by Ramin Mazaheri and crossposted with PressTV
The United States repeatedly has the worst elections of all the Western core democracies.
That’s not “Iranian meddling” but Harvard and their 2019 Electoral Integrity Index. They ranked US elections just 57th in the world.
One wonders how much further they will fall in this year’s ranking?
If we honestly ask if American elections have integrity I think everyone has the same answer, and it’s as serious as a heart-attack:
You don’t want to go there. American elections cannot withstand serious scrutiny.
So if President Donald Trump actually wants a second term, it’s likely there for the taking. He’ll have to ride out weeks of personal stress even worse than the televised Watergate hearings in 1973, but he won’t come out like Richard Nixon just for insisting that American elections finally get looked at honestly.
I don’t think that Trump has engaged in vote fraud, but I must report that half of the US still believes that Democrats did. Mail-in balloting has unnecessarily stressed an already corruption-filled system, per Harvard. In a democracy it does not matter if perceptions of voter fraud run on partisan lines – if such perceptions are widespread they simply must be resolved satisfactorily.
Nobody has tested the integrity of US elections in recent memory. Not in even in 2000, when they rushed to install George W. Bush 37 days after the election. We later found that an unforgivable 14% of African-American votes had been questionably rejected in they key state of Florida.
Americans shouldn’t forget things like that, and many don’t. Many just permanently stay away from elections and encourage others to do the same.
Democrats want to pin all the blame for the current election mistrust on Trump, but such a view acts as if the world began in 2016.
This is an election system which could not stand serious scrutiny, and now it is cracking at the end of this year of unprecedented pressures.
Half the country is begging Trump: stress it further.
His supporters are asking Trump to be a martyr and refuse to concede
This is an absolutely history-making moment in time, and this hard-news journalist never resorts to such hyperbole: This is the moment when Donald Trump can choose between going down in history likely portrayed as a buffoon, or he can take on the establishment “Swamp” by forcing it to investigate allegations of structural corruption by elites.
It’s a stunning idea, and unthinkable to half the country here, who is being swamped with the insistence that Joe Biden is the president-elect even though the votes counting is still ongoing, even though he leads by a mere average of 21,000 votes over four states, and in an election which has been tainted by corruption accusations for months.
What they are applying as pressure is the cynical power of “inevitability”. Maybe Trump really did get fewer votes, so why put the nation through stress?
That common view should be rejected in favor of the martyrs who came before, such as the disenfranchised Black Floridians of 2000. And how long can honest reckonings be put off without destroying faith in the system? Destroyed faith in society has a price, and America has a problem with honest talk, but this is truly la chance for redemption.
That’s why Joe Biden’s early declaration was so reckless, self-interested and – in the worst sense of the word – Trumpian. Biden’s promised redemption is already false – he did not have faith in allowing the US system to play out.
It seems like a difficult task, but I contend that Trump has everything going for him – he has the one thing nobody really has, which is time. All Trump has to do is let the process play out: if he lost fairly, he will garner much credit for standing up for the common voter; if he wins the presidency, he’s a hero who reversed the tide.
Trump’s Achilles’ heel is that he cannot do this with dignity, but when every other election this century has been disputed, one person’s foolish behavior isn’t the main issue for American society anymore.
There really is no rush: a new president doesn’t take over until January 20. But imperialists abhor a vacuum. They don’t know who is in charge and, thus who to follow, and thus who to plot to destroy. Imperialist cultures are exceptional and distorted like this in ways smaller countries can’t imagine.
This, “We’re the slave-master,” pride is also why a small country can take their time and get an election right, but the US is rushing to judgement no matter how many it disenfranchises. They know they have to constantly project total strength: every day they do not is another day the colonised will question the slave-master’s true power and abilities.
What is this 21st century “Trumpism” really? We are about to finally find out.
‘Trumpism’ isn’t the name of a proper political party – will one be found or is it over already?
Certainly, like the Yellow Vests in France, it was immediately and falsely slammed as xenophobic. That’s now a pathetic, false and boring argument: Trump won a greater percentage of minority votes than any Republican in 60 years. So we don’t really know what it is, due to this propaganda.
The reality is that their opposition to 1%-benefiting globalisation, their demand for patriotic sovereignty and their opposition to 1%-benefiting “universal values” are the reasons for the corporate-mainstream vilification of both.
If Trump gives up the adjective of “Trumpian” Republican will no longer be necessary because the world’s oldest duopoly sucks the revolutionary spirit out of every third-party movement. I doubt you have heard of the “Bull Moose Party”, even though Teddy Roosevelt is on Mount Rushmore?
If Trump really stands his ground right “Trumpian” could shed its perceptions of xenophobia and be associated with a spirit of rigour and democratic egalitarianism. It would be a coup against the 1%’s efforts, and to win that Trump has to get absolutely crucified in the next three months.
