Former President Donald Trump urged members of a crowd in Florida to vote and said that if he wins, they “won’t have to vote anymore.”
Speaking at a Turning Point Action event in West Palm Beach on Friday, Trump, who tried to overturn the 2020 election he lost, delivered a cryptic message.
“And again, Christians, get out and vote!” he said to a cheering audience. “Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed! It’ll be fine! You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians! I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again.”
In my eyes this is the actual scariest thing he’s ever said.
Genuine national security threat.
What? Speaking to “Christians” and saying he’ll be god king emperor and/or he’ll help usher in the second coming…you know, Armageddon - the end of the world?
Nothing scary at all.
I mean it quite a good soundbite for any democratic ad for sure.
I seriously want to just scatter pictures of this quote all over town… don’t see how any Republican could be on board with this unless they actually want a dictatorship
“I love you, christians. I am a christian!”
Who the fuck talks like that? And who the fuck votes for a guy that talks like that?
Hello, fellow kids!
Imagine how stupid the average person is, then realize half of all people are stupider than that.
- George Carlin
Truer words never have been uttered
Happy cake day!
Aw thanks! I didn’t even realize it was so until you said that. Curious – how did you know? I’m using boost right now and it’s not made obvious anywhere I’ve checked.
There is a picture of little cake on the right side of your nick. Maybe Boost don’t like cakes?
Median would be the more generally correct number to use, but apparently IQ (debatable as a proxy for intelligence…) is roughly normally distributed, so either is likely close enough.
Oh yeah, they normalize IQ every year, and 100 is always used as the median.
But thanks to the Flynn Effect, getting a 100 (the number they always choose for the middle) in 2024 means you’re significantly smarter than someone who got a 100 in 1990.
So when Carlin said, “think of a person with average intelligence” he was calling to mind (to his 1990 audience) a person who was average in 1990 but would score [EDIT: I originally said 70s to 80s, but I was off by a lot. Such a person would actually score right around 90 points] today.
This is what happens when you take the lead out of gasoline.
A person would only drop a couple points over time. 80s, and especially 70s, would be significantly impaired.
Yeah, I ended up looking up the actual Flynn effect numbers AFTER leaving my comment, and had to edit because I was way off.
The word average is used to signify mean, median or mode freely, depending only on context. For example, “he’s just an average Joe” is to say he’s like most other men in his demographic. In that case average means mode. In Carlin’s joke, average means median.
I read something that put conservatives into greater context, just changed one word.
“Imagine how stupid the average Republican is, then realize half of all republicans are stupider than that.”
Christians, apparently.
When you’ve already lost the capacity for critical thought…
Yes it’s like when I, too, enjoy human food like a real human
Who talks like that? A grifter. A guy who literally embodies all of the seven deadly sins, trying to convince his followers that “he’s a Christian.” That is just exploding with irony.
These people who talk equally as phony.
Behold: a black person.
Too stupid to be satire, but also too stupid to not be satire. I am not sure with this one, chief.
Poe’s law 2: conservative, satire, or bot
If I recall correctly, he forgot to switch accounts before posting that one.
Quite a few of those on social media.
AND YET…
Millions of stupid Americans. They are everywhere! Even in your city, maybe even in your neighborhood.
Hello my fellow human beings, I’m a human and love doing human activities.
He said “I’m not Christian”
You’re focusing on the wrong thing here.
The Founders DEFINITELY wanted us to be Able to Shoot up Kindergarteners. THAT’S Crystal Clear! But their views on Democracy are MUCH more newanced and Unknown!
I can’t be the only one who just doesn’t care what the founders wanted. I don’t want to live in an oligarchy of the dead!
That wasn’t cryptic at all. I cannot wait until he is dead in the ground – after he loses the election. Or, at minimum, rots in prison as someone’s bitch the rest of his useless life.
I guess the damage is done and once there is an actual smart guy without conscience and morals it’ll get really ugly for democracy in the US.
