Trump’s advisers have been working for months to move his focus away from baseless theories of election fraud. A group of outsiders is making that difficult.
Of all the outside advisers urging President Trump to seize control of federal elections this fall, the attorney Peter Ticktin can claim the deepest ties; the two men went to military school together as teenagers. In 2022, Ticktin helped Trump sue Hillary Clinton. This year, he pushed Trump to secure a pardon for Tina Peters, a former Colorado clerk convicted of charges related to tampering with election equipment.
Which is why it might be worth listening when Ticktin says that Trump could do something soon to take over elections. “He’s the only one that I know for sure has the understanding of the severity of it,” Ticktin told us this month before taking the stage at an election-skeptic conference in Las Vegas. The way Ticktin sees it, there are three possible outcomes this fall. The first—a smooth election—won’t happen in his view because, he claims without evidence, Democrats already cheated in the primaries. The second is that Trump takes action before the election to prevent cheating. The last option is that Trump tries to declare martial law on or around November 3. “Either martial law, or step aside,” he told us about Trump’s choices in the last scenario. When we asked about the prospect of riots if Trump tries to overturn the election results, Ticktin said he was not concerned. “Believe me, our armed forces are a lot bigger than they are,” he said.
Trump has already tried to claim greater federal control over elections, which under the Constitution are administered primarily at the state and local level. In February, he said Republicans should nationalize voting in at least 15 places. In August, when the television and radio host Wayne Allyn Root pushed Trump to declare a “national-security emergency” to require proof of citizenship, voter ID, and other measures, Trump played coy: “Let me just say that stranger things have happened, okay? I’ll leave it at that.” Later that month, Trump posted a Root column on the topic, with a headline that described the plan as “foolproof.” Peters announced after meeting with Trump in June that the president “basically said to his lead counsel to do what I was asking.” In a prime-time address at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Trump again repeated the false claim that he had won the 2020 election, and sarcastically encouraged his supporters to “cheat like hell” in the upcoming elections.
As someone who also has family who are Trumpists, I have to disagree, most of them are in no way decent. They weren’t decent before Trump and are unlikely to be better after. I’m sorry that doesn’t make mending fences easier, but most Trumpists truly are not worth the effort, especially if they still are making apologies for everything he’s done. There are lines that are unforgivable, and for many of us, those lines are well and truly past.
Yep. Exactly.
Trump didnt turn good, wholesome people vile.
He turned racist assholes into out, loud, and proud raging racist assholes who felt they were finally free to drop the mask and reveal who they really were deep down and fully.
Who only find decency and decorum necessary when the focus is on them, and their orange lords, misdeeds, and only have empathy and concern for when their hate policies come home and hit them, instead of the poors, and browns, and blacks, and liberals that they wanted them to.
My experience is different, I know plenty of current and former Trump supporters, and like all people they run the gamit of human experience, and importantly they are normal flawed human beings.
When I say decent, I don’t mean “good”, I mean that they do not purposefully cause others to suffer, most of these people are scared, un/misinformed, a little(or very in many cases) stupid, and subject to the largest propaganda machine ever built.
I have to believe that at least most, if not all, people are deserving of a good life, and are capable of being caring compassionate individuals, because if I cease to believe that life suddenly seems a little meaningless. I may be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
There is no other group that more purposefully causes people to suffer than conservatives. 35-40% of humanity is not capable of being caring compassionate individuals. As resources dwindle and the world heats up, that percentage will rise.
That misconception is why we are in the predicament that we are in. By your own admission you embrace the misconception because the alternative is too painful to bear. You must accept that except to yourself, friends and family, your life is meaningless aside from the qty of value you can produce to sustain the system.
That’s an incredibly dim view of the world, and one I feel confident is entirely incorrect.
The giddy glee and laughter I hear from my local trumpets while they watch short form videos of people getting hurt and abused (whether by accident, stupidity, or governmental brutality) suggests that it’s a deeper character flaw in many of them.
I’m aware that some are nearly propagandized and ill informed. But plenty are maliciously cruel and want fascist rule, even if they might be on the wrong side of it.
Reality fucks your feelings
At some point Hanlon’s razor becomes a distinction without difference. The wall of lies is too complete to penetrate and whatever their motive, they cannot be recovered. I know you want to believe that most can still choose to be something other than harmful to everyone outside their inner circle. I used to believe it to. I no longer believe that’s true. This is a struggle for survival now.
I think if we all give up our humanity then we’re fighting to persist something which ought to die out. I’ll choose to hold onto mine.
It’s not hate that informs how you treat someone with rabies when you know they’re beyond saving. You know there’s still a person in there somewhere, and you also know you can’t save them, and they’re a danger to everyone around them. They’ve driven themselves rabid with their own ghost stories and phantasms. If they’re only weakly connected to “The Cause” there’s still time, but when they’ve closed that last door tight against the monsters in their head, you can’t undo what’s been done. The only thing left to do is to protect those who aren’t dead from the heart up, from those who are.
I see where you’re from, I really do. But what you are saying is incongruent with reality. I’d highly encourage you to think on this more, and consider changing your mind.
I’m gonna check out of this conversation though, really tired of the threats in my DMs.
I agree. Humans are inherently good and social. It’s the money/power portion of the world that has everything so fucked up. How a proportionally tiny insignificant amount of thugs can control the rest of the world is beyond belief, but here we are.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say inherently good, but I do absolutely agree the money/power dynamics cause almost all our current issues.
I spend a lot of time researching and studying how the elite control the world, and their biggest asset is their ability to manipulate the rest of us into fighting eachother.
What!? How dare you!!! Whoa…I see what you mean…sorry about my temper. I guess you’re right. /s