How To Combat Trumpism
One would think that four years of unprecedented incompetence, lies, cruelty, corruption, and scandals would have disillusioned even the most passionate Trump supporters. But given the election results, approximately 45% of our country continues, proudly, to support him. Most of the other 55% of Americans have concluded that Trumps 45% consists primarily of true believers, that they are immune to facts and reason, and therefore that we will have to contend with Trumpism for many years to come.
“Ultimately, what makes MAGA ‘tick’ is rage and resentment.”
History suggests that this prediction is too pessimistic. When Nixon resigned in disgrace, his approval rating was 19%. Apparently, then, around 20% of the American people will stick with a Republican president no matter what. This is the bad news. The good news is that this number is only 20% the other 25% of Trump’s supporters might be open to abandoning him.
Persuasion, however, will not be easy. As too many of us have learned over the last five years, merely fact-checking Trumps many lies or debating policy will hardly make a dent. Instead, persuasion of the more tractable 25% will require an alternative approach: exposing the oligarchical agenda behind right-wing propagandaor the entertainment wing of the Republican Party, as Steve Schmidt refers to it.
Former Us President Donald Trump Is Claiming Executive Privilege To Stop Former Aides Giving Evidence To Congress
US Capitol Riot: Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in January.
Washington:
Donald Trump is suing to block the release of White House records related to the January 6 insurrection that he was impeached for inciting, according to court documents released Monday.
The former president is claiming “executive privilege” to stop former aides giving evidence to Congress, in an escalation of his efforts to stonewall investigators looking into the deadly Capitol assault.
The challenge will likely touch off an extended high-stakes showdown in the courts that will test the constitutional authority of Congress to scrutinize the executive branch.
Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol nine months ago in an effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory.
They had been egged on by Trump, whose fiery speech earlier that day falsely claiming election fraud was the culmination of months of baseless claims about a contest he lost fairly to Biden.
“The committee’s request amounts to nothing less than a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition openly endorsed by Biden and designed to unconstitutionally investigate President Trump and his administration,” says the lawsuit filed in Washington’s district court.
Congressional investigators are seeking testimony from officials who could speak to what Trump, who is considering running for a second term in 2024, knew about the attack beforehand, and what he did while it was ongoing.
Why Is This Important
We believe Trump is a grave threat to democracy, freedom, human rights, equality, and the welfare of our country. We have witnessed Trump inciting hatred against Muslims, immigrants, women, and the disabled. That’s why we are speaking out against Donald Trump for his hatred, misogyny, Islamaphobia, and racism and to give platform for the voices of the silent majority of Americans who do not and will not stand for it.
Together we can inspire a collective awakening of people across all spectrums of the US to speak out and create actions to end hatred and inject values of respect, inclusion, love, and equality back into our national politics.
Stand with leaders of worker movements, activists, actors, film directors, religious leaders, teachers, professors, civil rights leaders, lawyers, farmers, writers, workers, students, heads of companies, intellectuals, and poets and say #StopHateDumpTrump!
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Religion And Lgbt Rights
On March 26, 2015, Pence signed , also known as the Indiana “religious objections” bill , into law. The move was praised by , but criticized by people and groups who felt the law was carefully worded in a way that would permit discrimination against persons. Such organizations as the , the gamer convention , and the spoke out against the law. Apple CEO and Salesforce.com CEO condemned the law, with saying it would halt its plans to expand in the state. announced that they would cancel a $40 million expansion of their Indianapolis-based headquarters over concerns with the law. The expansion would have moved 1000 jobs into the state. Thousands protested against the policy. Five Republican state representatives voted against the bill, and , the Republican mayor of Indianapolis, criticized it as sending the “wrong signal” about the state.
Donald Trump Can And Should Be Stopped From Running In 2024
This is the moment to send a clear message that democracy need not supply its enemies with the means to destroy it
Democracies do not sprout spontaneously, like red poppies in a field. They are established by brave democrats: people who struggle, sometimes paying the ultimate price, against the forces of authoritarianism. This is how democracies survive, too. There is no such thing as the inevitability of democratic rule once it is in place. It has to be defended.