This is my worry too. We’ve survived Trump for this long because he’s not half as smart as he thinks he is, nor is he as charismatic, either. But he’s not alone in this. Republicans are chomping at the bit for “Permanent Republican Rule”, and if they have to outlaw Democrats and Democracy to do it, they will. They’re happy in a Banana Republic…as long as they are the ones in control. Which means merely getting rid of Trump isn’t enough. We need a constant campaign to keep Republicans out of office, which the Left isn’t keen on doing because the Left isn’t one unified group, but instead a loose coalition of Scientists, Academicians, Artists, Environmentalists, Civil Rights advocates, and countless other small factions, that are easily played against each other.
it only happens on day one so don’t worry about it
Trump says you won’t need to vote if he wins. But here’s the thing: It’s not just Democrats who should worry. Trump’s chaos could destroy the whole rigged system - Republican and Democrat. He might seem like an undertaker of the American democracy, but in doing so he will drown his own ship, too. But we need to help him steer it into the iceberg of organized social anger instead of isolated floes made of any expectations his mostly temporarily deluded and desperate voters may have or some single-cause activisms or culture wars that will only benefit him. Those will be shattered within the first few months of his term, as he won’t have COVID to use as a convenient excuse for his failures to not only address, but at least not make worse the organic crisis of the system, like Genocide Joe has had.
EDIT: I’m not saying this to fucking endorse him or passivity. What I mean is that the world does not end at the ballot box and we need to reckon with the possibility of his victory and that there are countless other means of resisting him other than just depositing all our hopes in the Democrats. And that even though resisting Trumpism will not be an easy task, the instability and disappointment that a presidency of establishment’s populist enfant terrible, in an era that breeds virtually no statesmen of great stature, is bound to engender, has the potential actually make it easier.
To be fair, even thought that’s not needed with this guy, what he could actually mean is that he doesn’t give a crap who anyone votes for in 4 years since its not going to be him anyway, and for him he is the only person that counts.
But yeah, all the other theories are also plausible unfortunately.
Could be the only thing he cares about getting “fixed” are his impending criminal trials?
I was hoping someone else in here would say this. This would be his second term.
You are wrong. All you have to do is listen to the words he actually said.
my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians! I’m a Christian. I love you.
I’m not an expert in American politics, but is he high on something?
I think they’re all high on something. It results in a bad trip for the rest of us.
That’s how he talks, even way before he ran for president. Trump was kind of a hyperbolic snake oil salesman in the stock markets before he got into politics, and he was surprisingly good at it.
Also.
Welcome to Costco, I love you
He doesn’t seem good at it.
He was. Say what you will about Trump, but he’s great at jawboning. And not technically lying to sell something for way more than its worth.
Look up the Motley Fool podcasts on him. They went to meet him in person.
He just sounds completely demented to me, every time I heard him talk. I wouldn’t buy anything from him from fear of it being a scam, even if it seemed like a great deal
Ego.
As an outsider I honestly just don’t get what people see in this idiot. How can you take someone that talk like that seriously? He sounds like a nutter that is promising crazy stuff that would literally mean the end of the USA as we know it.
If he’d get his way with this and the other project 2025 stuff it’d honestly be the end of America I think.
I’m Canadian and whenever I’m abroad, the locals ask me what the fuck is wrong with Americans. Expecting I’ll know better bc we’re neighbours.
Which is true, since we’re more likely to interact.
All I can reply is, “They’re just totally fucked!” It’s that simple!Also, when I meet Americans abroad now, the first thing they do is apologize for America. That’s the only Canadian trait that’s rubbed off on them.
People who vote for Trump have been brainwashed by Fox News. It really is as simple as that.
I think what Trump’s following kind of reveals is a sad truth about humans generally; about a quarter of people are very stupid and very susceptible to cult-think. It doesn’t always manifest as support for a politician, it could be anti-vax beliefs, or racism, zionism etc.
