“I’m afraid the election’s gonna be rigged, I have to be honest,” Trump told the crowd.
While Trump has often questioned the integrity of the primary contests in both parties, his newest remarks seemed to begin laying groundwork for him to contest the Nov. 8 election results.
“Contest” it as in inciting a coup to overturn it. That’s the logic of what he’s saying, whether he realizes it or not.
It was a line of attack that longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone pushed on a podcast with Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos that was posted online Friday. Stone suggested voter fraud is “widespread” and said if Hillary Clinton wins a state like Florida after polls show Trump in the lead, the election would be “illegitimate.”
“If there’s voter fraud, this election will be illegitimate, the election of the winner will be illegitimate, we will have a constitutional crisis, widespread civil disobedience, and the government will no longer be the government,” Stone said. He also promised a “bloodbath” if the Democrats attempt to “steal” the election.
“And the government will no longer be the government.”
These people are terrifying.
Comments
16 responses to “And the government will no longer be the government”
I think that this would fall more along the lines of an insurrection than a coup. Ol’ Gee Dub did himself a coup good and proper back in Aught Nil, a bloodless one even. This rhetoric by Trump et. al. is just pre-emptive irredentism; the talk-radio blowhards and conspiracy theorists don’t have the power or the connections to pull off an honest-to-goodness coup, but they *can* inspire themselves an insurrection, which would make things about a million times worse for everyone.
That last should read “…would MAKE THINGS about a million times worse for everyone.” I don’t honestly know if a Trumpian victory (legitimately or by coup) would be worse, on balance, than a Trumpian insurrection…but I don’t want to find out, either way.
This is beyond scary. It’s 1933.
A bloodbath. Jesus.
All the people on the fucking Left who are uncritically repeating nonsense about rigged primaries and Hillary-Is-a-Monster-and-Every-Word-Out-Of-Her-Mouth-Is-a-Lie aren’t helping matters, either.
Ain’t that the truth.
We are living through the most perilous period in US history — with the possible exception of what began when the shots were fired at Fort Sumter — and the outcome is far from certain.
To translate from Trumpeses: if the Democrats manage to win the election by any means, fair or foul
Widespread civil disobedience seems rather unlikely… but I’m sure there’d be at least a little retaliatory violence.
I bet I’m not the only one who suspects that all those who say they stockpile weapons in case of tyrannical government are far more likely to end up using them to support tyranny. A fearful and angry populace, armed to the teeth, drip fed lies and distortions . . . what could possibly go wrong?
Nothing Emily. Nothing could possibly go wrong that I could imagine in my wildest nightmares. After all, anyone with
racist, misogynistic, authoritarian, fascist, anti-governmentRepublican beliefs and a gun will be a model of probity and restraint.It’s okay. The US has the most powerful military in the world, which automatically falls under the command of the President.
Oh, wait. 8-O
A certain “patriot” falange in the big country seems to be in favor of harsh, even capital punishment especially for treason, sedition etc. They could do all a service by being a bit more consistent — one way or the other?
A while back someone (on Vox, perhaps?) wrote that it would be wrong to call Trump a fascist because he was using the democratic process to his advantage rather than undermining it. I think that excuse is no longer valid. Time to call a spade a spade.
That claim is ridiculous. He is in fact undermining the democratic process; he hasn’t been elected yet so it’s premature to say he’s not undermining it; undermining the process is hardly the only criterion for fascism; he ticks so many of the most obvious boxes that it’s absurd to deny he’s a fascist. Etc.
So I guess he’s not preparing a concession speech.
He doesn’t need to prepare anything. He has the best words.