"So what", "don't believe it", "who cares", "it doesn't matter" crowd.

[Funtatlaguy]

So in the last six years, think of all the times that we’ve thought that THIS IS IT.
He’s gone too far for even his most staunch supporters and defenders.
And every time we’ve been wrong.
I’m wondering if there can be ANYTHING that would make at least 25% of his followers leave.
I can’t really think of anything that they would believe and would be so bad to turn them.
It’s past hero worship, cult followings, brainwashing.
It’s a sickness that has stolen so many of the minds of so many of our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc.
I 😢 weep for my country. I really do.

I still hope against hope that the DOJ or the people in Georgia can bring him and many of his sycophantic cronies to some sort of justice or accountability.
I know if you are reading this, that you do too.
Your fellow believer in democracy.

[Mister Ed]

1. He told you years ago: "I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue..."

Nothing has changed.

[Funtatlaguy]

2. They would say that it was justifiable homicide.

[Mister Ed]

3. Oh, better than that.

The Trumpers in my family would say,
"Now, that's bold leadership!"
"He doesn't beat around the bush!"
"He's not afraid to take the bull by the horns and do what needs to be done!"

I wish I were exaggerating. But I'm not.

[Funtatlaguy]

5. I know you aren't exaggerating. I've heard that crap too.

[AZLD4Candidate]

19. In my family, we ask if the barrell has any bottom.

We all saw through his crap 35 years okay.

The only boob that likes him is my braindead sister-in-law.

[anarch]

4. he could eat a live human baby on TV and not lose his "base" followers

it really is amazing how many of them there are

[GoneOffShore]

6. Tried to think of something that would do it, but all of them involve things that he's afraid of

Children, animals, raw meat, fruit.

[Maine Abu El Banat]

7. What if

He married a gay illegal mexican immigrant??

[gab13by13]

8. Would not matter,

Magats are racist, bigoted, misogynists. I golf with an 89 year old Trump lover. So I thought I had him cornered, I asked him, are you going to vote for the Muslim who lives in New Jersey or vote for the Harley rider. (He used to ride a Harley) He said, I can't vote for Fetterman. I asked, why not. He said, because he's a Democrat.

[Novara]

9. Their hate has been stroked for six years

They won't willingly put their hate back where it belongs - out of sight, keeping it to themselves. They've been fed a steady diet of it for the last six years and they absolutely love it.

Think of it this way: it was a relief for them when the orange fuck gave them permission to hate in the open. They're not going to relinquish that. They're not going to go back to a time when it was unacceptable to hate out in the open.

When all is said and one, when all of the court cases are done, convictions and prison sentences (hopefully), and this all is in the past with a stained legacy, we will be left with this legacy of public hate and vengeance for those who think differently than they do. That's what this motherfucker's legacy will be.

[dwayneb]

16. Their hate has been stroked for 40 years

Before Trump there was Rush Limbaugh back in the 80's and soon after that came Faux News and all the other neo-Fascist talking heads that made millions feeding the fear and hate of the mushbrained backwoods cult.

Out here in the heartland of Ohio there was never a time when that hate wasn't bubbling to the surface in one way or another. Although, the Trump era did bring it to a new level.

Personally I don't think that indicting Trump will solve the problem, although I guess you could argue that we have tried to exact justice. Trump will probably kick the can down the road with appeals until he takes the dirt nap. Even if we convict him, by making him a martyr it will give the brainwashed whacks on the Fascist Right yet another "reason" to destroy our democracy.

[Marthe48]

20. Be nice if the s.c. reversed their freedumb to hate

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Actually his response provided a clue

because that possibly means he won't be voting for the Senate race at all.

If you look at the last couple Presidential elections, you will see all kinds of over- and under-votes for candidates, which suggests ticket-skipping and ticket-splitting.

I know I have pointed out in other threads that Josh Shapiro actually got more votes for AG in both 2016 and 2020 than Clinton, Biden, and 45 (which bodes well for the governor's race for him vs the loon Mastriano).

[gab13by13]

11. Mastriano scares me,

The Democratic party had better be right in spending money to get Mastriano the nomination. A recent poll shows Shapiro only leading by 4 points.

I have only seen 1 Oz sign in my tri-county area, but I do see a lot of Mastriano signs.

Democrats spending millions of dollars to get the most radical Republican nominated is playing with fire. It fucking better work because if Mastriano wins in Pa. my vote will mean nothing in 2024.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. His Senatorial district is over there in south-central PA so I would expect more there where you are

But there is a big pushback by the more moderate Raygun/Poppy Bush/Dick Thornburgh/Tom Ridge/Arlen Specter Republicans who have endorsed Shapiro (just saw one comment here) and there were already anti-Mastriano ads being run by either Republicans4Shapiro or similar groups - notably, the national "Republican Accountability Project" and their PAC - Republican Accountability PAC.

