ANOTHER VIEW: Be prepared for Trump election shenanigans

By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist  

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga.  |  Many Americans write off the Democrats and Republicans as being the same. Having been active in both parties, I understand this tendency by swing voters. However, in reality, both parties as currently constituted are clearly not alike.

The Republican Party is no longer the “bring down that wall” party of pro-democracy Ronald Reagan. While a nice guy with a good sense of humor, President Reagan was also a strong supporter of freedom, saying- “We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.” By looking back at Hitler and Mussolini, and the lack of early reaction by the U.S. and European democracies, Reagan formed his views.

What Reagan said would have also strongly supported our ally, Ukraine, and provided them with arms needed to fight off Putin, the dictatorial Russian aggressor. Reagan would not have told the Ukrainian President Zelensky, that the only way he would get military aid was to do Trump a “favor” and investigate his rival Presidential Joe Biden. Trump was impeached for that offense, but not removed by the Senate as he should have been.

In 2024, Trump’s unethical MAGA supporters are willing to think, do or say anything to get their cult leader re-elected. When combined with the advancements in Artificial Intelligence, and the Russian intelligence service, which has been shown in the past to favor Trump, this is a deadly combination. 

In 2020, Trump lost the Presidential election, period. Every court case, even those before GOP-appointed judges, showed the election was fair and honest. However, regardless of the facts proving he lost, Trump has been moaning about a “stolen election” ever since. Trump has a longstanding strategy of turning truth on its head. Trump quite simply never, ever, believes that he is wrong or can lose. The problem is always caused by something else, but never him.

In the 2024 Presidential election, be prepared to have fake phone calls and videos “leaked” to his media. They will purport to show Presidents Biden and Obama plotting to take over regardless of the votes cast. Artificial intelligence will help Putin and Trump to put this narrative out there.

Social media rightwing radicals are already setting up this scenario via outrageous statements like that above. Since MAGA extremists do not get their news from mainstream media, they will read these posts and believe them 100 percent. The same way they did when they stormed the Capitol to hang Mike Pence for not anointing King Donald.

The only remaining question is “will democracy survive Trump and his Maga hordes?” The answer is up to all of us.

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