'Flashing warning': Analyst terrified GOP's new 'can't lose' certainty will spark chaos
By: Matthew Chapman (Raw Story - Celebrating Years of Independent Journalism)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Republican National Convention carries a general sense that former President Donald Trump's allies are already measuring curtains for the Oval Office, onlookers have said.. Following weeks of intraparty Democratic turmoil and a voter base energized by last weekend's attempted assassination of the former president, Republicans feel that victory in November is all but assured.
The thing is, wrote Hayes Brown for MSNBC, it's not — and that's a problem because the GOP reaction to a loss, or even the electoral environment shifting against them, could be dangerous.
"Even before the stunning events of the last several days, the mood among Trump's devotees was that he can't lose against President Joe Biden," wrote Brown."The convention has seen Republicans double down on that rhetoric, throwing out any caution about predicting a blowout. It's more than bravado. It's a flashing warning sign for what may come if the tides shift before November."
Despite how "geared up" Republicans now are, wrote Brown, "The GOP's success isn't quite the slam dunk that it's being made out to be in Milwaukee, not with the election still months away. It's worth bearing in mind that the predictions of a red wave in 2022 fizzled out, yielding the weakest midterm performance by a party that didn't hold the White House has had in decades. And the polls still show Biden and Trump running neck and neck even after the tumult of the last few months. And as this week has already shown, there's a lot that can happen between now and the election."
In 2020, Trump proclaimed his loss was rigged, tried to overturn the voting results in several states, and ultimately incited a violent insurrection at the Capitol. And that was in an election where the polls had him losing by more than he actually ended up losing. If he were to lose this time, Brown wrote, the political unrest could end up being a lot worse.
It's important to remember, Brown wrote, that in 2020 only a small fraction of elected officials truly proclaimed the election stolen — but now, Trump supporters have elected conspiracy theorists at all levels, with "a vast and growing GOP infrastructure primed to do whatever it takes to ensure that failure isn't an option" and right-wing legal groups "gearing up to target the U.S. voting system in the election's aftermath, seeking to nullify a Biden win." The Republican National Committee has even diverted money usually spent on voter outreach and advertising toward "election integrity" projects that will try to overturn any results they don't like.
To even reach this point though, concluded Brown, requires Democrats' refusing to cede the election and playing to win. "Democrats need to remember that there's still time to prove the GOP's certainty wrong and win in November — even if Republicans are unwilling to admit that such a thing is possible."
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MAGA, in lockstep with Trump, have convinced themselves that Trump cannot lose. What will this mean come mid November if Trump does lose? 2020-21 all over again. endless court cases, calls to come to Washington where it will be wild and more assaults on our institutions.
I have a flash for y'all, Trump can lose. Fair and square. He is extremely unpopular, and that is essentially the reason he lost in 2020. Tens of thousands of swing state voters left the presidential line on the ballot blank rather than vote for Trump.
The mainstream media has been bashing Biden for weeks now, and letting trump skate, and nonetheless, polls show the race is very tight. On Real Clear Politics, today, Jul 17, their aggregate poll result has Trump leading by only 2.7 points
2024 General Election: Trump vs. Biden Polls | RealClearPolling
One of the polls used in the average, the Marist poll, even has Biden leading.
I wonder what you think the response will be from the left if Trump wins?
You're putting your faith in the wrong polls, which in the end, don't matter that much anyway. This isn't 2020 and Biden has a dismal record of failure that he can't defend. The Republicans are on a roll, riding a ship called Victory, with fair winds and following seas.....
Trump Leads Presidential Race as Voters Doubt Biden's Mental Sharpness | Pew Research Center
The mainstream media has been attacking Biden for weeks now and he hasnt lost much ground. There is no question that Trump could lose in November, yet the expectations of MAGA will lay the ground work for another "insurrection" if he loses.
This should alarm everyone.
paulwaldman.substack.com /p/fight-fight-fight
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
Paul Waldman 9-11 minutes 7/15/2024
As the Secret Service began hustling Donald Trump off the stage after he was grazed by a bullet fired by a would-be assassin, he told them to wait. Turning toward the crowd, Trump raised his fist, and with an expression of rage on his face, mouthed these words: “ Fight! Fight! Fight! ” You can see it at 1:20 in this video:
It was not enough for Trump to tell his supporters in that moment that his injury was minor or even that he was unbowed; he had give them instruction on what they should do next. But fight against whom, and for what? For now it is considered uncouth to ask. Liberals are told we must tone down our criticisms of Trump, and the news media proclaim the image of him with fist raised “iconic,” begging us to behold him in all his majesty:
One can’t help but be reminded of another time Trump instructed his supporters to “fight.” It was January 6, 2021, when he told the mob he had summoned to Washington, “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Then he sent them to the Capitol, where they attempted a violent overthrow of the US government.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Reporters who have attended Trump rallies over the years have often described a kind of hum coursing through the crowd, a sustained bass note of menace and potential violence waiting to be unleashed. You can feel it when the rally begins, as all Trump rallies now do, with a tribute to the “hostages” of January 6, insurrectionist thugs reimagined as patriotic heroes. You can feel it when Trump tells one of his many luridly violent stories, often about a “beautiful” young woman killed by an immigrant (she’s always beautiful, as though the tragedy of her death is multiplied by the degree of her physical attractiveness). You can feel it when Trump points to the “pen” where journalists are kept, and says “There they are, the worst people in the world,” the cue to the crowd to turn around and jeer. You can feel it in the general mood, which is alternately celebratory and angry, even the joy driven by the feeling that Trump is the man to give those whom his supporters hate just what they deserve.
