Shocked that Trump only to respect the outcome of the 2024 election if he wins?

 Shocked that Trump will only respect the outcome of the 2024 election if he wins? If you are not, you should be. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-05-06/donald-trump-is-putting-america-on-notice-again-he-wont-accept-a-loss  Shocked that Trump threatens violence again? He promised it, too, beginning in 2019, and he delivered. Be ready, America. He must think he is going to lose again and is giving his excuse in advance, preparing his supporters for another January 6...violence and all.

You should not be shocked if you were awake during January 6. He told you as early as April 2019 he was coup coup crazy.  Shocked that he would use political violence to stay in office even if he lost the election?  Shocked that he would invent the reason for any of this was the election was stolen from him because of widespread fraud? You shouldn't be. He was telling you that as early as 2019 and the summer of 2020.https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/512424-trump-the-only-way-we-are-going-to-lose-this-election-is-if-the/ He is telling you the same again in 2024. He meant it then, and he means it now. If you did not believe the predictions beginning in 2019, believe it in 2024 and be ready. 

In April 2019,  Trump tried to claim the Mueller report of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and the following impeachment in which Trump revealed his view of coups; it was the way governments function and his "you do it to me; I'll do it to you".  The rule of law meant nothing to him in 2019 any more than it means anything to him in 2024. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2019/04/trump-goes-coup-coup.html

" For a prototype wannabe dictator that he is, a coup fits Trump’s view of government that exists for the purpose of putting him in power and keeping him there and a disdain for the rule of law, any investigations into his suspected wrongdoing, and the remedies holding him accountable that are written into our Constitution.  

The writers of our Constitution had a firm grasp of both English and world history and knew when tyranny reigned to the point of being unbearable or the king went off the rails into the land of incompetence, regime change was by a coup and sometimes a bloody one of palace intrigue and military force or civil war. The Game of Thrones is not all fiction.  Usually a coup d’état in modern times, especially in the recent past in South America, Turkey and Egypt, means the military steps in and ousts the person on the throne or presidential office. To avoid such bloody regime changes and to give the people’s representatives a voice in a democracy, our founders devised the impeachment process that is the law that rules.  The House would indict (impeach) and the Senate would convict. They laid out the rules and process, that would remove the president and others before the next election was held. Later the Constitution was amended to provide for removal with consent of cabinet members and much more. The FBI and the Office of Legal Counsel also had rules that prevented indicting a sitting president of a crime and Special Counsel Robert Mueller also followed that rule.  Trump’s appointed Attorney General Bill Barr was of a controversial and not widely accepted opinion that a president could not be convicted of obstructing justice since he was the head of justice and had the right to fire whomever he pleased. Those who disagree say a president could not get away with that if he had a “corrupt” intent, such as keeping himself in power.

October 20, 2020, on the even of the election, the use of violent militias were already feared. . I wrote  https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2020/10/what-if-trump-loses-election-what-could.html

He will be claiming victory and assert every vote cast by absentee or by mail is a fraud. Do not be a sucker. What then happens, at best, is the mother of all constitutional crises as the issue lands in the Supreme Court. What then if he refuses to leave the Oval Office if a court decision goes against him?  Lawrence O'Donnell, an old Washington hand, an MSNBC host, in his tweet, July 31,2020 .has the easiest scenario. The Secret Service would just usher him out the door. Trump would be treated as a trespasser and will be evicted.  According to constitutional law professor Lawrence Tribe, if there is not a determination of a winner by inauguration day, Nancy Pelosi becomes president because she is next in line and the secret service would carry out the Constitution's requirements. (O'Donnell did not envision the violence Trump would use, however)