We’ve never known just how serious about politics Trump is, no?
He used to be a reality-show star, but he has certainly put in a lot of work for four years. Key senators have said that Trump is within his rights to demand recounts and transparency. Now we will find out how fighting he is willing to do – he still has a ton of power.
Trump been vilified for four years, and revolutionaries are made, not born. Surely he is aware of the problems which those without power cannot possibly stand up to? He who is more aware is necessarily more responsible.
But how deep is Trump’s Trumpism?
It’s very easy to cynically say that Trump will only ever be a tool of the pro-Zionist camp, or that he is only in this to make money, or that all he seeks is fame or even infamy. Maybe all this is quite true, and he’s gone further than he ever imagined or even wanted to?
It doesn’t matter to me: The better point to make is that Trumpism is very real to its supporters. Like the Yellow Vests they actually do have genuine virtues. They see corruption and they want it out, but all they have is one vote each – they are not the president.
Right now is the time if Trump shows he has learned how to be a public servant after four years, or if perhaps many are right to conclude that “democracy with American characteristics” is incapable of producing humble, selfless public servants, and only corrupt, self-interested ones.
If Americans cannot have a transparent election they cannot possibly achieve even moderate progress: This is country which has opposed revolutionary tactics for 200+ years – everyone here is committed to reformism of the American system. If Trump does not make a stand here – if he bows to the forces of cynical inevitability – Trumpism remains half a personality cult, half a brand name and certainly half-finished at best. Trumpism will have made a point, but not a real impact.
The average American should not be punished – they have a right to free and transparent elections, and the whole world knows that they don’t get them. 2020 is yet another recent example. It seems unfortunate that it is up to Donald Trump to help him and her, but it is too early to judge: he may yet get added onto Mount Rushmore, as he hopes.
What is certain one week after their initial vote is that the US has had a vote, and a winner (two of them) – there is only one logical conclusion: concession/inauguration.
Until that happens it will be a steadily-increasing drip of chaotic news. That is not a bad thing for the world, nor one to be feared by Americans, but it is intensely feared by their 1%.
*************************************************************
Results are in: Americans lose, duopoly wins, Trumpism not merely a cult (1/2) – November 5, 2020
Results are in: Americans lose, duopoly wins, Trumpism not merely a cult (2/2) – November 6, 2020
4 years of anti-Trumpism shaping MSM vote coverage, but expect long fight – November 7, 2020
US partitioned by 2 presidents: worst-case election scenario realized – November 9, 2020
Ramin Mazaheri is currently covering the US elections. He is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’ as well as ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’, which is also available in simplified and traditional Chinese.
Proof of Chain of Custody Reduces Voter Fraud
No rational person would enter into a contractual obligation without written paperwork that attests to the agreement between the parties. The documents represent an offer and acceptance and the signatories attest to those facts. This applies to a financial loan, a purchase of property, a Last Will and Testament, etc. Even a simple receipt is given to a consumer who buys an item from a retail store. The record in hand is proof the transaction took place and is tangible evidence in any civil or criminal court in the United States.
Suffrage is one of the most important human rights recognized by constitutional jurists as fundamental and necessary to maintain a representative government of the people. Yet there is no process in place that validates a citizen’s vote was properly accounted for in an election.
I went to my local polling place on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. I was interviewed and asked for my home address, my name and then signed my name electronically. I did not have to provide proof that I am the person I said I was by presenting a bona fide document of identification. I was handed a paper ballot and a marker pen and directed to a booth to choose the candidate(s) or write-in names. After I made my choices I went to an electronic machine and placed the ballot into the feeder slot and the machine accepted my paperwork. I was greeted by a volunteer and presented with a sticker that had the words, “I Voted Today” written on it and then left the building to continue the rest of my day.
Was my ballot properly recorded? I don’t know. Were my choices properly recorded? Again, I don’t know.
I don’t know because I have no receipt in hand that attests that my ballot was counted and no way to verify my choices were tallied as I chose them. In essence I have no way to prove my participation in the chain of custody necessary to validate not only me as a registered voter or even that I voted!
Imagine if I was charged by a prosecutor for the civil crime of “failing to vote”, which I understand is a legal requirement in some countries. How could I prove I voted? I could say that I signed an electronic form and subpoena that as evidence but so what? It does not prove I voted because I have nothing in my possession to attest to the fact I cast a ballot.
A voter ballot is the mechanism used to cast and record a vote and meets all the elements of a legal contract. It is the agreement between two parties (the voter and the government) to willingly agree to the offer and the acceptance is predicated on the “consideration”, which is the promise the vote will be properly counted and recorded. Each of the parties to a legal contract must be provided a copy either electronically or in paper form and a voter’s ballot should be no different.
