Democrats attack Trump as a threat to the country’s foundations, raising the stakes for November
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On the day he announced his candidacy for president in 2019, Joe Biden said the coming campaign would be a battle for the soul of America. The Democratic National Convention has embraced and amplified that theme with a series of extraordinary attacks on President Trump and a warning that the very foundations of the nation are on the ballot this November.
The assault has been led by some of the most prominent Democrats in the country. It began Monday night with former first lady Michelle Obama, who, with a tone of moral outrage, declared the president beyond unfit to lead the country. It continued Tuesday with former president Bill Clinton arguing that the Oval Office has become a "storm center" of chaos, rather than a command center.
On Wednesday night, it reached a crescendo when former president Barack Obama issued an urgent call to arms with language rarely spoken in public by one president about another. Obama's prime-time address included an ominous portrayal of an America whose worst impulses have been unleashed under this president and whose democratic institutions are under attack and threatened if Trump wins a second term.
Obama said that, while he knew Trump would not embrace his policies or vision, he nonetheless hoped his successor would move beyond the reality TV campaign he had waged in 2016 and take seriously the responsibilities of the presidency. On Wednesday night, Obama offered his verdict: "Donald Trump," he said, "hasn't grown into the job because he can't."
Obama had more than acid words for the president. He vouched for Biden as a leader who is ready and able to take the reins of power at a time of multiple crises that eclipse that which he had inherited when he was elected in 2008. He appealed to Democrats and others to vote in massive numbers and warned that the president and his allies will seek to make voting as difficult as possible.
"That's how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks," he said. "That's how a democracy withers, until it's no democracy at all. . . . Do not let them take away your power."
But in joining what has become a chorus asserting that Trump is not just a failed president but a threat to the foundations and values of the country, he underscored what many Democrats believe about November, that the very future of the country is at stake.
Obama, who made history when he was elected as the first Black president, was part of a third-night program that marked another moment in history when Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) accepted the party's nomination for vice president. She became the first Black and the first Asian American woman to formally join a major-party ticket.
Harris, accepting the responsibility assigned to all vice presidential nominees, ripped into Trump in her acceptance speech, arguing that his leadership "has cost lives and livelihoods." She said Trump is a president "who turns our tragedies into political weapons."
The nation, she added, is at an inflection point, and she made it sound as if it might be a tipping point: "The constant chaos leaves us adrift," she said. "The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It's a lot."
Striking in the assault on Trump by the Democrats this week has been the degree to which policy differences have been subjugated to a more apocalyptic framing of the choice in November, a raise-the-stakes strategy that goes beyond what Hillary Clinton did in her unsuccessful campaign of 2016. Clinton argued then that Trump was not fit to be president, a charge that a majority of voters agreed with at the time but that nonetheless did not prevent some of them from voting for him and helping him win the election.
On Wednesday night, the former secretary of state joined in the attacks on the president. "If Trump is reelected, things will get even worse," she said, noting that she has heard from many people over the past four years who have told her they regret their vote for Trump or not voting at all. "Well, this can't be another woulda, coulda, shoulda election," she said.
What Democrats have set up during their convention is not a debate over the direction of the country, in the classic ways in which parties have argued their cases in the past. It's not been an argument about health care or the level of taxation or how to engage with the rest of the world — though those issues have certainly been mentioned.
Wednesday's program included a focus on big issues that so far have defied solutions by politicians: gun violence, climate change, immigration, who the economy works for and who it doesn't. But instead of a debate about the direction of the country, Democrats want to make this a choice about the very future and essence of America.
The bet the Democrats are making is that this will be a character election, not one that hinges on the particulars of this policy or that. They are betting that warnings and denunciations that ultimately didn't persuade in 2016 will do so now that Trump has been in office for four years.
After seeing the excerpts of Obama's speech that were released Wednesday afternoon, the president lashed back, disparaging his predecessor and saying it was the failures of the Obama-Biden administration that helped make him president.
