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Trump Wants the Midterms to Be All About Him and They Should Be — Taking Liberties
Trump Wants the Midterms to Be All About Him and They Should Be
BY JOEL MCNALLY
Whether Republican leaders like it or not, Donald Trump intends for November’s midterm elections to be all about him. Trump has always reveled in public attention and this time President Biden and Democrats are happy to give it to him good and hard.
Polls show a growing awareness among voters across the ideological spectrum—liberals, conservatives and independents in the middle—that Trump and the dangerous Republican extremists who support him are actively working to destroy American democracy.
If there are any rational Americans who don’t realize that by now, they can simply take Trump’s word for it. Trump is resuming his hate-filled public rallies campaigning for extreme Republican midterm candidates who have created themselves in his image. They’re election deniers ready to declare Trump president again in 2024 no matter how elections turn out. Democracy schemocracy.
HATE-FILLED CAMPAIGN KICKOFF
For Trump, his hate rallies also are the official kickoff of his 2024 presidential campaign. The last thing Republicans need right now is Trump creating more problems for them. What Republicans expected to be favorable midterms have already been thrown up for grabs by horrible candidates and Trump’s vicious rightwing majority on the Supreme Court. The court abolished Constitutional abortion rights for women that were protected for 50 years alienating women voters and men who care about them.
Trump has always attracted attention by making proposals that delight his extreme supporters while disgusting everyone else. He’s doing it again at the worst possible time for his party. He’s started outlining drastic plans to achieve his wildest dreams in a second presidential term that would create an authoritarian nation bearing little resemblance to our American democracy.
FIRST THINGS FIRST, “FREE THE INSURRECTIONISTS!”
Trump has promised “full pardons with an apology” to supporters convicted for their violent assault on Congress to try to stop the certification of President Biden’s election. Let his people go! Trump has always exempted himself from laws in his personal life, business practices and presidential actions. He wants his violent supporters to have the same privilege. In Trump’s fantasy world, they were responding to a national emergency on Jan. 6. Republicans and Democrats in Congress and every court in the land including Trump’s own Supreme Court refused to throw out Biden’s election victory.
But Trump also intends to support “law and order” and local police in ways that will make your head spin. He wants to deploy a federal force including the military to crush civil rights protests in racially diverse cities demanding equal treatment by police in Black and white neighborhoods.
It was unfortunate Trump’s insurrectionists seriously injured more than 140 Capitol police by beating them with flagpoles and clubs, but that only happened once. Trump and Republicans claim Democratic city officials create far more problems for police by allowing constant public protests about how police do their jobs. Democrats believe the Constitution protects Americans’ right to protest.
JUST SHOOT THEM?
If Trump becomes commander-in-chief again, he intends to stop all that woke liberal nonsense with thousands of troops in city streets. Defense secretary Mark Esper refused Trump’s request to send 10,000 troops to Washington to shut down protests over George Floyd’s murder. Esper said Trump asked him: “Can’t you just shoot them?”
There’s more where that came from. Trump proposes rounding up the homeless in our cities and housing hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions, in tent cities on the outskirts of town so decent people won’t have to look at them.
“You don’t have time to build buildings,” Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas. “You can do that later, but you have to get the people off the streets ... The only way you’re going to remove the homeless encampments and reclaim our downtowns is to open up large parcels of inexpensive land.”
The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates there actually are about 580,000 people including families with children who are homeless nationwide. Advocates believe making affordable housing available would be more humane than putting them in tents.
Since Trump was banned from the most popular social media for promoting violence, Americans who avoid watching Trump’s shameless propagandists on Fox News are no longer inundated with Trump’s relentless stream of anger and hatred.
Responsible media have stopped spreading Trump’s lies to gullible people who foolishly believe them because they heard it on the news. Instead, mainstream news organizations continue to expand their coverage of the growing threat to American democracy from Trump and the dangerous forces he has unleashed within the Republican party.
The good news is a growing number of voters are expressing concerns about Trumped-Up Republicans destroying Constitutional rights they always thought would be protected in our democracy. The majority of Americans want their democracy back. All they have to do is keep voting for it until they feel like they’re in America again.
Joel McNally was a critic and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal for 27 years. He has written the weekly Taking Liberties column for the Shepherd Express since 1996.