The current system is easily compromised by ballot stuffing and that has to stop.
We the electorate must demand a way to prove we voted and our vote was properly counted because suffrage is so critical to an honest political system.
Good points.
In my polling place there is a list of registered voters and their address.
Actually, two lists, one when one enters and one when on leaves.
One’ s name is checked off at both ends.
I suppose the reason for this system is to preserve anonymity and privacy of the ballot.
I.e., one’s actual ballot is not connected to one’s actual name.
Normally one has to show an ID–driver’s license, which with new electronic features now functions as a “national” ID (i.e., for plane travel). This time for some reason I did not have to show my ID. POssibly because I came in already in possession of a ballot (the absentee ballot that had been mailed to me). Which seemed a bit odd to me.
anyhow I agree that voters should receive some kind of receipt—but how could it indicate how one had voted?
It seems like a good idea to have some kind of receipt copy that is kept at the polling place that is also separate from the ballots themselves. Like a standard customs form or other form that has multiple carbon copies of which the sender gets one as a receipt, one is attached to the package, and the other two presumably are sent to some central monitoring location of the USPS.
The USPS computer spits out four labels with the same barcode, which the postal worker affixes to each copy. .
I can’t see any reason why, in this age of barcodes , we cannot devise a way to track on a national scale every vote cast in an election in a fashion that does not compromise the privacy of the vote. That is, track the presence of the voter at the polling place and the proper execution of the vote: one receipt goes to the voter; one is kept by the local authority, and one is sent to the state attorney general.
Katherine
Dear Katherine,
Here is one suggestion that provides some assurance that your vote was counted and recorded.
1. Registration – A voter is eligible to participate in the election process based upon proof of identification, citizenship, social security number and current residence. The voter’s social security number will be checked against the online Death Master File maintained by the Social Security Administration or by some other online system of verification to verify the person is alive at the time the registration application is received.
2. In-person Voting – For every election of a public official (Federal, State, County, etc.), the voter must appear at the designated polling place at the appropriate date and time and present bona fide identification including their social security number to the election authority. A computer system will verify the voter’s name is not deceased either by checking the online Death Master File maintained by the Social Security Administration or by some other online system of verification. After verification is complete, the voter will be issued a duplicate two-part blank ballot each stamped with the same unique alphanumeric control code and directed to a private booth to cast their vote or write-in names. Part 1 of the completed ballot is fed into the vote recording machine and scanned for accuracy. Part 2 is kept by the voter for record retention purposes.
3. Absentee Ballot – A registered voter may request an absentee ballot at least two weeks in advance of the election for voters unable to travel to a polling place. A duplicate two-part blank ballot each stamped with the same unique alphanumeric control code will be mailed to the absentee voter. After the voter fills out their social security number and makes their choices, part 1 of the completed ballot must be signed by the voter, mailed and post-marked no later than the date and end time of vote casting. Part 2 is retained by the voter for record retention purposes. The absentee ballot will be processed immediately upon receipt by the election authority. A computer system will verify the voter name is not deceased either by checking the online Death Master File maintained by the Social Security Administration or by some other online system of verification.
4. All blank ballots submitted either in-person or by absentee mail-in or any ballots where the Death Master File determines the social security number identifies the person as deceased, will be rejected.
5. Depending upon the election, the control code on part 2 of the ballot kept by the voter can be checked against either the State or Federal ballot verification system to verify the vote was correctly counted and recorded.
The verification system will show the following:
1. An actual image of the ballot filled-in by the voter and the date and time the voter was present at the polling place or when the absentee ballot was logged into the system.
2. The count of the number of voters registered to vote and assigned to a polling place including the absentee voters.
3. The total number cast for the candidate or incumbent chosen by the voters at a polling place including the absentee ballots (e.g., 1,000 for Trump, 750 for Biden, etc. ) The count can be less than or equal to the total registered to vote from step 1 but cannot exceed that number otherwise an inquiry will have to begin and all vote counts suspended for that polling place until the discrepancy is satisfactorily resolved.
“I was interviewed and asked for my home address, my name and then signed my name electronically”.
I am not sure what the last part can mean. A so-called “electronic signature” is not the same as a normal human signature. It is a cryptographic number that identifies a given document or other items as coming from a particular “trusted” source. But there is no link between such a source and a particular human being.
My big problem with electronic signatures has always been that if I send an email with my electronic signature, all that can possibly prove is that the email came from my computer. It cannot say who actually sent the message – it could be anyone with access to the computer.
There is an awful lot of technical jargon being thrown around by people who either don’t understand it or are deliberately bluffing.
This is a wonderful analysis, Ramin – your commentary on the US has been completely incisive, and this one is on fire. You are producing observation and commentary that is ahead of anyone else’s that I’ve come across.