The hum is louder now. What we’re hearing from Trump’s movement is anger over the assassination attempt, yes, but also a kind of glee. They already knew what they wanted to do to their enemies, and they already believed they’ll have the means once Trump gets back in the White House. But after this? Just you wait, libs.
From what we’ve learned so far, the young man who tried to kill Trump sounds like your average school shooter: disturbed, lonely, with ready access to a high-powered weapon. But it doesn’t matter who he was or what his motives were. Trump’s cultists believe what so many Republican politicians are telling them, that “they” tried to kill Trump. Who’s “they”? The “radical left,” the Democrats, the president himself. “We will not tolerate this attack from the left,” said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA). “This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse,” says Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). “Joe Biden sent the orders,” says Rep. Mike Collins (R-CO).
So it was that this party whose own rhetoric is positively saturated in violence told liberals that even the most straightforward descriptions of Trump’s explicit intentions to eviscerate democracy and the rule of law are to blame, and must immediately cease. Here is J.D. Vance, aspiring authoritarian, who by the time you read this may have been named as Trump’s running mate:
This is the party whose candidates show their conservative bona fides by airing TV ads in which they shoot pistols and rifles and even gigantic machine guns , showing the faithful that they are willing to kill in the conservative cause. This is the party that makes heroes out of vigilante killers like Kyle Rittenhouse. This is the party that celebrates together when Gov. Greg Abbott pardons a man who texted a friend “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters,” then goes to a BLM protest in Austin and murders a protester. This is the party that cheers a candidate who assaulted a reporter for asking a question about health care legislation. This is the party that thinks it’s hilarious when a man breaks into Nancy Pelosi’s house and nearly kills her husband with a hammer. This is the party whose own elected members have said repeatedly that they fear that if they stand against Trump or even just vote for a bill sponsored by Democrats, their own rank and file might kill them and their families.
And this is the party whose object of worship, the man whom we are now told not to criticize too harshly, tells his supporters over and over again that their own thirst for violence is righteous, justified, and fun . “I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell ya,” he says to the whoops of the crowd. He says “It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country” if he loses, and his party responds to the ensuing criticism by creating bidenbloodbath.com .
If you’re tuned in to the right, you would have noticed the hum getting louder in the last couple of weeks, as movement conservatives who see Trump’s election as increasingly likely began focusing on an imagined epidemic of leftist violence they surely plan to use as the justification for giving in to their own darkest impulses when they retake power. A group of conservatives staged a “war game” about the 2024 election that anticipated leftists taking over migrant detention facilities and Barbra Streisand being kidnapped by Hamas. “As things stand right now, there’s a zero percent chance of a free and fair election,” said a Heritage Foundation official who participated. “I’m formally accusing the Biden administration of creating the conditions that most reasonable policymakers and officials cannot in good conscience certify an election.” And if Biden tries to steal the election, who knows what conservatives will have to do in response?
Kevin Roberts, Heritage’s president, recently said that “we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Just as Trump’s supporters have always used the real or imagined excesses of the left to justify their own squalid behavior, they now fantasize about the depths they believe they have permission to sink. Last year a poll from PRRI found 33 percent of Republicans agreeing with the statement, “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”
A speech Roberts just gave at the National Conservatism conference, a far-right confab attended by a parade of Republican senators and other conservative bigwigs (helpfully transcribed by Hamilton Nolan ), gives a flavor of their view of things:
Or as an internal strategy document from a group of Christian nationalist megadonors laying out their plan to get Republicans elected ( obtained by ProPublica ) says, “We are in a spiritual battle and locked in a terrible conflict with the powers of darkness. ” And you don’t turn the other cheek when you’re fighting Satan. Roberts’ was one of the milder speeches at the conference , which also featured Trump ghoul Stephen Miller shouting “To the Democrat party I say: I have nothing to discuss with you when you are letting criminal migrants rape and murder American citizens!” and J.D. Vance giving a full-on blood-and-soil speech denouncing the idea that America is based on ideals.
This is a message we hear over and over from the right: The left is so terrifying that we have no choice but to respond with the worst methods we can devise. Fight! Fight! Fight!
How do you think the assassination attempt will affect both Trump’s personal outlook and that of his supporters? Will it make them more thoughtful, considered, moderate in their tactics, and generous toward those who disagree with them? Or will it make them more angry, more cruel, more vindictive, and more eager to barrel through any obstacle of law or ethics? Will it make them vibrate with even more anticipation at the prospect of the violence their side will use to crush their enemies?
We all know the answer. That hum will not fade. All you need to do is listen.
That fist pump started out as a nazi salute
It did not. Quite the imagination you have there.