 There are some violent scenarios out there, but let us pray for the most peaceful way so we would still maintain our democracy. by harnassing, and honoring the provisions of the Constitution and law. There are predictions that right-wing groups would try to use violence to keep Trump in power. https://www.newsweek.com/bipartisan-group-predicts-violence-if-trump-loses-election-refuses-leave-white-house-1520561    Some of these violent movements are also promoting a civil war. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/19/what-is-boogaloo-movement/3204899001/ Worse would be if Trump tried to do whatever it takes to stay in power, peaceful or not. That is how most modern wannabe autocrats seized power, abusing the intent of their constitution and using and intensifying unrest on the streets to gain public consent to become an autocrat. The result has been the rule of a person, not the rule of law,  who tells you what the law is and how you are to comply or else (from losing your job to losing your life) and their constitution or laws were to  ignored.

Trump and now his RNC tools are fascists. Ok, they deserve the title.

 Who is a fascist? Biden or Trump, and now the Republican Party/RNC, too?  With Trump's takeover of the RNC, the GOP now becomes the US Fascist Party. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/08/rnc-trump-takeover-republican-strifeToo harsh? Let us start that conversation. 

Update from a June posting:  a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascist ( from Merriam-Webster )that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

• Racism is key to Trump's rise; Biden's is not.
• Trump wants to limit the civil rights of individuals in rewriting the Constitution; Biden adheres to civil rights for everyone.
• Trump wants to concentrate all powers in the executive branch, beginning with Project 2025; Biden honors the separation of branches and checks and balances;
• Trump wants to use active military to put down civil demonstrations; Biden does not;
• Trump has a long record of supporting political violence to achieve a goal; Biden does not
• Trump supports and applauds white Christian nationalists to regiment society; Biden does not;

Shall I go on?

Trump called Biden the Gestapo because he himself had been called a fascist https://ktvz.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2024/05/04/trump-says-democrats-are-running-a-gestapo-administration-at-republican-national-committees-annual-retreat/. Vintage Trump. When accused, he tries to turn the tables on the accuser.  It is similar to the juvenile taunt: You call my mother a (bad name), so is your mother. When he is called a fascist, he calls his opponent the Gestapo. Now, he has a new twist. "You call me a bad name? That is really a good thing."When called a wannabe dictator, he calls dictatorships a good thing because they get stuff done (though only for himself and those currently loyal to him.). 

So let us see whose shoes the definition of fascist dictator fits. This is my challenge to the Trump lovers on this. Tell me how Biden is proposing to do the same thing or has already done it that fits into the definition of a  "wannabe fascist dictator."   I know, I know, calling anyone a fascist is inflammatory.  If the bird walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Trump is quacking like a fascist, and others are walking, quacking,  and acting like fascists on his behalf. What part of this do we not understand?  So, who is the fascist: Biden or Trump and his GOP? And who is a wannabe dictator?

The dictatorship part is pretty clear. The pussyfoot term in use in the polite and liberal press has been "autocrat." That is way too kind for someone who now promises to imprison his opponents and is already making his enemies list that he will use for (his) Department of Justice loyalists to indict and jail, which he adds to daily. He asks the Supreme Court to give him absolute immunity (turning him loose to violate laws and commit crimes in the future). Maybe just "dictator" alone is enough.

How about the fascism part? Fascism of the 1930s differed from communist dictatorships, though the techniques to gain and keep power were similar: oppression of free press and political opponents, use of political and police violence and threats, and state control of personal lives and behavior, and demand for total loyalty to the big guy in public and private speech and thought. The major difference is that one touted a Marxist ideology and claimed to favor the dictatorship of the proletariat. In fascist dictatorships, it was powered by crony capitalism, and in modern times, in Hungary, and by Putin's Russian oligarchs. Hitler began his rise to power by first garnering the support of big business. Taxes and regulations are promised or activated to benefit wealthy businesses. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/29/trump-billionaires-gop-donors/essmen and donors. The billionaires are crawling back to support Trump. The Trump promise, as reported in the TIME interview and repeated often, is that the tax cuts to the rich would not be rolled back (even though that was the major contributor to the deficit.)  It was appropriate that the May 4 Mar-a-largo had those in attendance. The problem with crony capitalists for the participants? The highest bidders for Trump's affection win, and the cost of gaining his favors and screwing their competitors rise in the jockeying around for position. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/03/crony-capitalism-magas-threat-to.html  It is institutionalized corruption of the highest order.