My great congratulations to you as a serious journalist, and my thanks to you and Saker’s platform (and Iran!) for presenting your view to us.
And your point is absolutely correct: we are at a historic moment indeed, and the story hinges on Trump himself, and if he will reach for the prize that lies so readily within his grasp. How deep, indeed is his Trumpism?
Keep us posted!
don’t really care all this blather, in US it’s a done deal. Your logic would work if the constitution Trump took an oath to uphold and defend didn’t include the present voting system platform. In other words, months before the election Trump tore apart the very voting apparatus that put him in the Whitehouse to start with. Some would call that a treasonous act but most just chalked it up to Trump being Trump. Still, with little or even manufactured evidence at this point really, it is done.
@Anonymous
It is ‘blather’ but you are compelled to reply.
‘it’s a done deal’
Thought stopping cliche. Propaganda.
Trump has commited Treason? Projection.
‘manufactured evidence’
This is projection agin. It is manufactured votes that are problem.
This is basically a battle between liberty and authoritarianism. It’s not about economics, it’s about liberty.
The Biden techies want forcible vaccinations, global transnational corporations owning everything, all SMEs wiped out, all dissenting opinion wiped out and the billionaire class jetting the world at will whilst keeping everyone else locked up, courtesy of endless releases of ‘new viruses’ which miraculously appear to require yet more lockdowns.
Trump’s crowd know full well that these viruses are not The Black Death, they are just a bad flu. They know that normal life is normal life and it can continue as long as the techies don’t stop it. They won’t stop techies having a Covid vaccine if they are desperate for one, but they sure as HELL won’t be forcibly vaccinating children.
The deplorables are the ones promoting Liberty. The ‘liberals’ are the ones promoting fascism.
That’s what the stakes are.
Liberty vs slavery.
Precisely what the War of Independence was about.
This time you’re fighting US billionaires, not the Queen of England.
I hope the deplorables win.
Very good essay.
Wouln’t it be nice if someone were to read to Trump that passage from Henry IV, Part I, I.2:
“I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humor of your idleness.
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
170That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
By breaking through the foul and ugly mist
Of vapors that did seem to strangle him.”
We need Trump to break out and start acting not only presidential but Joseph-Welch-ish.
Indeed, Welch’s “Have you no sense of decency?” would be a nice pin in the media’s Biden/decency hot-air balloon.
I certainly hope Trump has an operative perusing this blog! ((:-))
Katherine
How deep is Trump’s Trumpism? I seriously doubt it’s deep enough. The Deep State seems to have martialed all its forces against him, and a little thing like “fixing” the legal process on the back end doesn’t seem to be a serious impediment at this point. Too many hoops to jump through – any one of which will trip him up – and not enough time. The Supremes – Roberts in particular – is quite hesitant to get involved in political food fights between the Executive and Legislative branches – all the more so when it involves overturning an entire presidential election – and I have no doubt that Deep State operatives have personally communicated their “preferences” as well. If it’s been “decided” from on high, as it definitely seems it has, there will be no serious reviews, never mind reversals. He had a good run while it lasted.
I have read it heard several analysts discussing Trumpism. My questions are what exactly is it and what have Trump’s policies done to benefit his working class supporters? Forgive me if I see him as just another fraudulent carnival barker a la W.C. Fields in Never Give A Sucker An Even Break. Trump may talk about China cheating us through its trade practices but neither he nor his daughter had any problem with making their products in China to save money. Trump criticizes illegal immigration but he had no problem hiring undocumented workers for his resorts and never mentions punishing the businesses that hiring illegals. He relishes in the support of fundamentalists and evangelicals but had no problem with committing adultery or stealing. In fact, he bragged about stealing Syrian oil. Also, when his casinos went bankrupt his bills went unpaid causing financial hardship for many small businesses. Interesting that he had money to pay for the silence of his sexual partners and even to party with Jeffrey Epstein at his resort in Florida. Trump embraces the flag and patriotism but had no problem with dodging the draft with his bone spurs. And don’t forget that that meant some working class stiff without connections had to go in his place.
Trump supporters suffer from the same delusions as the Obama progressives. Both were elected telling the people what they wanted to hear but like in the Wizard of Oz there was a con man behind the curtain. As the saying goes, it’s easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled.
@cartero atómico
‘fraudulent carnival barker’
You are projecting Biden is the fraud.
Saying Trump is a fraud does not mean Biden is not a fraud. It’s coming from the perspective that we have two wings of one War Party. While people debate Biden/Trump, Obama /Romney, Clinton/ Bush, Tweedledum/Tweedledee, Pepsi/Coke, etc, the Deep State, TPTB, whatever you want to call those behind the curtain continue enriching themselves.
