In the wake of the U.S. airstrikes on Iran, Democrats are pointing to Trump’s own promises that he wouldn’t ensnare the country in foreign conflicts.
Democrats are seizing on Donald Trump’s surprise attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities to make the case that the world is becoming more dangerous on his watch, not less, and that he is reneging on a promise to avoid foreign military interventions.
The argument strikes at Trump’s contention that his blend of negotiating skills and toughness is enough to keep the United States safe.
In the space of a few days, Trump has made the United States a combatant in another Middle East war that exposes soldiers to potential deadly reprisals, Democrats contend.
In a statement, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin pointed to Trump’s inaugural address, in which he said he would measure his success by “the wars we never get into.”
There’s the “machines are rigged” explanation, which I’ve been torn on.
But there’s also the far more likely “the city officials simply don’t let you in if they think you’re not going to vote for Trump” which I find much more believable.
Watch HBO’s documentary Hacking Democracy, and then realize that Republicans, Sociopathic Oligarchs, Russia, China, North Korea, and others, have been operating sophisticated hacking programs ever since. You won’t be torn anymore.
To believe that extremely powerful forces have NOT been trying to control our elections for years, is extremely naive.
I’ve seen bits of it and heard some of the highnotes covered in other media. I think one of the producers was on the TrashFuture podcast at one point… or another one I listen to.
Either way, the Russia/China/North Korea/Insert-Evil-Foreigner-Here (but never Israel or Saudi Arabia or Qatar, because we’re friends and they would never dream of…) angle was overhyped, while the degree to which local county clerks and judges fuck with this was under reported.
Election manipulation, particularly domestically, is a very touchy subject. It’s been proven to depress voter turnout in the receptive demographic. So you’re stuck with this dilemma of trying to alert people to manipulation without deterring them from turning out in the next cycle. The line that both liberals and conservatives throw out is “We have to vote in such huge numbers that they can’t cheat us!” which can be an effective rallying cry in the moment. But it doesn’t work if you don’t ever do anything to address the claims down the line.
Even when Obama’s campaign swept the Atlantic Coast in 2008, what did his DOJ do to confront all the Bush-era fuckery thereafter? Same with Trump in 2016, screaming “Lock her up!” at Hillary while insisting she’s rigged the whole vote, then… just shrugging and ignoring her while in office. Really kicks the legs out of your base when you spend a year complaining about how inherently unfair the election process has become and then announcing “We won so I guess everything is fine”.