 How does Trump plan to run a fascist regime? There is nothing hidden or secret. It is right out front in the TIME interview, a trail of recorded social media posts and public pronouncements, and even in such documents as Project 2025, the takeover of the executive branch by those pledging allegiance to the Boss instead of the rule of law. When he threatens to imprison any general who refused to call up the active military to put down demonstrations against him abusing the insurrection act, what does that describe? If he promises to use the FCC to shut down media news that does not support him, where have you heard that before?Right out of Trump's playbook threat.  If he describes those opposing him as "vermin" and says that illegal immigrants will contaminate "our blood," he took a page from the German fascism of Goebbels and Hitler? That is how fascists get citizens to go along with their persecution by making them these targets less than human or lesser than their ruling class. Empathy has no place in that society. Even better, make the lesser than your race or class to blame for your ills and deserving your hatred and oppression. Examples of that are Jewish bankers and, now, personified by George Soros by contemporary anti-semites. Few buck fascism or use their wealth for charity or for supporting democracy. Gates is one of the outliers, as is Warren Buffet, both returning their wealth to charitable endeavors. 

For Trump, the target is the "deep state" who dared during his first term to tell him "no." That includes General Milley, who refused to use the active military to put down domestic protests and who abided by the Posse Comitatus Act.  Root it out, Trump says, and replace it with his loyalists. Those not loyal to the Boss are traitors. If f you tend to excuse this as just demagoguery, bloviating, and entertaining, you are a fool because the plans are already there and being funded to replace every executive decision appointee identified as "disloyal to Trump", including more of the judiciary and lists of the loyal are being gathered, he can do it within four years. Won't the Civil Rights Act or the Constitutional amendments protect minorities' access to the ballot? Not if yesterday's federal judges ruled that complaints about such violations can only be brought by the Justice Department, not citizens. That one will eventually make it to the Trump-appointed Supreme Court, which already gutted the rest of the Voting Rights Act. Violence in support of Trump is approved and justified, not just on January 6. If there is no rule of law, there is the rule of Trump, and that one raised alarm bells even among conservatives. https://www.theguardian.com/.../anti-trump-conservative...

Trump Vows to appoint a special prosecutor to ‘go after’ Biden if the former president wins in 2024  https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4045934-trump-vows-to-appoint-special-prosecutor-to-go-after-biden-if-former-president-wins-in-2024/       This is still after the House committee charged to find Biden Crime Family proof has died a quiet death when all of their informants and witnesses failed to materialize.

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Why does Trump appeal to voters with less than a college degree?

There is a reason Trump's demographic appeals to the least educated in this country. It is easier to manipulate and lie to the uneducated.  Here are some examples of why: We have been there before with isolationism and fascism and appeasement. Trump touts all three. These were failures then 90 years ago and will be failures in the future. Education is a substitute for institutional memory that few alive have from 80 to 90 years ago.. Fascism destroyed Germany and Italy. Isolationism and appeasement only work when there are no aggressive adversaries. The US and British tried and it resulted in WW II. We have it now with Russia and China who are aggressive adversaries. To them, appeasement and boot-licking is the sign of weakness, not alliances, to be taken advantage of. 

