This Should Concern Everybody
Half of America seems to have gone crazy
Trump is a clear and present danger
A few weeks ago ( you know everyone’s already forgotten and moved on “oh well, another shooting. Thoughts and Prayers. Next!” ) — once again a shooting, senseless, murderous, with automatic weapons into a crowd. This time not in a school, but at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory parade. The constant shootings are the most blatant symbol of the madness that has gripped large parts of the US population: free-for-all gun ownership is the dogma of the right, the Republicans, and the Trump voters. And here we are again. Trump could become president. Again.
Donald Trump should stand trial for insurrection and an attempted coup. On January 7, 2021, he incited a mob to storm the Capitol to “win” the lost election. The man belongs behind bars, also because of further attempts to reverse the result. But a trial over the coup seems a long way off. And today we got the news that the Supreme Court allowed him to be on the Colorado ballot. Because everybody is afraid of what? I don’t know. No one is above the law not even the President of the United States. Isn’t that written down somewhere?
Trump is the de facto presidential candidate, and a huge majority of Republicans and other conservatives (70 percent) believe he is the true legitimate president, not Joe Biden. Overall, 30 percent of all Americans believe this.
Trump’s visible insanity doesn’t change that. Not his threat to hand over NATO members to Vladimir Putin so that he can “do whatever the hell he wants with them.” Nor his increasingly visible mental breakdowns. Everyone talks about Biden’s weakness, but if anyone is showing signs of dementia, it’s Trump. He really believes he won the election.
The US Electoral System — it’s still outdated!
Why does almost half of the electorate still support him? Trump had three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of the outdated US electoral system, where a few “swing states” determined the election outcome. People should be in the streets protesting an electoral system that favored the slave states. Hello? It’s 2024.
Trump certainly doesn’t have a majority of votes now, but that’s how the antiquated electoral system works and his supporters are more convinced of him than the Democrats are of Biden. Look, I know Biden isn’t ideal but I do know he isn’t as bad as some make him out to be. He is old but he is a good man and he has shown a solid performance.
The explanation why, for example, evangelical Christians forgive everything liar-liar-pants-on-fire Trump does, is a bitter truth: Trump is the candidate of the white underclass and lower middle class who fear for their identity. “Trump has transformed the Republicans into the party of the white working class, deeply rooted in rural communities and resentful of globalization, while Biden’s Democrats have increasingly become the party of the better-educated and economically better-off, thriving in the information age,” writes Peter Baker in the New York Times. “Americans not only disagree but live in different realities, each with its own self-reinforcing internet and media ecosphere.”
Or even simpler: Republican voters fear the loss of white supremacy. They let Trump get away with everything, even though many of them suspect he is completely unsuitable. But he represents their vision for society — white class rules.
Of course, these people don’t make up exactly half. There are enough “independents” or rational conservatives who think Trump is a danger. The hope is that significantly less than half of Americans have gone crazy. But he still had 46.8 percent of the vote in 2020. And if a few key states vote accordingly, he will win again this time.
Please don't let that happen. Everybody eligible — vote. Surely, we can’t make the same mistake twice.