How far do you think Trump will go to disrupt the vote? Will he turn to violence?
I asked that question in a discussion a few days ago.
The answers I got were largely in the affirmative. The only serious reservation seemed to be a fear that, if we talked about it, we might somehow cause Trump to go ahead and do it.
Now, the question is mostly irrelevant. Donald Trump himself has answered largely in the affirmative.
He hasn’t directly threatened violence — yet — but he is setting up a scenario for violence. There is no doubt — none whatsoever — that he plans to use police state tactics to suppress the vote in the upcoming election. How do I know? He said so.
He has already begun this process of police state voter suppression by maiming the United States Postal Service. He said himself that this is an attempt to stop people from voting by mail. This will force people to go to the polls to vote.
Now, he has promised that they will be met at the polls by local and federal police who will be there to “check” them and make sure they are “real Americans.” In other words, he plans to use federal and state law enforcement to harass people, intimidate them and keep from voting.
Of course, the Trump media story is that these police state tactics are necessary. Otherwise, who knows who might get all uppity and decide they were “real Americans” and meddle with our elections by voting., You know the types Trump wants to keep away from the polls: poor white people, blacks, hispanics and native Americans. Those people.
His worshipful acolyte, Sean Hannity, teed up the ball for him:
“My question to you then is, uh, are you going to have poll watchers, are you going to have an ability to monitor, to avoid fraud, and to cross-check whether or not these are registered voters, whether or not there’s been identification, to know that it’s a real vote from a real American.”
And Trumpy Bear answered:
“We’re going to have everything. We’re going to have sheriffs, we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have hopefully US attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals …”
I’ve been voting in American elections for longer than most of the people reading this have been alive. I have also stood for election in a whole lot of elections. I’ve spent 18 years in elected office.
I have never, not once, ever seen an election in the United States of America proceed in anything but an orderly fashion. This entire “voter fraud” thing that Trump and his media mouthpieces are pushing is a made up deal designed to create an excuse so that they — not someone else, but they — can stop people who might vote against Donald Trump from casting their votes.
Republicans have been doing everything they can to keep black people, hispanics and Native Americans from voting.
They have turned the process of getting a workable ID into an hours-long paper-shuffling, line-standing misery. Even here in little Oklahoma, you have to set aside at least half a day for this, and you’d better wear comfortable shoes and bring any meds you might need to take and something to read.
Republicans have closed polling places in areas where those they don’t want to vote live, forcing people to stand in lines that wind around the block and — once again — last for hours. In many places, they have passed laws closing the doors at polling places at exactly the closing time, even if there are a lot of people who’ve been standing in line for hours, waiting to vote.
They’ve tossed out voter registrations willy-nilly in areas where people who would vote against the Republican ticket live. That requires people to go back through re-registering to vote. If they don’t know their registration has been cancelled, they could easily spend all day in line at the polls, only to be told they are not registered.
Now, the president has said that he’s planning to call out law enforcement, and what sounds like federal Marshalls to intimidate people who manage to get through all this and are actually ready to vote. As his pal Hannity put it, to “to monitor … to cross-check whether or not these are registered voters, whether or not there’s been identification, to know that it’s a real vote from a real American.”
In other words, to intimidate, hassle and terrify people who show up to vote so Trump can win the election.
These guys are correct. Someone is planning to “steal” this election. Trump is planning to steal it. And his buddy Hannity is selling the idea that stealing it is a “law and order” necessity to his viewers.
Trump has wrecked the United States Postal Service to try to stop people from voting by mail, even though he cast his own vote by mail. His crony that he put in charge of the Post Office has taken out mail boxes, removed sorting machines, shortened working hours and caused significant mail delays that are already affecting both commerce and people’s lives.
The mail delays caused by Trump and his minions have killed chicks that were being mailed to farmers and delayed delivery of medicines. He is deliberately and maliciously crippling the Constitutionally-mandated United States postal service in order to keep people from voting.
Now, he has announced that he will use law enforcement to intimidate people from voting at the polling places.
Trump has admitted publicly that he’s deliberately sabotaging the United States Postal Service to stop mail-in voting. There is no other motive for what he’s doing.
This is election fraud on a governmental scale by a lawless president who wants to be a dictator.
I can see around this corner.
If he is not stopped, how long will it take before he turns to actual violence? He’s already used violence against Americans.
The Betsy DeVos-backed gangs that shut down the Michigan legislature with their gun-totting threats of violence were the first example. The easy way he tear-gassed peaceful protestors to get a photo op with — of all things — the Bible was another. The unidentified troops he sent into Portland demonstrated clearly of how far he is willing to go in terms of violence against the American people.
I understand that Trump supporters don’t care if he stops people from voting so he can win fraudulently. I know that they will pretend that they don’t believe he’s doing this, even when he admits it himself. They have a long history of pretending they don’t believe that he does the things he does and says the things he says.
They’re willing to throw this country away for this man. Most of them have already thrown their Christian walk away for him.
What they don’t understand is that they are going to have to live — and die — in the ruins along with the rest of us.
By the rest of us, I mean the people of both parties who care about this country and who won’t lie to themselves or anyone else about plain facts that are right in front of them.
It’s up to the rest of us to save America.
If we don’t stop this guy, we will all reap the whirlwind.
The story in headlines.
Trump Threatens to Send Law Enforcement to Polling Places on Election Day.
Trump’s Relentless Attacks on Mail-In Ballots are Part of a Larger Strategy.
USPS delays leave 82-year-old Texas man without heart meds for a week.
House Democrats Will Vote on Giving Postal Service $25 Billion Boost.
Postal Service Warns 46 States Their Voters Could be Disenfranchised by Mail-In Ballots.
Trump’s Poll Watching Plans Spark Fears of Voter Suppression.
Trump Admits He’s Undermining USPS to Make it Harder to Vote by Mail.
The President has Openly Declared He’s Destroying the Post Office to Suppress Votes.
Trump: Republicans Can’t Win When More People Vote
Georgia Election ‘Catastrophe’ in Largely Minority Areas Sparks Investigation
Republicans Want to Suppress Native American Vote. It’s Working.
How the Native American Vote Continues to be Suppressed.
Attacks on US Mail Will Suppress Native American Votes in November.
Thousands of Dead Chicks Delivered to Farmers Due to Mail Delays
Veteran’s Administration Prescriptions Delayed by 25% Due to Mail Delays.
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