@cartero atómico
Basically you are saying they are as bad as each other then why are they censoring him and propaganda 24/7 against him?
Because he’s an outsider to both parties. They are carreer politicians, he’s a real estate and what not loud mouth biz type. They have their connections, their networks, in the political/justice/governmental establishments. He has his connections in a quite different world, and although there must be some overlap, he’s not and never will be one of them.
They hate him forever for the fact that he managed to upset ‘their’ system, ‘their’ reality in 2016 by connecting with Joe 6-pack, something they will never be able to.
As the saying goes, it’s easier to fool someone than it is to convince them that they have been fooled.
So, so true! The whole key to the 9-11 and CV19 scams right there in a nutshell! Cognitive dissonance is a bitch!
Thanks, Ramin! Good article.
I noted this point in your article:
The average American should not be punished – they have a right to free and transparent elections, and the whole world knows that they don’t get them. 2020 is yet another recent example.
This has been my assertion from the beginning and it is the reason that many of us are so raw, outraged, steamed.
It really is not about trump but he did offer “some” hope to the middle class “peasants;” those people who had their jobs stolen and shipped overseas by the clintons, et al.
They have been completely abandoned by both parties (which is another story in itself as to why in the hell can two parties continue to offer such miserable choices with such miserable agendas).
It is a real and legitimate question as to how much actual or real hope trump offered as his admin has massive conflicts of interest to the zionists, the MIC, the rich, the money classes but the crowds who came to hear him in the weeks just before the election did come with some belief that their lot would be better with trump.
I would offer this link to a long, very long, article by a wife and mother of the middle class, trying to survive and raise and educate her children, cope with obama care, etc etc with the husband just making it with inadequate salary, burdensome quality of work. It is a read to bring one down to earth, outside of the world of the banksters, oligarchs, who do not have a clue as to how the middle class is surviving. Again, a long read, but worthy of the time. (Thanks per/Norway for linking this on non-msm):
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2020/11/07/i-am-done/
(717 comments and counting)
@who do not have a clue as to how the middle class is surviving.
Very painfully and tired all the time.
Trumpism is really Reaganism Mk 2.
And we must remember the attempt to get rid of Reagan in March 1981 where H Bush was possibly involved following a bitter 1980 nomination race where Bush called Reagan’s policies “voodoo economics”.
The risk over all this 2020 Election is that voters will not trust future elections or the GOP – RNC.
And that is a far more dangerous thing than Trumps 4 year term as it related to the long term.
As that means a new centre / right wing party will replace the GOP.
And they will get elected as a Biden term would be a disaster and it will also spell the end of the vast budgets of the deep state.
So the US Govt system is at the crossroads.
In France you must show an ID with your electors card (which is obtained at your district or townhall ). You must sign a ledger where your name and address already figures after you put your ballot (which is in an enveloppe so as no one can see who you voted for) in a ballot box, transparent plexiglass, in front of an official who screams ” has voted” . The ballots are counted by hand by several volunteers from each party.
I’m not saying it’s perfect or the best or whatever…but the worst, I’m sure 100%, is using a machine to validate and count the votes. Internet, smartphones, are also “machines”.
People and paper is the only way to go if you want to have a chance of a “fair” election -whatever that means.
“The better point to make is that Trumpism is very real to its supporters. Like the Yellow Vests they actually do have genuine virtues. They see corruption and they want it out, but all they have is one vote each – they are not the president.”
Yes, Ramin, Trumpism is very real to its supporters and many of them do have genuine virtues. Problem is, perfectly legal mail-in voting overwhelmed the traditional way Republicans win elections in the USA, which is by suppressing the vote in the major cities which tend to vote Democrat. That’s why the Trumpsters are so pissed. They thought the election would be rigged in their favor as it usually is by voter suppression and turns out, it wasn’t. Even Lindsey Graham admitted that Republicans would never win another election if all the Democrats voted and all the votes were counted. No legal challenge that the Republicans can come up with will undo the results of this election. (You need to check your interpretation of what Graham said. Please provide a link. Mod.)
Yesterday, however, Trump fired Mark Esper to clear the way for US troops being used to put down domestic unrest. (Again, please provide proof. Mod.) Today, Pompeo refused to accept Joe Biden’s victory, saying at the State Department that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” Yes, Ramin, he actually said that!
Something big is up and it may just be the “national emergency” Trump needs to invoke special powers under the USA Patriot Act which would make whoever actually won the election a moot point.
“Mitch McConnell [Senate Majority Leader] and I need to come up with an oversight of mail-in balloting. If we don’t do something about voting by mail, we are going to lose the ability to elect a Republican in this country.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-republican-president-mail-in-voting-lindsey-graham-warns-2020-11
Mail-in balloting has always been legal in the USA and there is no evidence that it promotes voter fraud. It is also the the only way to combat widespread voter suppression in our major cities.