Donald Trumps post-election maneuvers have, at a minimum, rocked Americans faith in their democracy. And rumors abound that the president will seek the position again in 2024, potentially announcing his run during Bidens inauguration. That possibility requires a proportionate response. Newspapers are teeming with discussions about the wisdom of pursuing criminal prosecutions of Trump after 20 January. But criminal prosecutions are not the only, or even the best mechanism for responding to the Trumpian challenge to self-government. In a society fully committed to democracy, Congress would use this lame-duck period to impeach, convict and disqualify Donald Trump from pursuing public office in the future, as the constitution allows.
Does Donald Trump really threaten the viability of democracy in the United States? Pundits and scholars have hotly debated the matter over the past four years.
Penalizing those who assault popular self-rule should be discussed as part of any democracy-reform package
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‘a Hostage Situation Every Day’: Strategists Blame Trump For Georgia Senate Losses
And if he is not nominated, Trump running as an independent or as the nominee of a third party would surely split the Republican vote and make a repeat of 1912 highly likely.
Nonetheless, the grip Trump has on half or more of the GOP voter base makes him not only formidable but unavoidable as the party plans for the midterm elections in 2022 and the ultimate question of a nominee in 2024.
To be clear, Trump has not said he will run again in 2024. On the day he left Washington he spoke of a return “in some form” but was vague about how that might happen. He has sent aides to discourage talk of his forming a third party.
For the time being, at least, Trump seems intent on wielding influence in the Republican Party he has dominated for the past five years â making it clear he will be involved in primaries in 2022 against Republicans who did not support his campaign to overturn the election results.
That is no idle threat. Most Trump supporters have shown remarkable loyalty throughout the post-election traumas, even after the riot in the U.S. Capitol. The fierceness of that attachment has sobered those in the GOP who had thought Trump’s era would wane after he was defeated. But Trump has been able to hold the popular imagination within his party, largely by convincing many that he was not defeated.
Us House Holds Trump Ally Bannon In Contempt Seeks Prosecution
WASHINGTON, Oct 21 – Longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon could face criminal prosecution for refusing to cooperate with a probe into the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol after the House of Representatives voted Thursday to hold him in contempt of Congress.
The Democratic-led chamber voted 229 to 202, with nine Republicans joining Democrats to recommend the charges against Bannon, who served as chief strategist for the Republican former president.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will make the final decision on whether to prosecute.
Bannon has refused to comply with subpoenas from the Jan. 6 Select Committee seeking documents and his testimony, citing Trump’s insistence – disputed by some legal scholars – that his communications are protected by the legal doctrine of executive privilege.
“What sort of precedent would it set for the House of Representatives if we allow a witness to ignore us flat out without facing any consequences?” Democrat Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Select Committee, said in debate before the vote.
The select committee voted unanimously on Tuesday in favor of the charges.
THREAT OF JAIL TIME
The Democratic-led panel hopes the threat of jail time – contempt of Congress carries a penalty of up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine – will encourage cooperation from the 18 other Trump aides and rally organizers who also have been subpoenaed.
PREDICTED ‘EXTREME EVENTS’
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Ross Perot’s 1992 Presidential Election Campaign
The party grew out of ‘s efforts in the , whererunning as an independenthe became the first non-major party candidate since 1912 to have been considered viable enough to win the presidency. Perot received attention for focusing on fiscal issues such as the and government reform issues such as , , and lobbying reform and issues on trade. A large part of his following was grounded in the belief he was addressing vital problems largely ignored by the two major parties.
A Gallup poll showed Perot with a slim lead, but on July 19 he suspended his campaign, accusing Republican operatives of threatening to sabotage his daughter’s wedding. He was accused by of being a “quitter” in a well-publicized cover-page article. After resuming his campaign on October 1, Perot was dogged by the “quitter” moniker and other allegations concerning his character. On Election Day many voters were confused as to whether Perot was actually still a candidate. He ended up receiving about 18.9 percent of the popular vote, a record level of popularity not seen in an independent candidacy since former President ran on the “Bull Moose” ticket in 1912. He continued being politically involved after the election, turning his campaign organization into a lobbying group. One of his primary goals was the defeat of the during this period.
