Examples of GOP Leadership

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Seven delusions plaguing the mind of the Trump base voter
When Capitol building cleaning crews were removing feces from the hallowed halls of Congress after the riot of Jan. 6, 2021, no one imagined that Donald Trump would be leading the 2024 Republican presidential primary field by a 48-point margin just three years later.

Two overarching reasons help explain this unusual circumstance. First, his “Make America Great Again” base is immovable. Trump knew that already on Jan. 23, 2016, when at a rally in Iowa, he famously stated, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters. Okay?” This is, for example, why Trump can be so comfortable with careless conversations about the executive orders he wants to sign at the beginning of his second term, telling Sean Hannity that he would not be a dictator, “other than day one.”

Second, May poll data found that six out of ten Republicans still think the 2020 election was illegitimate. No wonder, since at his Iowa rally last Saturday, Trump repeatedly told the crowd that Democrats “rigged and stole the 2020 election.” This delusion has poisoned Trump voters’ minds in seven distinct ways.

1. Deceptive Rationalization
Whatever Trump says or does, no matter the evidence to the contrary, his loyal followers normalize, downplay, excuse, and rationalize his behaviors, speech, and legal issues. Indeed, any of dozens of instances of his controversial behavior would have doomed any traditional presidential candidate before June 2015, when he first descended the Trump Tower escalator.

No “traditional” presidential candidate could have survived two impeachments, indictments on 91 felony counts, and numerous investigations without the magic spell of deceptive rationalization. That is the superstructure reinforcing Trump’s movement.

Among my Trump-loyal friends, I often hear rationalizations such as, “I don’t like his personality, but I like his policies,” and “Our nation was stronger when he was president.”

When I ask, “What about Jan. 6, 2021?” the answer is, “That was overblown.” I say, “What about his trying to overturn the Constitution to stay in power?” The retort is, “It was justified, since the election was stolen.” Finally, I ask, “How about all his indictments?” Answer: “It is a Democrat scam to keep him from winning in 2024.”

Deceptive rationalization is the unbreakable feedback loop between Trump and his followers. Trump is perpetually the innocent victim who cannot lose or fail, and the star who always rises, vowing to undo any wrongs, improve your life, and strengthen the nation.

2. Respect for the strong-man image
American masculinity is under attack. Trump appeals to the MAGA mindset by exemplifying the 20th-century fighting persona of great American manhood. To his fans, he is John Wayne or Rocky Balboa, someone who takes no crap and fights to the end. A Trump voter told me, “Only Trump has the courage to stand up to his enemies. He is not bought or owned by lobbyists. He can be trusted to do what is best for America.”
In the mind of MAGA voters, the 2024 election might be characterized as “Trump is strong, and Biden is weak.” And Trump’s “dictator” remark only solidifies this popular strongman image.

3. Biden is much worse than Trump
When I discussed Trump’s dictatorial language with Trump-voting friends, one said, “Biden is not an option.” Another remarked, “I’ll take Trump any day over Biden. He is better than what we have now.”

The right-leaning media echo chamber has made Trump a respectable alternative to Biden. Furthermore, Republicans are more enthusiastic about voting in 2024, so Trump can undo the damage Biden has done. Trump equals hope for America. Biden means disaster.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) piled on last Sunday, stating that if Biden is reelected, “then we won’t recognize America and the world will be truly on fire.”

4. Whataboutism
Comparing Trump to Biden and his son Hunter is a favorite MAGA mind game. For every controversial Trump action, there is a Biden equivalent that evens the playing field. Trump and his voters believe Biden has weaponized the government, most notably the Justice Department.

On Tuesday, when Hannity asked Trump if he would “use the government to go after people,” Trump retorted, “You mean like they’re using right now?” He thus expertly applied his “whataboutism” skill to justify his authoritarian-sounding second-term proposals as a means to saving America and democracy.