“Mr. Esper’s downfall had been expected for months, after he took the rare step of disagreeing publicly with Mr. Trump in June and saying that active-duty military troops should not be sent to control the wave of protests in American cities.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/us/politics/esper-defense-secretary.html
Tommy Apeiron
‘mail-in balloting has always been legal in the USA and there is no evidence that it promotes voter fraud.’
A UK judge showed that the local Labour party under Blair did mail ballot fraud on a large scale and called the system something you would find in a banana republic
That hasn’t happened in the USA. Mail-in balloting was used extensively in all of our wars to enable soldiers to vote. Mail-in balloting is the only way to prevent systemic voter suppression in our big cities. I hope it will be the preferred way of voting in the future, just like it is in many European nations.
@Tommy Apeiron
Mail-in balloting is the only way to allow systemic voter suppression in our big cities.
I have fixed that for you.
Also – everyone should realize this steal by Biden would have gone on whether Trump was there or not.
Its because the Democrat machine wanted to change the entire system and deplatform the GOP.
Even if Rubio or Cruz as GOP candidate had won the 2016 POTUS election this would be happening.
Its not just about Trump himself.
This is the point that so many otherwise intelligent people cannot wrap their minds around:
This is NOT just about Trump and his personality. Making it so is wilful obfuscation and denial.
It has been about a lot more since well before Trump was elected.
Screaming about Trump while failing to fix your own party, namely, the Democratic Party—and failing to grasp that decades of disastrous policies, including by Obama, is what paved the way for DJT—has been a festival of denial and lunacy.
Katherine
I am a crtical thinker not a partisan, so let’s just get a few things straight. I voted Biden, pure lesser evil. I will not do it in 2024 and I’ve never done it previously. Trump just messed up equilibrium, not for me but for a large swathe of people I interacted with.
Trump did some things that I liked but others hated. Not starting any hot wars, and showing the world that our dysfunctional, and banana-republic democracy is not worthy of being exported were among his achievements. So IMO Trump fought imperialism through rhetoric but even more effectively in failed foreign policy. Other than that, he’s too erratic and unstable to hold nuclear codes. And he’s unnecessarily devisive.
I was prepared for Trumps reelection literally from the day he was sworn in, because immediately we got the Russia-Gate witch hunt. A witch hunt that cost the Dems severely because they forfeited the opportunity to set policy and electoral contests with any substance at all. Their no message efforts are reflected in the election results.
1.Elections are stolen by both parties, The Chicago Daley Machine is infamous, as well as the present day machine in Southern States now acting all indignant. The Republicans steal “neater and cleaner” because they scrub voter roles of Black voters in particular. Georgia robbed Stacy Abrams of the Governorship. So spare me with your victimization-like whining Trump Supporters. Blah, blah, blah, EVERY party has elections stole. All Americans are impacted.
2. How do you steal cold cuts instead of Wagyu beef? How did the Republicans win essentially everything except the presidency. Why did the Democrat election thieves grab hog-head cheese, when Kobe and Wagyu beef just got put on the shelves? It makes no sense.
3. Why do Republicans make it hard for anyone non-white to vote and Democrats make it hard for anyone non-corporate, non-imperialist, and non-swamp to vote. Think Green, Libertarian and other parties? Both Corporatist Duopolies are guilty of voter suppression. Which is why Russia-Gate is such B.S. That’s when you know an empire is crumbling when they start looking like Keystone Cops. Looks like Russia, Iran, and China tried to affect the outcome of the election, only to have the Democrats and Republicans beat them to it. Hilariously priceless.
Professor Richard Wolff best described our political system as a monopoly, think cartel. The professor is right on so many levels. It is an absolute monopoly, where a 3rd party has more chance of running candidates in a THIRD WORLD country than the U.S. I live in Detroit, look at the number of political parties representing voters of different persuasions that REQUIRE coalition building in Canada?
The only coalition building in the U.S. is the 1% coalition building. Spare me the finger-pointing and recriminations because none of you, from either party, said a word about gross gerrymandering and voting suppression of persons of color, namely Blacks and Hispanics for decades. The chickens have come home to roost. Your time for an ankle grab. .
4. Biden should encourage the Trump recount. Biden gains nothing if he dismisses the concerns of people and shut down the recount. Biden should encourage a recount, Trump and Biden should work on possible transition with the understanding that if the results change they have a bi partisan governing document.. This becomes a dual strategy–hammering out a bi-partisan agenda FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ready to launch in 2020 and/or preparing for a transition.
