Fear, that’s one emotion Republicans understand better than Democrats. You have to admit, Republicans have a knack for scaring the living shit out of people, that’s why renegade Republican groups like the Lincoln Project are so effective at flipping those Trump 2016 voters to potential Biden voters in 2020. Their ads are designed to provoke those same negative emotions that drew those voters to Trump in 2016 in a way Democrats can’t.
Republicans are simply better at making people angry and fearful. In the Trump era, their ability to fearmonger has been taken up 100 notches to the point where it is comical in some cases. See, fearmongering only works when people aren’t aware of what is happening. With Donald Trump doing such a terrible job handling the presidency, many Americans who were not consumers of political news are now being bombarded with Trump-related anxiety-inducing headlines and are choosing to get involved. Not to mention, almost every American is affected directly or indirectly by his lack of a response to the coronavirus pandemic. This over-exposure to Donald Trump is why their desperate attempts to say this is Joe Biden’s American never landed.
But, when your entire re-election campaign is based on fearmongering, you aren’t allowed to fail and so they are trying again. They want a civil war if Donald Trump loses this November. And, you better believe that they will find some way to blame the ensuing violence on Democrats. I can hear a Trump supporter saying, ” told ya there would be violence if you voted for Biden, now look, this is Joe Biden’s America.” Trying to blame Biden voters for their decision to burn it all down.
This will likely go on for weeks, months even and to the surprise of no one, they will have the support of Donald Trump who continues to float baseless conspiracy theories to try and discredit mail-in voting. There is absolutely nothing stopping Donald Trump from sending a tweet thanking his supporters for his ‘victory’ after in-person voting numbers are reported and telling them to not allow the ‘deep state’ to steal the election. This as election officials work to count mail-in ballots. A recent survey shows that Biden voters are more likely to vote by mail this November.
The protesters will also have the support of the Bill Barr led Justice Department, the White House, Republicans in Congress, and other Trump allies like Roger Stone who told Donald Trump to seize power if he loses this November.
Last Thursday, Stone cited debunked claims of voter fraud in mail-in voting to urge Trump to consider invoking the Insurrection Act and arrest his political enemies like the Clintons. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and “anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.” He also called for the FBI and Republican state officials to block voters they believe are suspicious of committing voter fraud. Stone also wants federal marshals to seize election night ballots in Nevada because “they are corrupted” and for journalists to be rounded up for “seditious actions” relating to the election.
A reminder, this is not some QAnon freak in his/her parents’ basement. This is Roger Stone, a close confidant of Donald Trump, he has the president’s ear.
On the issue of invoking the Insurrection Act, Stone, the ‘political trickster’ don’t have to do much to convince Donald Trump since he had already decided to “put down” leftwing protests on election night using the Act.
“We’ll put them down very quickly,” Trump told Fox News host Jeanine Pirro. “Look, it’s called insurrection. We just send in and we do it, very easy. I mean, it’s very easy. I’d rather not do that because there’s no reason for it, but if we had to we’d do that and put it down within minutes.”
Trump and his allies are planning an all-out assault in the streets and in the courts if he loses this November. Think the 2000 presidential election but bloodier and with an authoritarian twist.
It is entirely possible that the winner of this November presidential election will be determined by the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice John Roberts since he has emerged as a crucial swing vote on the nation’s high court.
The Biden team is lawyering up in preparation for a protracted court fight and you should be prepared as well because we may not know who the winner is on election night due to the expected surge in mail-in ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Outside of the courtroom, it is up to us the people to defend our democracy. We’ll have to take to the streets. Trump and his allies are well aware that the American people will not sit idly by and watch as they implement those draconian measures floated by convicted felon Roger Stone.
They are designed to provoke one emotion–anger. They hope that we would be driven to act without thinking rationally and then they have a reason to justify whatever drastic measure they feel is appropriate to ‘bring calm’, like implementing Martial law.
We take to the streets and peacefully protest, we should not give Trump and his posse’ the satisfaction of goading us into starting a civil war because that is exactly what they want. It’s their last chance to hang on to power.