This is not accidental. At his recent Iowa rally, Trump said, “Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy,” and Trump’s campaign distributed all-caps signs reading, “BIDEN ATTACKS DEMOCRACY.” The 2024 “whataboutism” battle is intentional, and it will be fierce.

5. Rural/blue-collar America gives its middle finger to governmental authority
For Trump’s supporters, he personifies turning the tables on authority with a “stick it to the boss” mentality. Ironically, Trump vows to replace authority with more authority, loyal only to him.

6. Trump represents an America First policy agenda that gets things done.
In Iowa last week, as before, Trump bragged, “I kept Israel safe. I kept Ukraine safe. None of this stuff would have happened. And I kept the entire world safe….And as the 47th president…we will do it again.” And the crowds cheer wildly.

7. Us-versus-Them mentality
“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on elections,” Trump said on Nov. 11 in New Hampshire.
A Trump-loyal friend emailed, “I have heard many times on Fox that Washington is portraying Trump as a Hitler. No one is listening to reporters.”
Are MAGA voters deaf to Trump’s own words?

Presumably, any non-Trump voter could be included in the “them” whom Trump described on Nov.11. Still, his followers believe the “Trump is a dictator talk” to be “patently absurd,” perpetrated by a liberal media freaking out over Trump potentially returning to power. Given the extreme us-versus-them polarization, it is doubtful that Trump’s “dictator” remarks will change any votes. My safe 2024 prediction: The losing party will believe it is “the end of America.”
thehill.com

Seven delusions plaguing the mind of the Trump base voter

My safe 2024 prediction: The losing party will believe it is “the end of America.”
thehill.com thehill.com
 
Fogdog

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
Well, here it is. Republican leadership is throwing in the towel and admitting that Trump is the GOP nominee before the primaries even begin.

www.huffpost.com

'The Cake Is Baked': GOP Senators Believe Trump Is A Lock For 2024 Nomination

“I think it was over before it began,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said after this week's little-watched GOP presidential debate in Alabama.
www.huffpost.com www.huffpost.com

'The Cake Is Baked': GOP Senators Believe Trump Is A Lock For 2024 Nomination
“I think it was over before it began,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said after this week's little-watched GOP presidential debate in Alabama.

The "I am your retribution" candidate.
The "anyone who opposes me are vermin and will be put into prison" candidate.
The "On day one I will be dictator" candidate.
The "I am the one who ended a woman's right to choose" candidate.
The "I refuse to accept election results unless I win" candidate.

GOIP leadership in the Senate are saying it.

“The cake is baked,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill, told HuffPost on Thursday about the state of the presidential race.

“I think this is over,“ added first-term Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), another Trump backer. “The sooner you get to the [GOP’s 2024] convention the better, but I think he’s got the nomination in hand.”

I don't understand how anybody can vote for that man but I too accept that they will. The only question that remains to be settled next year is whether or not Trump's very own fascist Republicans manage to finish what they started on Jan 6
 
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H G Griffin

H G Griffin

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Fogdog said:
The only question that remains to be settled next year is whether or not Trump's very own fascist Republicans manage to finish what they started on Jan 6
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There is also the question of whether those who oppose fascism will actually do something to save their country, or whether y'all will just continue to sit and watch and expect some magic solution to appear out of thin air.
 
Fogdog

Fogdog

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H G Griffin said:
There is also the question of whether those who oppose fascism will actually do something to save their country, or whether y'all will just continue to sit and watch and expect some magic solution to appear out of thin air.
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Right wing billionaires can afford to spend on losing causes for a long time and wear down their opposition. That's what they seem to be prepared to do. They seem powerful because they have huge resources but they aren't if one looks at their track record. If one looks at the return their investments have made in terms of right wing politicians elected at state and national levels, they aren't doing well. So, I'm not sure you have informed yourself very well when you accuse the left of "continue to sit and watch".
 