Biden will govern stronger if he works with Trump to remove doubts about the outcome of the election
4. American’s problems are due to it’s Zero-Sum mentality. My point as a African American who is PROGRESSIVE in contrast from being culturally liberal is pump your brakes. You know how many elections have been stolen due to Black voter suppression? Which by the way Democrats never address. And do you understand that you don’t go courting voters in Black churches with discussions of binary bathrooms and shit like that? I am libertarian w/r/t sexual habits. Sexual agendas are personal. I don’t want to hear about yours.
5. Both parties are guilty of their own brands of racism. Trump had the potential to be one of the greatest presidents of all time because he was self-assured in comparison to many others. Trump didn’t invent authoritarianism, remember Baby Bush told us, “I am the decider.” Obama squandered the bully pulpit, Trump mastered it until he abused it in fits of self-aggrandizement. I told anyone who cared to listen that absent his Covid and Stimulus response debacles Trump would have won in a landslide. It’s not because I support Trump, it’s because I think critically. Trump was rejected by voters because he is unpredictable.
Looking back, Trump would have secured and expanded his base without the race-bating, just like Democrats failed to secure and expand their base by focusing on Woke Politics and BLM noise. I argued to friends that BLM was not a grass roots movement, and facts show that they are a loose organization of woke Marxists who have their own LBGTQ/Marxist agenda that represents a minority of Black Americans.
BLM does not have a spokesperson, did not condemn the looting and riots, did not disassociate itself from thugs and agent provocateurs’, DID NOT CONTROL IT’S OWN HOUSE. That is not a Movement, its a loose confederation of disparate egos and personalities and idealists sitting a tens millions of dollars with no policy positions that address the needs of hurting working class citizens of all walks of life. It’s funny how even Black media (radio) acknowledges Hispanics or Latinx are not monolithic BUT STILL believe Blacks are. That is is a racist attitude also.
The fact is that the rudderless and incompetent leadership of BLM cost the Democrats dearly with third 3rd grade strategic messaging, “Defund the Police,” and a failure to organize rallies where they were not infiltrated and were not held at night. Who the hell protests at night knowing citizens are on the edge for a variety of reasons? I don’t necessarily disagree with the grievances I think the execution is horrendous.
By bottom line is that Trump supporters, whine and moan all you want, just don’t be sanctimonious about it because that sanctimony just cracks me up. You’ve been hoisted on your own petard. Suck it up. We have for decades.
“Looking back, Trump would have secured and expanded his base without the race-bating, just like Democrats failed to secure and expand their base by focusing on Woke Politics and BLM noise. ”
Wow are you one confused hombre, Malik!
Trump DID secure and expand his base…higher percentages of blacks and hispanics joined the Red Wave in 2020 than for any other republican presidential candidate in the last 80 years or so.
Let me give you a clue, Malik: He did not accomplish this by “race baiting” anyone!
That is pure projection by the Plantation Owners of the Democrat Party.
What is NEW….and very great cause for optimism is that more and more people of color SEE THIS clearly!
Why can’t you???
Because of your snowflake friends and their easily “offended” snowflake emotions???
Y’all need to suck it up and to what black ex-police officer Brandon Tatum advised people of color to do if they felt too much Plantation Peer Pressure to support the president openly ………..quite yet:
“Get with YE.”
As in open Trump backer KanYE West. LOL
Suck it up, yourself, butter cup.
Suffering from reading comprehension problems? I don’t give two cent about either party. Neither you fake conservatives nor fake liberals. Sure Trump increased his vote totals among all sectors, he still lost cause he’s an ass. I don’t have snow flake friends “ buttercup” I care as much about them as I do you Trump supporters. Both prototypes are insufferable assholes. If only we had a real democracy with real choices instead for a banana republic superstructure.
Great. When the Biden / Harris team bombs yet another country into oblivion, will you feel any guilt for having voted Biden? Asking for a friend.
@Malik An excellent post. You have lived up to your claim of being a critical thinker, not a partisan.
Your point #4, namely, “Biden should encourage the Trump recount. Biden gains nothing if he dismisses the concerns of people and shut down the recount. Biden should encourage a recount, Trump and Biden should work on …” is a breath of sanity and commonsense. Not that it will happen – alas! Fools on both sides fail to see that all they will be getting is a diminished Presidency – actually a joke of a Presidency where the President can be cut-off in mid-sentence by the media the moment he steps out of line.
I disagree with you in Biden being the lesser evil but 100% respect your position and viewpoint. If only elections could have been held in an atmosphere of mutual respect! My opposition to the Dems and Bidden is based on a revulsion at the woke nonsense and the political correctness that has been rammed down our throats by the Dems and the media. Also, it is horrifying, the sheer scale and brazenness of the fraud committed in this election and the media taking over the power to decide elections. Not that the Republicans are any paragons of virtue, but the scale of the theft this time and its brazenness is scary. The raw power of fat cat plutocrats, backed up by the usual deep state actors, is now on full display. The gloves are off – and that should scare us all.