"I see the horror that he's left us, the stupidity," Trump said, adding, "The reason I'm here is because of President Obama and Joe Biden. Because if they did a good job, I wouldn't be here."
But he also lent credence to the Democrats' portrayals of him as a threat to the country's values by embracing the fringe group QAnon, which traffics in baseless conspiracy theories and which is now seeking to move into the mainstream social media world. The FBI has said the group poses a potential domestic terrorist threat.
Trump had deflected earlier questions about the group after he gave an unflinching endorsement to a sympathizer, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was recently nominated by Republicans for a U.S. House seat in Georgia. Asked Wednesday about QAnon, he said, "I don't know much about the movement other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate."
At another point, he said he believed that the followers of the group did not like the violent protests that have taken place in cities like Portland. "I've heard these are people that love our country and they don't like seeing it," the president said.
That comment about what he called love of country by people was reminiscent of what he said after white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville in August 2017, which resulted in a clash with counterdemonstrators that left one woman dead. Trump said there were "very fine people" on both sides.
Biden used the Charlottesville episode in the video that opened his presidential campaign and has said repeatedly since then that it was that terrible march that made him finally decide to seek the presidency this year.
That remains the core argument behind his candidacy and one that his fellow Democrats have embraced with enthusiasm this week. As Obama put it on Wednesday night, "What we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come."
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In a short while it will be Labor Day and beyond and we will be at the climax period of the presidential election. It is time, now, for every American of good will and reasonableness to denounce Donald Trump and voice support for the only person who can replace him for 2021 and beyond, Joe Biden. There is no more time for moderates and independents to pretend as if there is an actual viable "choice" to be made in this election.
Yesterday Trump accepted the support of the Q Anon group, a group of mental case societal defects who just had hundreds of their accounts banned from social media for inciting violence. Trump in effect said he accepts their support because they like him.
We have to put a definitive end to this insanity and everyone speaking out against Trump and then voting against him will accomplish that.
I agree, the TDS ridden should immediately end their years long meltdown. It has been very insane!
Yesterday Trump accepted the support of the Q Anon group, a group of mental case societal defects who just had hundreds of their accounts banned from social media for inciting violence. Trump in effect said he accepts their support because they like him.
Oooooh Qanon ..... boogeymen in your closet!
Meanwhile BLM, a known marxist leaning organization, regularly voices their opposition to Trump and support of Biden.
Looking the other way on that one John because it's convenient to your preferred narrative or are you a marxist now?
There are good aspects and bad aspects of Black Lives Matter, for example they havent been entirely able to keep their protests peaceful, but in general their goals are worthy.
The goal of QAnon is to persecute innocent unsuspecting people who they accuse of running pedophilia and cannibalism rings. And Trump is their "superhero" , a role which he evidently accepts. Mainstreaming such insanity is a sign of the impending apocalypse. BLM is just a mostly ineffective political movement. QAnon is insanity.
Are you surprised considering the pack of losers he has planning to speak for him at his freak show aka the RNC convention.
"If I can help save the world from problems, I am willing to do it.
Prove it Captain Cheeto and RESIGN!
Cool, so as long as they have some good aspects, you willing look past all the anti social mayhem, destruction, ruined lives and deaths they are directly responsible for.
Got it.
Wow, have you been drinking the koolaide. I guess i shouldn't be surprised though. We could have a fun little left wing/right wing internet kook comparison contest but i really don't feel like it today John so i'll pass.
Don't worry too much about those boogeymen in your closet though. I know i don't
No I have been reading the newspaper and watching the evening news.
I gave up long ago trying to persuade the Trump cult members to come to their senses. What the heck, maybe they don't have any. Now the "normal" members of the Trump cult accept and make excuses for Q Anon. There is no bottom to the Trump cult, so we have to vote it into oblivion.
the only Trump cult is the mythical product of TDS-ridden minds with overactive imaginations
Without a trump cult he would have been forced out of office or resigned long ago. He is easily the most corrupt president in US history. Easily.