Donald Trump Is Fueling An Authoritarian Movement Abetted By Far Too Many Republican Senators And House Members We Must Unite To Preserve Democracy
America is exhausted. Weve gone through the worst presidency in our history, when the very concept of what it meant to be an American was challenged. A pandemic has killed over 600,000 of our fellow Americans, more than we lost in both world wars of the last century. There is a desperate longing for normalcy. At last we have a normal president with a competent administration. But this is not a normal time. American democracy is in crisis.
Many urge us to follow the path of bipartisanship to lead us out of this danger. As much as the Biden administration may be trying to restore a sense of normalcy to our nation after the past four years and as much as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and others seek the time honored goal of bipartisanship and common ground to solve our problems, those are elusive goals.
We have all lived in an America with two political parties for generations. It is the only way we understand to participate and speak about our politics. A two-party lens is the only way the news media knows how to cover Washington and, of course, elections. Its why so many of us cannot give up on the idea that there must be a two-party solution to the danger of the moment. I wish it was possible. Its not.
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As Trump Thunders About Last Election Republicans Worry About The Next One
Donald Trump is the Republicans greatest asset in mobilizing voters. But some fret that his obsession with false claims about the 2020 election could cost the G.O.P. in 2022.
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Republicans believe they have a good shot at taking Congress next year. But theres a catch.
The G.O.P.s ambitions of ending unified Democratic control in Washington in 2022 are colliding with a considerable force that has the ability to sway tens of millions of votes: former President Donald J. Trumps increasingly vocal demands that members of his party remain in a permanent state of obedience, endorsing his false claims of a stolen election or risking his wrath.
In a series of public appearances and statements over the last week, Mr. Trump has signaled not only that he plans to work against Republicans he deems disloyal, but also that his meritless claims that widespread voter fraud cost him the White House in 2020 will be his litmus test, going so far as to threaten that his voters will sit out future elections.
If we dont solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020, Mr. Trump said in a statement last week, Republicans will not be voting in 22 or 24. Its the single most important thing for Republicans to do.
But party officials believe Mr. Trumps threat about his supporters staying home en masse is real. And the potency of his false claims about 2020 caught even some of his staunchest allies in the party off guard.
The Democratic Civil War Has A Winner: Donald Trump
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First, the good news. The government did not shut down at midnight. New COVID infections in the United States have fallen twenty-five per cent over the past couple of weeks. Vaccine mandates by large companies and government agencies, many of them imposed at President Bidens behest, seem to be workingwithout vaccine-refusenik workers quitting en masse, as threatened. As recent weeks go for the Biden Administration, this one was not terrible.
Then again, not shutting down the government because you managed to pass and sign a bill pushing the problem off until early December is hardly an accomplishment for the ages. President Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi have promisedand not yet delivereda House vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate this summer. That vote was blocked by members of their own party, which cannot agree on the size and specifics of the three-and-a-half-trillion-dollar budget-reconciliation-and-everything-else bill that Biden has proposed as the centerpiece of his Presidency. The long-predicted Democratic civil war between progressives and moderates has begun.
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Early Career And Congressional Campaigns
After graduating from law school in 1986, Pence was an attorney in private practice. In 1988, Pence ran for Congress against incumbent , but lost. He ran against Sharp again in 1990, quitting his job in order to work full-time in the campaign, but once again was unsuccessful. During the race, Pence used “political donations to pay the mortgage on his house, his personal credit card bill, groceries, golf tournament fees and car payments for his wife”. While the spending was not illegal at the time, it reportedly undermined his campaign.
During the 1990 campaign, Pence ran a television advertisement in which an actor, dressed in a robe and headdress and speaking in a thick Middle Eastern accent, thanked his opponent, Sharp, for doing nothing to wean the United States off imported oil as chairman of a House subcommittee on energy and power. In response to criticism, Pence’s campaign responded that the advertisement was not about Arabs rather, it concerned Sharp’s lack of leadership. In 1991, Pence wrote an essay, “Confessions of a Negative Campaigner”, published in the Indiana Policy Review, in which he apologized for running negative ads against Sharp. Pence vowed to refrain from using insulting speech or running ads that belittle his adversaries. Also taking place in 1991, he became the president of the , a self-described and a member of the , a position he held until 1993.