 I am on a private Facebook page that is a rare interface with both Trump voters and progressives.  It is entitled Political Debate and Discussion.  Neither happens because the Trump supporters simply post meme bombs instead of discussing and debating.  Dropping a clever phrase of a meme and then thinking they have dropped the mike, and therefore, their truth is enough to win an argument, is not debate or discussion. It is simply meme and insult hurling.  The meme that got me this morning came from a Trump supporter (identified by other frequent FB postings), basically calling the educated from Ivy League schools dumb for not agreeing with them on issues. It is the old "anti-pointy-headed" name-calling that has proved to be helpful in getting the vote of the less educated ever since Adlai Stevenson lost in the 1950s when I first became aware of politics. He was just too intellectual. Trump depends on less schooled and educated for his support.  Self-interest usually underlies voters more than another element in motivating votes, which is my observation.  However, there is room for rational discussion, particularly on public policy issues, if not on cultural, religious, and racial motivation.  One of the greatest dividers in our current political climate is how much education a voter has, whether they have a college degree or not, if they are racially identified as white. 

In college, you learn more about the past so you do not repeat the failures and mistakes of others, and you learn there are also two sides to most contentious issues and you can make comparisons and contrasts. Granted, it is so much easier to reproduce a meme and share it. It saves a person from learning about data and evidence. Education changes perspectives and gives a realization that things are not always as simple as they seem and that there may be unintended consequences.

 Biden improved over Clinton among White non-college voters. White voters without a college degree were critical to Trump’s victory in 2016 when he won the group by 64% to 28%. In 2018, Democrats gained some ground with these voters, earning 36% of the White, non-college vote to Republicans’ 61%. In 2020, Biden roughly maintained the Democrats’ 2018 share among the group, improving Clinton’s 2016 performance by receiving the votes of 33%. But Trump’s share of the vote among this group – who represented 42% of the total electorate this year – was nearly identical to his vote share in 2016 (65%). Pew Research, source of figures.  Biden's blue-collar background, the guy from Scranton, has made some inroads in the non-college-educated demographic, and you see him on the campaign trail now emphasizing his pro-union advocacy.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/

• "Biden improved over Clinton among White non-college voters. White voters without a college degree were critical to Trump’s victory in 2016, when he won the group by 64% to 28%. In 2018, Democrats gained some ground with these voters, earning 36% of the White, non-college vote to Republicans’ 61%. In 2020, Biden roughly maintained Democrats’ 2018 share among the group, improving upon Clinton’s 2016 performance by receiving the votes of 33%. But Trump’s share of the vote among this group – who represented 42% of the total electorate this year – was nearly identical to his vote share in 2016 (65%)."

Religious affiliation is another large determinant influencing voters' decisions besides race that overwhelms political critical thinking. It did not used to be that way. I am a white Christian protestant who belongs to a mainstream traditional church, and sometimes I wonder where some of the theology that has nothing to do with the bible I read comes from.  I grew up in the "bible belt," where the goal was to get more believers in faith preached in a particular denomination.. Now it has become, get more Trump supporters because he is the second coming.  So, I listen.  

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/flashpoint-trump-republican-christian-tv-show-rcna150303

That is not a unanimous view, even among those protestants who identify themselves as evangelicals, and there is pushback, but the Christian nationalism this Flashpoint preacher promotes is very much part of the Trump political base.  It helps answer the question of where is this belief ideology coming from

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2023/12/simple-minds-for-simple-solutions.html

No more double talk on public policy issues from Trump in TIME interview?

No more double talk on public policy issues from Trump in TIME interview?

 https://time.com/6972021/donald-trump-2024-election-interview/On most of these, he is on the wrong side of public opinion.  In fact, if he gets into the White House, fasten your seat belts and pray for a blue Senate and House.  I will be referring to this article frequently in the future.

On a follow-up note: This Yahoo news piece provides a very short, snappy issue comparison.   This has value if you have a particular interest in an issue and it is worded in a way that is clear and very direct. https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-trump-offer-worlds-apart-040222913.html 

 This 2024 presidential race will not be an election decided on policy issues (except abortion, which still could be the one that makes the difference). It will  be as much about race and religious and cultural issues, character, and democracy. Public policy issues are sometimes the manifestation of them or the icon that identifies your ideology or attitude.