He is the WORST president in the history of this country!
Everyone knows that. Trumpsters don't care.
you have a vivid imagination, perhaps you try script writing
I know, it's so sad
Lol ... that sez it all John.
Whatever "unbiased" reasoning you ever had on the topic, if there ever was any, completely left your building long. long ago.
Hilarious!
Not even close but i know it makes some folks feel better to think that but they are all still wrong.
Very, very wrong.
Nah, now TDS .... there is something that is very sad.
Disgusting in some cases.
Why should any rational American be "unbiased" at this point? Are we not allowed to take the last 3 and a half years of Trumps ineptitude and judge him for it? Are we not allowed to weigh the two dozen accusations of sexual assault against him and his own words admitting he doesn't "even wait" and just grabs women by the genitals because he thinks he's "a star" and conclude he may in fact be telling the truth this once? Are we not allowed to judge him for his mishandling of the current pandemic by downplaying it early on and claiming it would all just miraculously "go away" and thus not making any national policy to fight it and now we have over 170,000 Americans dead? How can one not be biased against Trump without sticking their heads in the sand and blindly following the most corrupt inept President in human history?
Yes I know trump DENIAL syndrome is real, people still deny he's the worst president ever and he's a crooked pos
By the looks of things, we have about six, here on NT that will sink to the bottom of the Trump cesspool to still maintain their support of the worst president in history. It matters not the evidence, not the deaths, not the arrests, nor even the insanity of the conspiracy levels of "the-Q". They are going down blaming everyone and everything else.
They are the same types that will go to a dinner party and refuse to sit down even after three different people have told them they've had enough to drink.
That says it all, no need to read any further but then again i already knew that.
Lol .... nice creativity.
I love it when you folks aren't even clever enough to come up with your own stuff.
Hilarious!
Sounds about right for this heavily left leaning mob of liberal bias and whining. The majority here has always been that way and likely always will be.
Nothing new for this place. Nothing new at all.
You got your nice little liberal echo chamber going and naturally resist those who don't goosestep in precise unison to your preferred narrative.
Yep, i consider that to be a badge of honor to be one of the few who resist that level of liberal crackpottery. Damn proud of it actually.
Thanks!
Wow..... You really didn't have to go to all of the trouble of pointing out where you stand though Sparty...... It's pretty obvious to those of us with analytical thought processes and even the most minute particle of morality.
Also to be called the Whiny Little Bitch syndrome.
That's your choice, no one here is forcing you to be rational. Personally, I'm biased against those accused of dozens of sexual assaults, rapists, spousal abusers, child rapists, white supremacists, Nazi's, homophobes, xenophobes, serial liars and those who choose to mingle with those types of people. That tell's me all I need to know about them and their lack of any redeemable value. Why you wouldn't agree with my bias isn't my problem.
I'm curious as to why we have to try and be unbiased...but the Right Side of NT doesn't have to maintain any level of impartiality!
Reminds me of the tree house gang playing for likes. They even had fake accounts so they could give themselves likes. Then I see you have the simple Simons jumping in to offer their worthless footnotes for ya. Hillaryious.
Lol .... you can get off your sanctimonious high horse any old time now.
You’ve got no automatic moral high ground over folks who’s opinions differ from yours. But if it helps you to sleep at night to think you do, by all means keep thinking that.
A good night sleep is very important. And besides, I love watching people under estimate their opponents. They usually end up screaming at the sky or with a chronic case of butt hurt and that is amusing.
True but I always chose to be regardless. Unlike some here I don’t need to be told what to think.
And no one here is forcing you to be unbiased. Not that it would do any good if they tried.
Likewise. I see zero impartiality from any conservative Republicans or Trump supporters who regularly post here. I do see many of them regularly, hypocritically, call out "the left" for being biased while carrying Trumps toilet water for him, defending and deflecting with nothing but pure right wing bias, not a shred of partiality to be found.