What is true.
1. The people have been cheated.
A. When you cheat in election, it is because more
people don’t want want what you want, so you
cheat.
B. That means Trump has the majority. Because he
has the majority, he has options.
C. The people that are loyal to Trump, are loyal to
are loyal to Trump. They are the majority.
2. Trumps supporters do not want destruction and
Violence.
A. The vast majority of Trump supporters
participate in boat prarades, rallies, and
by in large peaceful protest.
B. They have not used civil disobedience to push
the point.
3. There has not been an organice movement(ie:yellow
Vest in France).
A. No one has blocked the interstates or areas
around capitals and generally shut down the
country. 2000 simi on I35 in Downtown Austin
would be a start.
B. Riots in the US have been structured and
organized to this point by a small minority.
C. The masses have not felt enough pain at this
point to come out in force.
What will it take to bring the majority it to the streets?
Pain and a threat to your livelyhood are the forces that do this. It is always an organic occurance that lights the majorities fuse. When chaos comes to America it will be caused by the pain inflicted on the majority.
Trumps job right now, make the majority feel that pain.
You ever ask yourself why members of same families always end up as presidents? Their all related to one another. Bush senior and junior, etc etc. Actually do a genealogical study and one will be quite surprised at what one will discover.
One can start here.
https://familypedia.wikia.org/wiki/Genealogical_relationships_of_Presidents_of_the_United_States
https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/bloodlines-of-all-us-presidents/
Descended from royalty? Further imagine this 2 terms as well?
Strange business politics.
And why is it that anyone who does try and do the right thing politically in America winds up assassinated?
Strange business indeed!
In contrast, Trump family had some members of caliber far higher than “politicians”.
“…
*The Connections Between Nikola Tesla and Donald Trump*
This goes back to January 7, 1943 [BTW, the Orthodox Christmas day; Tesla was a Serb] – the day Tesla died in the Hotel New Yorker in New York City.
Two days later the Federal Bureau of Investigation ordered the Alien Property Custodian to seize Tesla’s belongings, even though Tesla was an American citizen. Tesla’s entire estate from the Hotel New Yorker and other New York City hotels was transported to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company under the Office of Alien Property (OAP) seal. John G. Trump, a professor at M.I.T. and a well-known electrical engineer serving as a technical aide to the National Defense Research Committee, was called in to analyze the Tesla items in OAP custody.
That’s from Wikipedia, not Wikileaks, and John G. Trump is the late uncle of the current president-elect. Dr. Trump died in 1985.
…
[Donald Trump said:] ‘My father’s brother was a brilliant man … We have very good genetics.’
…”
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/12/the-connections-between-nikola-tesla-and-donald-trump/
And his great grandfather, who came to the US to avoid the draft in Germany, ran a whore house
Now this I call a contribution. What a superb essay! The very Mr. Trump should make a speech (not merily just a tweet) based on these ideas.
Trump represents a group in US which know the current rotten system must be fixed or it will collapse.
And that the rats in the woodpile have to be cleaned out.
The corruption, the control by unAmerican elites, and monopolistic activities have to be reformed.
Otherwise the US will be insolvent in the medium to long term.
Wow!!! An excellent piece just appeared over at the Occidental Observer which add plenty to this essay of yours Ramin,
Just this one quote speaks volumes about the ‘Trumpism’ of Trump or lack thereof.
When it comes to election integrity, like so many other important matters, “President Trump speaks loudly but carries a small stick.” His presidency was not an abject failure, but there was no issue or policy matter where his bark didn’t dwarf his bite. Time after time, he failed to use executive authority to deliver on his promises. He filled important positions with Republican hacks instead of competent men who backed his national populist agenda. Whenever the going got tough, he had an excuse at the ready. For four years, he tweeted one thing, and did another. If his reelection really was “stolen,” he has only himself to blame.
Read the entire thing here and note all that Trump said during the 2016 election
https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2020/11/12/president-trump-could-have-prepared-for-this/
This is huge.
@Gerry
‘He filled important positions with Republican hacks instead of competent men.’
They had to be confirmed by the senate.
Guy ahead of me in a voting line voted in another’s place. Guy was trying to late register. The outside folk sent him inside, where the guy behind the counter refused to see his id and matched him with a similar sounding name. Used his year of birth to verify; as in gave three years and the ‘voter’ was able to pick one. If he wanted he could have used his real info wherever, though this was unlikely to happen. BUT…. Should there have been any kind of organized activity the ‘rules’ of the game would have not done prevented it. And yes, this was a blue state, where one had to scroll down twice to find Trump’s name, but the first screen have Biden and even Kanye included. Makes one go hmmmmm
And you reported all of this to authorities ??