I saw where the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (which went loon not long ago) had an Editorial up yesterday pooh-poohing the idea (naturally), but if Shapiro can peel off the moderate GOP voters that are still around over here in the east, that's a bonus.

None of this will convince the hardcore CT-spouting MAGats but if other Republicans who won't support any "D" don't vote the top of the ticket races and we make sure we get our turnout in order (and turnout tends to be a bit higher during races for governor) then we can offset the extremists.

Link to tweet

The Republican Accountability Project
@AccountableGOP
·
Follow
NEW from our friends at Republican Accountability PAC:

Doug Mastriano is a threat to democracy. Listen to these Pennsylvanian Republicans tell you why.
7:05 PM · Jul 11, 2022

Below is the same ad in the above tweet, but on Youtube (have been searching forever for it and finally found it)!

I *think* this may have been the ad that ran locally here in Philly after the last daytime J6 hearing on MSNBC.

[mountain grammy]

24. Agree it's playing with fire

They did it in Colorado too. Not a good move.

[AZLD4Candidate]

21. my parents not only can't wait to vote for Big John, but they are actively campaigning for him

As my mother said, it will be one of the few times in her 70 years she voted for someone and not against the other guy.

[dwayneb]

12. All true but just look at our history

I think many observant people predicted this 40 years ago, when Rush Limbaugh began spreading his populist poison.

What no one could have predicted then was that soon, the most powerful weapon of war in modern history was being developed and would soon be deployed against us - namely, the Internet.

We've always had the Radical Right - before WWII we had a strong Nazi contingent in the USA that tried to throw the election of Franklin Roosevelt; we had McCarthy in the 1950's with his campaign against "anti Americans", and the onslaught never stopped, all the way through the John Birchers and the rise and fall of Richard Nixon.

Point is, this would have happened a lot sooner if they had an effective propaganda weapon like the Internet to spread their lies and mesmerize the cult.

[durablend]

13. NO

Shame I can't bold that. There. is. nothing. that. will. move. them.

[dwayneb]

14. I share your sentiments but let's talk about "hope"

I do understand why hope is always needed to keep us moving forward to fight another day. It was one of the pillars of Obama's campaign and it worked well for him.

But after Obama's election, it became very clear that the war on democracy was entering a new phase; let's call it a scorched earth campaign. In other words it was no longer business as usual - but Progressives and Democrats for the most part didn't seem to get it.

Yes, we need hope. But we also need to acknowledge that we need a wartime strategy in order to save our freedoms and our right to free and fair elections.

I'm not saying I have that plan in my hands. But the first step is accepting the reality that right now, with our current approach, we are LOSING this war on democracy. We need the nonvoters of 2016 and 2020 to understand what will happen once the Fascists take full control of our governments, both State and Federal. How do we awaken them?

[Mozeltov Cocktail]

15. When Hitler was cowering in his bunker...

24% of Germany still believed he was the one to lead their country. I always go to that statistic when I think of trump.
You also have to give it up for the pollsters who were still working as Allied bombs rained down.

[dwayneb]

17. the Nazi rise to power

and the statistic you state show how easily perfectly intelligent people can be manipulated into destroying themselves. Hate and fear are powerful motivators and skilled propagandists like Hitler and Trump, although very different in some ways, share the ability to control their cults.

It's not just Trump, although he served as the lightning rod for the hate and discontent of the American fascist. We've had our 25% since the very beginnings of our country.

[OneGrassRoot]

18. Yes to both of these replies...

I agree 100%. We'll never change the 25% who long for an authoritarian, supremacist world.

It's the apathetic "Good Germans" who can sway things. How to reach them seems to be the most daunting task.

People often say, with regard to the 25%, "We're the majority! It doesn't matter what they want!" But it's the other third of the country who enable, either passively or actively, to get away with horrors. So, in my mind, we are the minority. Unfortunately.

[MyMission]

23. I've heard them say "dilligaff"

Which, I had to ask the first time I heard it, means "Do I look like I give a flying fuck?"

A grown (60's) woman in maga clothes said it in passing, discussing covid restrictions, her opinions, and ended with dilligaff. I've seen it written, hadn't heard it used in speech.

You're right, it's a sickness, a cult, a mass delusion, who really don't give a fuck.
They are a loud, incorrigible dangerous minority, and shrinking slowly in my opinion.
I've been talking about cult deprogramming since tfg established his following. And it's been happening in small degrees, by conservatives who aren't part of the cult and realized, or now realize what a clear and present danger he is, and his enablers and followers too.

[Mr. Ected]

25. Apparently 25-30% of our fellow Americans would vote to end democracy to hold onto power forever

You could throw Trump and every single scoundrel associated with him into prison for 20 years but the threat remains because the constituency isn't going away.

Not saying Trump doesn't deserve prison time or that we shouldn't vigorously pursue it, but the real cancer lives next door to you and me.