Some of us have rationally, and carefully looked at Trump and his record before and after becoming President and find him the most incompetent, inept, disgusting accused sexual Predator to ever taint the oval office. And that's saying something after the likes of Nixon, Reagan and Bill Clinton. Any objective observer could only come to the same sane conclusion, and thus become "biased" against a repugnant lying serial adulterer like dishonest Donald. For those on the right to think him the second coming of Christ they either have to be certifiably insane, or suspend any and all rational thinking in order to dismiss his huge pile of flaws and find a crusty yellow cubic zirconium among that mountain of shit and imagine they found a valuable diamond.
The "Cult of Trump" has always impressed me with their ability to sink even lower in terms of morality and honesty. Q anon is just an extension of pizzagate. The far fight just keeps going further into the deep end.
Impressive? More like depraved, deplorable, beneath contempt . . .
Nothing sanctimonious Sparty...... just pure observation and reporting of the facts.
Ever question why there seem to be a fair number of what use to be know as "Main Stream Republicans" coming out against Trump? If your smart, you would. And examine why they have put country over Trump.
Nuff said.
The word 'sanctimonious' to some simply means 'good argument; I have no rebuttal'.
[Deleted]
opinions do vary Navy ...... nuff said
Nah, no need to over think it.
In this case it means, what it means.
Consult your Merriam Webster if required.
I think their propaganda network is OAN which tRump supports also.
This unconventional convention has been nothing but a slam Trump festival. All doom and gloom. As someone posted the other day, a dark opening? There is no enthusiasm being shown. Just a continuous "Because Trump" fear mongering. Look at some of the points being made. No platform. No policies. Where are they on immigration? And the freebee fest they want? Healthcare. College education. Health care for illegals. Why are they not touting their proposals on all of this? Because they know their base, and especially indies aren't going to buy in. I'll give you one thought. Because they don't want to face the inevitable "Where is the money coming from to pay for all this?" question. That would necessitate them admitting they are invariably going to raise taxes. And that leaves the question of "on whom?".
Nutshell, it seems the whole campaign is just dump Trump. We can figure out what to do then as we go. Not much of a winning strategy if you ask one hell of a lot of people.
Absolutely. It is wise to emphasize the most important aspect.
Joe Biden is a centrist Democrat. Generally, I am more to the left of center, but I will happily take Biden because he is not Trump, the worst president in the 244 year history of our country.
If Biden were a conservative I would vote for him over Trump. I would vote for Mitch McConnell for president over Trump. Yes, it is all about getting rid of Trump. Wake up.
That will turn out to be a losing strategy...again. The people want to know what the Dems plan to do with the country, and how they plan to do it.
Guess we'll be saying "told ya so" on November 4th.
Biden will have a centrist administration. Just look at who has been given speaking parts at the Democratic convention. Not a radical among them, unless you count AOC who was given one minute. Even Bernie Sanders realizes that any new direction for the country would include compromise with the center and the right. This claim that the Democrats are communists and radicals that want to burn down the country is a ridiculous lie. But lying is all Trumpism has left.
Lol and i have a fine suspension bridge here in Michigan i could sell you cheap. Slightly used but very well kept.
And, in Democrat fashion, she "took" an extra 36 seconds.
Even though Biden is a Democrat, he would NEVER tweet that red states can rot. He will care about everyone, even the ones who don't deserve it.
Yep, he will care about everyone but those he disagrees with. Like the UAW members when he told them they were full of shit. Or the cops he hasn’t supported this summer.
Yep, shotgun Joe is a hellava guy .....
Oh, I don't know.... As of today Biden is still +8.4 in national average polling, so it does seem to be working. I'm pretty sure they polled "a hell of a lot of people."
What poll? Got a link?
It's not one single poll, but an average of national polls.
Still too far away for a poll to mean anything, the latest trends show Biden losing support.
Each party usually gets a "convention bump" in polls.
The rubber meets the road in October and November.
A lot of people found that out the hard way in 2016. Seems many of them still haven't learned their lessons though.