Wherever you are, about 25-30% of people are simply not equipped to think critically, and that stupidity is activated or weaponized under various conditions, most often during times of economic stress or social chaos. People who can’t understand the complex causes of a problem are easy to manipulate – you give them a simplistic answer.
“It’s the jews” or “trans people are the root of your problems” etc.
It can happen anywhere because a certain demographic of people are just dumb, and there’s no way around it other than trying to reduce human suffering across the board and making it less likely that anyone is struggling.
Trump is a cult leader in all but name. His zealots support worldviews that have been made illegal, taboo, obsolete, or otherwise unacceptable, like white supremacy and racism, fascism, theocracy, homo-/transphobia, and mysogyny; they perceive this as an attack against their lifestyles by “the others.” They will rally to the loudest voice that speaks out against “the others” and support him as long as that remains true.
Trump cultists are irrational creatures, you can’t apply rational expectations and deduce a satisfactory answer.
He promises simple solutions with no sacrifice, essentially just “I’ll fix it.” Certain people love that. Don’t care what the solution is, don’t care that the problem has been simplified beyond recognition, just fix shit.
Paraphrasing here:
“Let’s just take the guns away. Due process after.”
“I’ll have Medicare fixed. Just wait a week.”
“Mexico will pay for it.”
This is the insane dribble this fuck spews on the daily, and people eat it up.
As an insider, it’s even worse. You didn’t have to suffer 4 years of continuous clusterfuck and embarrassment only to be topped off by a planned insurrection that they still try to gaslight everyone about.
You’re absolutely correct that it would be the end of America.
I think if Trumps plan plays out and if If Project 2025 is enacted it will likely have more than an effect on the US, it will likely have profound effects on the world. It will change geopolitics and economies through shifts in alliances, trade dynamics, nationalistic sentiments, and domestic economic policies.
Thinking it through, it’ll probably move towards an increasingly complex global landscape, overshadowed by uncertainty and potential conflicts.
The documentary “The Handmaid’s Tale” is about this
As an American, neither do I. The man was a national joke for 30+ years, and all it took was a shiny new coat of paint in the form of a reality TV show where they just straight up constantly lied about his wealth and business acumen, for people to literally begin worshipping him.
Watching your loved ones fall into this shit is heartbreaking.
If you listen to that audio closely it sounds like he said “im not Christian”. But then he would be telling the truth. And he doesn’t know how to do that.
As I recall when he was president he laughed at Christian dignitaries and called them stupid to his aides.
I think he enjoys being the wolf in sheep clothes, especially when addressing Christians.
I’m barely into politics, my high school teachings of the political system aren’t terribly strong in my mind. All that to ask:
- Can he do that?
And, if so:
-
What would need to happen for a president to convert our system to lifetime terms?
-
What would need to happen for a president to convert our system to a dictatorship/monarchy/whatever? (so we actually never voted again)
-
Is it at all likely that Trump could make either of those things happen?
P.S. You don’t need to make the 86th comment about how this isn’t cryptic. Shitty headlines should be criticized, but it isn’t adding to the discussion at the point. I mean, look at me, I managed to get through this entire comment and not menti- Oh crap, I’m part of the problem.
The government is run by people, so he just needs a critical mass of followers in important positions in order to gum things up. That’s why the #1 and perhaps only thing he cares about in other people are how much they like him and how loyal they are. Also to him.
Its rhetoric for sure, but there are possible methods to suspend elections. We don’t know what they are yet until a group starts publicly speculating about how it could legally be done. Not that it is impossible, who knows what the future may hold?
I would say its pretty doubtful you could indefinitely suspend federal elections, but cheetoh benito loves to dog whistle to his base.
Go back and watch Star Wars Episode 3. That’s actually a good description of how a democracy falls to autocracy. The Republicans have been openly dreaming of a “Permanant Republican Majority” since AT LEAST Bush 43’s terms in office. And they’ve been laying the framework since Nixon – a
newsentertainment channel that caters to Right-Winger fantasies, judges who put ideology over legality, partisan gerrymandering that concentrates Republican voters for power and dilutes Dem votes into meaninglessness, and political theories that basically advocate for the dismantling of our political systems if that will keep Democrats out of power even if they have a majority.To answer your questions directly:
Can he do that? Yes. He can. Anyone can.