Fogdog

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
printer said:
Trump, allies fire back at media warnings of second-term dictatorship
Headlines blaring warnings about how a second Trump presidency could slip toward dictatorship on Monday prompted a stiff pushback from allies of the ex-president, who is topping GOP primary polls just weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

The Washington Post, The Atlantic and The New York Times each published stories referencing a “Trump dictatorship” in recent days, arguing a new Trump presidency posed a threat to democracy. The Times wrote a second Trump term likely would be more radical than his first.

“All of these articles calling Trump a dictator are about one thing: legitimizing illegal and violent conduct as we get closer to the election,” Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), a Trump ally, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Everyone needs to take a chill pill.”

“It’s August 2016 all over again. Skyrocketing cost of health care has millions worried. President Trump’s Dem. opponent off the campaign trail & hiding from the press,” senior Trump adviser Jason Miller wrote on X.

“Dems & their media allies have given up on debating issues & have shifted to name-calling & rhetorical fearmongering,” he added.

The Atlantic announced Monday the magazine’s January/February issue would be dedicated to what a second Trump term would mean for immigration, civil rights, the Justice Department, climate and more. The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote an editor’s note titled, “A Warning,” to introduce the series.

The New York Times on Monday published its latest piece in a series focused on what a second Trump term might mean for the country. In it, the reporters noted Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail “has attracted growing alarm and comparisons to historical fascist dictators and contemporary populist strongmen.”

And a Washington Post opinion column penned by editor-at-large Robert Kagan headlined, “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending,” made an extensive case that Trump’s reelection could feasibly set the U.S. on a path to becoming a dictatorship.

Trump allies dismissed the pileup as the latest instance of media outlets opposing the former president, who routinely derides the press as “fake news” and previously called some journalists the “enemy of the people.”

“This is nothing more than another version of the media’s failed and false Russia collusion hoax,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said of The Atlantic project, claiming the magazine “will be out of business soon because nobody will read that trash.”

Several Trump allies in Congress also took aim at the recent spate of headlines suggesting Trump could rule like a dictator.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), addressing The Atlantic piece, accused the left of using “the same hysterical scare tactics from 2016 & 2020 to attack Trump.”

Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas), referencing The Washington Post column, claimed the left had gone into “FULL PANIC Mode” and suggested another Trump term would mean “the end of dictators in America, NOT the beginning.”

But news outlets and opinion columnists are not alone in suggesting another Trump presidency could have catastrophic consequences for American democracy.

“I think it’s a very, very real threat and concern,” former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), an outspoken Trump critic, told NBC’s “Today” on Monday when asked about the risk of the U.S. becoming a dictatorship under Trump.

“And I don’t say any of that lightly and frankly, it’s painful for me as someone who has spent her whole life in Republican politics, who grew up as a Republican to watch what’s happening to my party and to watch the extent to which Donald Trump himself has basically determined that the only thing that matters is him, his power and his success,” she added.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who, like Cheney, served on the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6 riots, told MSNBC last month a second Trump term “would look a lot like Viktor Orban in Hungary — illiberal democracy, meaning democracy without rights, or liberties, or respect for the due process, the system, the rule of law.”

The increased warnings about the consequences of another Trump presidency come as the former president has ratcheted up the intensity of his rhetoric on the campaign trail.

Trump last month described his political opponents as “vermin” who posed a threat to the country from within, comments that drew backlash and comparisons to rhetoric from the likes of Hitler and Mussolini. He has repeatedly signaled he would look to take revenge on his enemies if reelected, telling supporters he would be there “retribution” and suggesting it would be fair game to investigate President Biden and his family because of Trump’s legal troubles.

And Trump last week suggested the government should punish MSNBC “and make them pay for their illegal activity.”

On Saturday, Trump tried out a new line of attack when he described Biden as a “destroyer of American democracy.”

“They’ve been waging an all-out war on American democracy,” Trump said. “If you put me back in the White House, that reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again.”