Which is fine by me.
Someone said on another seed, I think Greg included, is that tRump had 51%. Now we see it's the other way around.
What a surprise!
There is no enthusiasm being shown. Just a continuous "Because Trump" fear mongering.
That seems to be the sum total of their message JIm. You make a lot of cogent points.
Making this left wing clown show all about Trump simply decreases their chances of Biden going anywhere close to winning this election. And the voters are not being fooled by the very real likelihood of the Dems trying to get rid of Biden and replace him with Harris, should this dangerous duo get elected.
The Democrats are mistaken if they think they have a lock on the soul of America. Hell, they can't even figure out the heartbeat and pulse of our great country, let alone the inner nature of a majority of its people. The American citizens are fed with all the negativity and anger coming from the left. They appalled by the lack of condemnation of the ongoing violence being committed by left wing domestic terrorists, and attempts to do away with the police in many places.
The left's dream of total domination over the American people is once again doomed to fail. The good and decent people of the USA are simply not ready for the hard left socialistic state the Dems envision.
Well, I guess we'll just have to compare it to the RNC when it happens. I'm sure the RNC will be nothing but policy pronouncements. Course, I have no idea what Trump's policies are, since he has not stated any for the current campaign.
Trump never slams anyone. s/
1. Staying out of prison
If you can call that a policy.
Hmmmm...have you seen the line-up of keynote speakers?
One of them is definitely a pedophile (Ted Nugent) and I don't know how the hell Kid Rock has managed to stay out of prison
Maybe that should be "Policy Number One: How to stay out of prison"
A number of them are also criminals, like the couple that decided to point guns at peaceful protesters, or the MyPillow guy.
Biden had three former presidents, two former first ladies, and a doctor speak. Who does Trump get.....a traveling flea circus.
Easy answer. Just become a member of his inner circle.
Maybe Nugent can close the convention by shitting his pants. He has done it on command before.
Do you dislike Nugent because he likes guns and is conservative?
He's been accused of having sex with a 12-year-old, written a song about raping a 13-year-old and adopted a 17-year-old so that he could have sex with her going on to campaign alongside all the most conservative “family values” candidates?
Prove it. And please, don't try to push that Courtney Love shit on me.
Who he was already having sex with (age of consent in Hawaii was 16 at the time) and adopted her with her parents' permission.
Now, about the question I asked and you attempted to deflect from............................Any chance at all you can answer THOSE?
Let's not forget dodging the draft by pretending to be insane....and we all know what he did to do that.
Some patriot Nugent is, eh?
Interviewer: How did you get out of the draft?
Ted Nugent: Ted was a young boy, appearing to be a hippie but quite opposite in fact, working hard and playing hard, playing rock and roll like a deviant. People would question my sanity, I played so much. So I got my notice to be in the draft. Do you think I was gonna lay down my guitar and go play army? Give me a break! I was busy doin’ it to it. I had a career Jack. If I was walkin’ around, hippying down, getting’ loaded and pickin’ my ass like your common curs, I’d say “Hey yeah, go in the army. Beats the poop out of scuffin’ around in the gutters.” But I wasn’t a gutter dog. I was a hard workin’, mother****in’ rock and roll musician.
I got my physical notice 30 days prior to. Well, on that day I ceased cleansing my body. No more brushing my teeth, no more washing my hair, no baths, no soap, no water. Thirty days of debris build. I stopped shavin’ and I was 18, had a little scraggly beard, really looked like a hippie. I had long hair, and it started gettin’ kinky, matted up. Then two weeks before, I stopped eating any food with nutritional value. I just had chips, Pepsi, beer-stuff I never touched-buttered poop, little jars of Polish sausages, and I’d drink the syrup, I was this side of death, Then a week before, I stopped going to the bathroom. I did it in my pants. poop, piss the whole shot. My pants got crusted up.
