Top of the list is his promise to his big business funders that he will keep the deficit-driving tax cuts to the rich, and his allegiance will be to them, not to the masses, thinking the crumbs will somehow trickle to them. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-tells-billionaires-ll-keep-taxes-low-50-million-fundraising-gala-rcna146748 His plans for the economy he now touts would only harm  https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/crony-capitalism-magas-threat-to.html

Trump offers nothing but oppression of the over 50% who do not share his lust to make himself the supreme ruler and trash democracy as we know it.  His attitude to any governmental entity that stands in his way, the justice system, courts, and juries, is on display now for all to see as he raises his third finger is disrupted and delayed at every one of the current batches of criminal and civil actions against him. All in the justice system are corrupt, he tells his followers, so throw that out and put him in charge, and the ignorant and craven believe him as they anticipate his second coming.

 So far as urban street crime is concerned, that one is a head-scratcher as nothing I have seen from Trump has done anything but bemoan it and keep assault weapons available. Trump has a war on the rule of law and wants to be the ruler of laws instead.  His disrespect of cops trying to protect and honor the rule of law is what an autocrat does and dictators become.  

 Those who rioted on January 6 and assaulted police officers is exhibit #1 of on whose side he is on. It is not the cops that day. His promise to use active military against laws against it is guaranteed to give us four years of violence from those he oppresses. That his consolidating power as he proposes would generate chaos and violence is not a threat, but that is organically what happens when a wannabe dictator tries to do away with the rule of law. We saw it as he called on the armed militias to action on January 6. He has advocated taking away parts of the constitution regarding civil rights, eliminating opposition media, and supporting the freedom of speech for MAGA loyalists alone, which will not go down well with most Americans. If you think that kind of power grab will result in peaceful streets will give us a different kind of violence as protests and anger erupt. The next four years of a Trump presidency portends constant conflict and chaos as he tries to consolidate power in his hands and take it away the power from ordinary citizens at the ballot box and promises to refuse to abide by outcomes of elections that do not go his way.  

Ken Burns, H’24 Keynote Address to Brandeis University's 2024 Graduates (youtube.com)

"There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. When, as Mercy Otis Warren would say, "The checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed." The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids, an easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction and addiction, "a bigger delusion", James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide as Mr. Lincoln prophesies. Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer."

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/still-ticked-at-high-grocery-prices-and.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/watch-your-health-care-needs-gop-have.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/how-it-works-in-dictatorship-story-my.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/shock-that-trump-only-respect-outcome.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/04/budget-and-deficit-hawks-take-note.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/crony-capitalism-magas-threat-to.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/why-trump-only-needs-to-be-dictator-on.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-tells-billionaires-ll-keep-taxes-low-50-million-fundraising-gala-rcna146748

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/01/victims-of-trump-v-2-would-be-us.html

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/05/more-messaging-theme-to-consider-biden.html How Trump failed to deliver on promises and Biden succeeded...a contrast