The comments were an inversion of a common argument from Biden and his allies that Trump poses a singular threat to U.S. democracy, something Biden sought to elevate in the closing weeks of the 2022 midterm campaign. Democrats ultimately held control of the Senate and performed better than expected in the House even as Republicans won the majority.

Democrats see those arguments as a winner against Trump in 2024, but Trump’s counterattacks suggested he thinks it can be made into a rallying cry for his supporters.

Biden and other Democrats have repeatedly emphasized the election denialism that has become commonplace among Trump and his supporters. False claims of voter fraud culminated in the violent Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, when Trump supporters stormed the complex to try and halt the certification of the 2020 election results.

Some Biden allies have suggested the White House would welcome it if Trump wanted to make the 2024 election a battle over the fate of democracy.

“If I’m in the Biden campaign, I would say, bring it on,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s former communications director, said Sunday on CNN. “This is bringing the fight to a place that is good for Joe Biden, that is about who’s protecting your freedoms, who’s protecting your rights.”
thehill.com

Trump, allies fire back at media warnings of second-term dictatorship

Headlines blaring warnings about how a second Trump presidency could slip toward dictatorship on Monday prompted a stiff pushback from allies of the ex-president, who is topping GOP primary polls j…
thehill.com thehill.com
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Well, you know, he did talk about his opponents being vermin and putting them into prison, so it's not as if it all came from distant third parties. More like Trump said what he said and we are taking him at his word. Then again, spin doctors spin.

Then again, Jan 6 and the evidence of what he did in the attempt to overthrow the election are not just something they can wave their hands to make go away. His talk about being "your retribution" at a recent rally and his repeated attacks on the DOJ for having the nerve to enforce our laws after an investigation convinced prosecutors that he broke them. Dictators do that, you know?

But I'm being overly analytical. That statement wasn't directed at people like me, it was directed at people who might start questioning their belief in Trump. The kind of lies contained in that report works on them.
 
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Comer calls CNN ‘subsidiary’ of Democratic Party after Tapper interview
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) accused CNN of working for the Democratic Party after an interview with Jake Tapper, one of the network’s leading anchors.
Comer appeared on Tapper’s program last week, during which the anchor repeatedly pressed him on the merits of an impeachment push House Republicans are making against President Biden as they continue to investigate the foreign business dealings of his son Hunter.

“He’s making your investigation sound like a joke, and he’s trying to make you look like a joke,” Newsmax host Rob Finnerty told Comer on Monday. “And then half of America sees that, and they think your investigation is a joke. How do you work around that? How do you work through that?”

“You know, Jake Tapper is an intelligent guy, but he’s playing to a low IQ audience,” Comer responded. “You know, CNN just is hemorrhaging viewers every day. And Jake’s doing what he’s told by his bosses at CNN, who are doing what they’re told by their bosses, the Democratic National Committee. I mean, CNN is a wholly owned, unprofitable subsidiary of the Democratic National Committee.”

CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Comer’s comments were first highlighted by Mediate. Former President Trump and conservatives more generally have complained for years about what they say is a bias in the mainstream media and at CNN specifically against them.

Tapper has not shied away from criticizing the House GOP during the current session of Congress, referring to a recent fight for Speaker of the House as a “clown car” and pushing back forcefully last week on Comers claims as part of the Biden impeachment push.
thehill.com

Comer calls CNN ‘subsidiary’ of Democratic Party after Tapper interview

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) accused CNN of working for the Democratic Party after an interview with Jake Tapper, one of the network’s leading anchors. Comer appeared on Tapper’s program la…
thehill.com thehill.com
 
BudmanTX

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
BudmanTX

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
doublejj said:
that poor lady..... I hope they dont arrest her if she returns. She should probably just stay out of texas.
p.s. thank you
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no problem, according to some reports people are piching in money, but i haven't comfirmed. In the end, i really hope she doesn't get arrested like you say, and i surely hope that what she's going through doesn't hamper her desire to have children in the future....
 
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