See, I approached the whole thing like, Ted Nugent, cool hard-workin’ dude, is gonna wreak havoc on these imbeciles in the armed forces. I’m gonna play their own game, and I’m gonna destroy ’em. Now my whole body is crusted in poop and piss. I was ill. And three or four days before, I started stayin’ awake. I was close to death, but I was in control. I was extremely antidrug as I’ve always been, but I snorted some crystal methedrine. Talk about one wounded motherf*cker. A guy put up four lines, and it was for all four of us, but I didn’t know and I’m vacuuming that poop right up. I was a walking, talking hunk of human poop. I was six-foot-three of sin. So the guys took me down to the physical, and my nerves, my emotions were distraught. I was not a good person. I was wounded. But as painful and nauseous as it was — ’cause I was really into bein’ clean and on the ball — I made gutter swine hippies look like football players. I was deviano.
So I went in, and those guys in uniform couldn’t believe the smell. They were ridiculin’ me and pushin’ me around and I was cryin’, but all the time I was laughin’ to myself. When they stuck the needle in my arm for the blood test I passed out, and when I came to they were kicking me into the wall. Then they made everybody take off their pants, and I did, and this sergeant says, “Oh my God, put those back on! You f*cking swine you!” Then they had a urine test and I couldn’t piss, But my poop was just like ooze, man, so I poop in the cup and put it on the counter. I had poop on my hand and my arm. The guy almost puked. I was so proud. I knew I had these chumps beat. The last thing I remember was wakin’ up in the ear test booth and they were sweepin’ up. So I went home and cleaned up.
They took a putty knife to me. I got the street rats out of my hair, ate some good steaks, beans, potatoes, cottage cheese, milk. A couple of days and I was ready to kick ass. And in the mail I got this big juicy They’d call dead people before they’d call my ass. But you know the funny thing about it? I’d make an incredible army man. I’d be a colonel before you knew what hit you, and I’d have the baddest bunch of motherf*ckin’ killers you’d ever seen in my platoon. But I just wasn’t into it. I was too busy doin’ my own thing, you know?
That 17 year olds' parents must be so proud, pimping her out to that scum nugent.
He truly disgusts me.
Elvis Presley hung up his guitar when he got his draft notice. So did Johnny Cash. They were harder working than Nugent could ever hope to be. He is no goddamn fucking patriot! Just hear the contempt in his words. He would never have made it through Air Force basic training and that's the easiest one there is.
And I swear...I will probably be kicked off NT forever if some nut job comes here and defends this human piece of excrement!
He is crazy as a ****house rat, bat****crazy, scum.
Who the hell adopts a 17 year old girl just so he can bang her?
AHHHHHHHHHHAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I used to manage a gun range and could out shoot that fool any day of the week Tex and I don't care that he is a conservative. I dislike him for the reasons Ozzwald posted. The fact that you like him speaks volumes.
He is not pretending.
A better question is....who is the moron who signed off on the adoption?
My answer would be her parents and that makes them worst scum than he is because you know it was all about the Benjamins
A judge still has to sign the final adoption paperwork. I have no doubt what so ever that the parents got a nice cha ching and signed non disclosure documents.
"A judge still has to sign the final adoption paperwork. I have no doubt what so ever that the parents got a nice cha ching and signed non disclosure documents."
Disgusting pimping their daughter out to that piece of shit nugent.
That is their goal.
Trump, Ttrruummpp, Tttrrruuummmppp, Ttttrrrruuuummmmpppp, Tttttrrrrruuuuummmmmppppp!
Everyone look at Trump and ignore our platform that will bankrupt the US, destroy the middle class, and complete the race to the bottom!
It is Trump!
Complete and utter garbage from the party that wants to destroy the US.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0VQzjJN3tMg
Are we sure these aren't just the next hilariously unqualified contestants on some relaunch of "The Apprentice"?
What a shit show. Bannon was scheduled to speak . . .
but tRump said he hadn't spoken to him in months.
Let us know if any of them are backers of groups responsible for rioting, looting, arson, assault, and murder will you?
Till then they are all better then the Democratic speakers.