The Republican Convention represents: mendacity.
Over 180,000 Americans are dead of the “hoax China virus”. The growing economy Trump inherited is a wreck. Russians are offering bounties for the killing of American troops. Police murdering blacks continue. White supremacist terrorists continue to gun down innocent people. I’m still trying to wrap my head around what exactly “pro-life” means to Trump and the GOP.
Mail-in ballots do not lead to voter fraud. Biden will not raise taxes for 82% of Americans – if you make more than $400,000 your tax cuts will be rolled back. Biden does not support defunding the police and has explicitly said so. Mexico has yet to pay a dime for the wall. And, yes, cutting the payroll tax as Trumps wants WOULD deplete Social Security by 2023. So much lying by the GOP – all the fucking time – really gets old.
Trump, Pence and the GOP have taken gaslighting to heights unheard of in this country.
Gaslighting is using denial, misdirection, contradiction, and misinformation, and involves attempts to destabilize the victim and delegitimize the victim’s beliefs. In other words, we are told something that we obviously know to be untrue, and we experience cognitive dissonance. This is when things just don’t “sit right” with us. What we are experiencing is vastly different to our values and what we hold to be true. (article from USAToday)
Mike Pence in his speech at the convention said that Officer Underwood was “shot and killed during the riots in Oakland.” In fact, he was murdered by an alt-right Boogaloo member. Nowhere in Pence’s speech or anywhere at the convention will you hear a denouncement of violence by right wing extremists.
And you have people at home reading and believing what they see on Facebook, the epicenter of misinformation and lies. There’s a reason I deleted my account a long, long time ago.
Make no mistake – killing innocent people by the alt-right – is a feature of Trumpism – not an aberration.
Trump told us long ago his vision of America. In 2014, while on Fox News defending Russia, he said this in regards to his desired outcome for the United States: “You know what solves it? When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell and everything is a disaster. Then you’ll have riots to go back to where we used to be when we were great.” (excerpt from “Hiding in Plain Sight” by Sarah Kendzior, a scholar on authoritarian regimes.
Trump and his cronies, including the GOP at large, are flaunting norms and laws. And they are not being held accountable. Once they know that nothing will happen to them, they will reach even further. Remember that Donald Trump admires Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Recep Erdoğan…all brutal dictators and murderers. Remember when Trump allowed Erdoğan’s henchmen to assault people on American soil? And, Trump has never addressed Putin’s bounty on American soldiers. Disgusting.
When Trump claims that if he loses the election then it means it was rigged, what he really means is he is not going to willingly leave office. He is going to encourage his white supremacist militias to take to the streets to riot and kill. Then he’ll need to declare a state of emergency to maintain control of our government.
Those of you who still support Trump need to take a very long look at yourself and ask why? What’s your motivation? I suspect your answer is going to be ugly – because there is NO GOOD REASON – but once you can admit it, you can move on and deal with it. It’s okay to say : “Given Trump’s track record these past 3.5 years, he hasn’t earned my vote and should be fired.”
It is imperative that this election is not close. We can give Trump no reason to refuse to leave the White House. Make no mistake – if and when Trump loses he will implement a scorched earth policy as he vacates the office.
Unless you want to be living under an authoritarian dictator in the near future, you need to accept what Trump is, reject it and vote Biden and Democrat down the entire ballot. Hold your nose if you need to. Just do it. The GOP has also been complicit. Fire them all.
Should you choose to vote for Donald Trump in this upcoming election – I will most likely abstain from any further relationship with you. It will be clear to me that your values of supporting hate, white supremacy, fake religiosity, illegal behavior, and an authoritarian dictator do not align with mine of supporting a functioning democracy, even if an imperfect one.
If you really want to know how we got to this point in our country and what Donald Trump really is then read Sarah Kendzior’s book “Hiding in Plain Sight“. I hope you do. If you don’t want to pay for it, I will be happy to send you a copy.
If you’d like to discuss your viewpoints with me because you think I am being unfair or are wrong – you know where I am and how to reach me.
Ciao.
