The Attack on the Midterms Began This Weekend

There is a lot of other craziness going on to report, but this from last week's trump-Fuhrer Fest ought to horrify people (via Hafiz Rashid at New Republic):

President Trump led his fans in a bizarre pledge at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas Thursday night.

“Please raise your right hand. I pledge, to the greatest president in the history of the United States, that loves us so much he can’t even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends, I’ll do it any way, I don’t care if I’m registered or not, I’m gonna try and cheat like hell like they do, there’s never been bigger cheaters, they don’t care. I am gonna go out and I’m going to get my friends and family and we are going to vote on November 3rd, or we are going to vote before that!” Trump had the whole crowd repeat after him.

It was blatant, cultlike behavior, and Trump’s MAGA base seemed to eat it up. The “cheat like hell” line proves that Trump’s rants about election fraud have always been self-serving, as he doesn’t care about any laws as long as he wins...

As much as this echoes every fascist rally where Dear Leader demands fealty from his devoted cultists, this is more terrifying because trump is directly attacking the upcoming midterm voting turnout. trump is basically encouraging his MAGA base "to cheat", either by rigging fake votes or disrupting the real ones trying to take place.

And it's all based on big fat lies. trump accuses Democrats of cheating, but in every attempt by election deniers - not just trump these past ten years, but an army of Far Right agitators that have been claiming voter fraud before him - to prove mass voter fraud, they've never proven it.

What Republicans call "cheating" is that there are groups allowed to vote they don't want to vote. Republicans know they're politically in the minority - there are more registered Democrats than registered Republican nationwide - so they want to cull the Democratic advantages as much as possible. It fits well into their conservative world view that only they - mostly propertied rich white males - should have the power to vote, a power that's been diluted down since they opened up the vote to all white males, then the vote to Black (and Latino, and Asian) males, then the vote to women, then the vote to college kids. The Far Right looks at all those voters - a good number of them skewing Democratic - and calls it "cheating" because there's no other way they can contend with that.

So trump has gotten his mob - arguably the same assholes who rioted for him when he committed insurrection back on January 6th 2021 - riled up to view the Democrats as "cheaters" on his say-so, with no evidence but with every bit of anger and venom he can stir up in them.

The risks to voter safety at the polls this November have gone up. It doesn't help that trump will likely use ICE agents to raid precincts in key states to disrupt turnout, use the Postal Service to shut down mail-in ballots (which ironically hurts Republican turnout), and use the FBI to raid elections offices to steal ballots like they do in third-world countries.

Stay safe. Plan ahead. Vote early if you have to (it's unlikely they'll send ICE to early ballot locations where too many white people will witness it). And defend your constitutional power to vote, everybody.