What would need to happen to convert our system to lifetime terms? There are a variety of ways, but they all boil down to the President doing outright illegal things under cover of a friendly Supreme Court. After all, they granted immunity to ‘official acts’, which we believe is cover for an autocratic takeover of the country.
What would need to happen to convert our system into a dictatorship/monarchy/whatevs? This is just a hypothetical situation. It’s July 2028. Mass incarcerations of Leftists, Immigrants, Muslims, and Minorities have begun and the country is in the throes of a civil war. Polling is reporting that Trump could lose the election, despite disenfranchising the Left’s voting base through various means. Trump announces he’s postponing the 2028 elections 'until things calm down, they have to get much better first before we can have a fair election." People sue. It doesn’t matter what happens in the lower courts, because they’ll appeal all the way up to the Supreme Court. The same 6 Conservative ideologues that said he has immunity for ‘official acts’ will rule that he has the right to suspend the election. And that, my friends, is how Democracy ends, with massive applause from the Alt-Right assholes that Clinton quite rightly fucking called “Deplorable”.
Can Trump actually make either of those happen? Yes. Yes, he can. The framework is already laid out. HK-65 laid it out elsewhere. Essentially, you start by shutting the Other Side out of government. You then take over all the levers of government. Then you set them so you can’t lose. You might need to just waive away the safetyguards that get in your way, and some you might use your lock on government to remove ‘legitimately’. If the 22nd Amendment gets in the way of a Republican dynasty, they’ll have it removed.
TL;DR? Never rely on checks and balances to stop authoritarianism. In the end, the Constitution IS just a piece of paper, and will be run over by authoritarian jerks if that means power.
Gold.gif
Not an expert on the US political system, but legislative power, and thus changing the system, is vested in Congress, not the Presidency. So he’d need to get a supermajority there, and rewrite the Constitution. Point is, it’s not Trump that can do it, but a theoretical Republican House and Senate 60% supermajority (or a supermajority of State legislatures).
Look at what happened in Hungary in 2010, that’s a blueprint of that happening. Biden dropping out is good news, since from the outside it kinda looked like the US might have been setting itself up for that kind of thing to happen. I think with Harris running, it’s not realistic the Dems will lose that bad.
That said, he could try another Jan 6th, basically take Washington under military occupation. Then it’s up to which states go along with it and which ones don’t, and you’ve got a civil war.
All he really needs is the supreme court to step in at any point there is a close contest to decide on the outcome. Also, there are only about 1,500 electors. Voting is kind of a sham.
The question was how can Trump stay president after theoretically winning now and reaching his term limits.
I wondee how the SC would argue that one out.
Cryptically? This motherfucker is the most transparent asshole on the planet. He couldn’t convince a bucket of fish they were out of the water.
He plain and clearly said “if I win it will be the end of democracy”. There isn’t subtext.
I don’t have anything to add, I agree wholeheartedly, I just love that saying and somehow hadn’t heard it before
Oh thank you then it was off the cuff so that’s probably why haha
Pretty sure that warrants a second attempt.
How do you know the fascists won’t just rally behind somebody else like Trump, but younger and more competent?
Not really a reason not to
Assassinations usually make things worse. Just look at what happened to the string of coups in South Vietnam during the Vietnam war.
Or, can you think of a time when assassination actually did improve matters?
That’s the usual “if they killed hitler someone worse would have take power”. That’s not certain at all, what is certain is that hitler was very bad and removing him would have been a good thing.
Can you give an example of a time when assassination produced a better successor?
You mean a first success.
Yes, I think we are on the same page ;)
Wow. Best case, he’s admitting he won’t run for a third term and doesn’t care once his personal issues are solved. The worst case is openly delaying himself a traitor.
Time for another meme ad…
