this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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Already looking ahead to the turmoil his re-election could cause, Donald Trump and his allies are reportedly circling an idea to invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office, deploying the military to act as domestic law enforcement.

According to a Washington Post report on Sunday, the drafting of such plans has largely been “unofficially outsourced” thus far to a coalition of right-wing think tanks working under the title “Project 2025.” It was identified as an immediate priority for the hypothetical resurrected Trump administration, internal communications obtained by the newspaper showed.

In response to questions from the Post, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung provided a statement: “President Trump is focused on crushing his opponents in the primary election and then going on to beat Crooked Joe Biden,” he said. “President Trump has always stood for law and order, and protecting the Constitution.”

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

He didn't win the popular vote the last 2 times, he just lost more last time.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Unfortunately the game isn't to win the popular vote, it's to win the electoral vote. You can rack up all the votes in California and New York, it's only like 6 states that really matter to the outcome. And the Democrats aren't exactly trying their best to endear themselves to voters in a state like Michigan (not even paying lip service to doing anything to protect civilians in Gaza, not prosecuting the people responsible for the Flint Water Crisis and even accepting their endorsement, constantly claiming the economy is great while people are still struggling, ...).

Those people might not vote Trump, but they'll stay home or vote third party.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Which in itself is a vote for Trump. I wish we were a society where voting for your personal choice for most ideal candidate was a viable option - but it is not. Protesting a vote over this fact is small-minded and destructive. I am sorry if you feel like you have to pick between two evils... might I suggest comparing how evil they are.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Don't tell me, I'm not the one voting/not voting in swing states. I'm just saying that Biden needs the Muslim vote in swing states, and they're seeing democrats sending billions to Israel to effectively conduct a genocide. I don't think they see that as a 'lesser of two evils', especially if there's some Republicans making noises about stopping aid on budgetary grounds.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Trump lost Michigan in 2020 and then in 2022 Gretchen Whitmer (D) won a second term as Governor. Also in 2022, both the Michigan State Legislature and Michigan State Senate flipped to Democratic majorities for the first time in over a decade. I don't know how things will go in 2024, but I don't think flying the Trump banner will find any significant wins in Michigan.

I agree that more needs to be done regarding the civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, but our hands are a pretty tied because of our obligations in the US treaty with Israel. Keeping those promises makes helping the Palestinian people very difficult, but breaking that treaty would likely destabilize the balance of power there and make things worse not better for everyone in the region. US Secretary of State Blinken has already strongly urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties. If Governor Whitmer said anything on the matter it would probably be seen as speaking out of turn.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

it's only like 6 states that really matter to the outcome.

Not technically true. There are only like 6 states that are big enough to have a large impact and not predictable enough to not already know who they'll vote for.

CA is nearly 20% of the needed electoral votes by itself, it's just that absolutely everyone knows those are going to go to the Democrats so no one really fights over them. It's a waste of resources for Dems to defend them or GOP to try to convert them because they aren't going to budge.

If CA or NY went red, or even came meaningfully close to going red, they would be the most important state in the election.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Imagine if the democratic states kick him off the ballot. He could get zero votes from 1/3 of the states in the country and still win.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Did you know you can with the presidency with something like 30% of the vote? Just win states by one vote each in reverse order of population until you get to 270 electoral votes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

A couple of these are the battle ground states though.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I actually don't like this possibility. If something transpires where ALL states disqualify him from the ballot, fine. But if only blue states do, that's just going to feed a resurgence of "the election was stolen from him" and I don't see that going well either.

It's better than a Trump win in the short term, but for the next 50 years we'll have to hear about how the blue states "stole" an election from Republicans, and they'll use it to justify bullshit of one sort or another.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

for the next 50 years we’ll have to hear about how the blue states “stole” an election from Republicans

STOP trying to get ahead of their whining idiocy. They will be saying this no matter what. Even if he wins...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

STOP trying to get ahead of their whining idiocy.

That's a funny way to say "stop worrying about giving fuel to the next wannabe that will rise up in Trump's stead"

This problem didn't end when Biden won in 2020, and it won't end when Trump loses in 2024.

If a by the books court proceeding can disqualify him from the ballot in (checks notes) "the democratic states", then by the books court proceedings should get him off the ballot in at least some red states too.

It would be very myopic to support an outcome where only the blue stats take him off the ballot. It would be taken by the maga crowd (and sympathizers) of "proof" of what he was saying all along.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My point was intended much more generally here.

You see it everyday where people are saying things like if we do X, Y, or Z, the maga crowd will do some horrible thing.

My point was that it doesn't matter if you do those things. The horrible shit is still coming. Might as well do the things that might help because no matter what the maga idiots are going to maga.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Ah - on that we can agree!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If he is convicted in Georgia, I think it is unlikely that he will be on the ballot there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Is the trial going to get to the potential conviction stage by the time the election comes around though? I'm not up to date with the timeline of that case

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Great. Should anyone bring that up, there's the little matter of the election that was stolen from Gore.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, but all we do is grumble about that. MAGA has shown they will take illegal measures even with zero evidence. This would certainly look like actual evidence to them.

As I said in another reply -

If a by the books court proceeding can disqualify him from the ballot in (checks notes) "the democratic states", then by the books court proceedings should get him off the ballot in at least some red states too.

It would be very myopic to support an outcome where only the blue stats take him off the ballot. It would be taken by the maga crowd (and sympathizers) of "proof" of what he was saying all along.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've never really understood why it's necessary to take into account how these people may react. The law is the law, if it's enforced in blue states and red ones decide to forego their responsibilities, fine.

Fuck 'em.

They're going to whine about something anyway and they don't much care if what they're whining about has any basis in reality.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well for one, it would be great if we could unify the country again without a civil war.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Sure, I'm all for that. I'm not in favor of indulging the fantasies of a bunch of angry seditious morons though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And recent polls have him gaining literally 10 points on basically every demographic versus 2020. How? I have no fucking idea. But he's up in swing states because black men and Latinos and white people under 35 have apparently decided that Trump is fine all of a sudden.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Also some young folks: My vote doesn't matter, so why vote?

Hnnngggghhhh I'm trying not to strangle them collectively.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Biden isn't doing so well that is how. You can deflect blame all you want but when nearly everyone is poorer than they were in 2020, when Eastern Europe and the middle east is on fire, when abortion is now illegal in most of the country, when student loan debt and living expenses promise a disaster, when pretty much everything that was broken 3 years ago is still broken the polls will reflect that.

If he could fix one major problem.