Given Donald Trump’s hostility toward democracy, it’s worth pausing when he asks supporters, "Why are we having an election?”

By all appearances, Donald Trump really doesn’t like it when Democrats describe him as a threat to democracy, and yet, the Republican keeps saying things that reflect a degree of animosity toward the American system of government.

Take the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, for example. The New York Times reported:

Trump said polls suggested he was at “93 percent” although it was not clear what that number was referring to. The former president said he responded by saying: “So why are we having an election? They didn’t have an election. Why are we having an election?”

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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    3 months ago

    Trump said polls suggested he was at “93 percent” although it was not clear what that number was referring to

    I just assumed they meant his diaper

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Well Donald we are having an election so we can show you how many people despise you and your MAGA traitors.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      3 months ago

      51% of the voting population (66%) by the 2020 popular vote. That’s what someone might call actually a big fucking problem if you stop and think about those numbers for a moment.

      “Dear America: You are waking up, as Germany once did, to the awareness that 1/3 of your people would kill another 1/3, while 1/3 watches.”

      • Werner Twertzog aka Professor William Pannapacker

      To be fair, Trump actually only got 47%, with the rest going to spoiler candidates.

      So it’s closer to 30% of America wants to kill 33% of America.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    He should be disqualified for even acting like he’s going to be a dictator. If you can’t understand the point of democracy, you’re not qualified to be President.

    • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 months ago

      He is disqualified as per the 14th amendment and the legal fact found in Colorado that he engaged in insurrection. But it needs court enforcement.

      • bradinutah@thelemmy.club
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        3 months ago

        Not only is he disqualified, but his question about having an election shows his ignorance of the US Constitution itself which states there will be an election for President every four years. Elections for Senators and House Members are also laid out. Maybe like read the foundational document of law for the country you claim you want to run, Weird Orange?

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    so you can hopefully lose the election a second time, and the popular vote a third time.

    • Tyfud@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      They’re intentionally saying this to cast doubt and challenge the election results, no matter how badly they lose.

      If we can’t get some of them to turn their conspiracy theory around and establish faith in our fair election process, then we’re going to be dealing with this forever and ever.

      Bush v. Gore was the end of democracy for us it turns out. That set a precedent we’re not able to recover from today.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Bush v. Gore was the end of democracy for us it turns out. That set a precedent we’re not able to recover from today.

        No less than three of Bush’s lawyers are on SCOTUS now, BTW.

      • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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        3 months ago

        Yep. They are preparing the ground for another putsch. Trump’s not legally eligible to hold the office, so maybe he has a point…

  • grue@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-swing-state-officials-election-deniers-1235069692/

    https://protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/PD_County-Cert-WP_v03.1.pdf

    Trump and his MAGA flying monkeys (who are not nearly as addled in the head as he himself is) have every intention of disrupting the counting and certification of votes in as many jurisdictions as possible in order to throw the election to the House (one state, one vote) or SCOTUS. When he questions “why are we having an election” it’s because he’s trying to stop us from having elections under his dictatorship and is floating the idea in advance to normalize it.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      3 months ago

      This is why he’s going to keep repeating that he’s winning by absurd margins. He’ll have Magoos convinced that it was an obviously stolen election because “how could he have won 90+% of votes in polls but still lose???”

  • qantravon@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Who didn’t have an election?

    I suppose I shouldn’t be looking for meaning in anything he says.

    • xtr0n@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      I think he’s referring to the DNC not having primaries. But with a sitting president parties don’t really have primaries to pick a candidate. But since Harris moved into Biden’s place on the ticket, Trump has been whining about how it’s unfair 🙄.

      But then he gets all discombobulated and complains about having to deal with an election even though he was also just made the GOP candidate without any primary elections (I think?). At that point I lose the thread as he devolves into sundowning.

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          As I’ve been quoting since last year in regards to the GOP:

          can’t win a primary without Trump, can’t win a general with him.

    • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The best anyone can make sense of it is that the Dems didn’t exactly have an open primary to select Harris. So he’s ?? confusing that with why have a general election? Which still doesn’t make any sense but that’s the best explanation.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Which honestly is something the DNC can fuck right off about. Make it democratic, what do you have to lose? Are you scared the people might choose someone your corporate overlords dislike?

        But it in no way is party candidate selection as important as ensuring the national election is democratic.

        • samus12345@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Under normal circumstances I’d agree, but as long as the GOP is the Fascist Party, spending time on a primary so close to the election is a luxury we couldn’t afford. Immediately coalescing behind a single candidate and hitting the ground running is what we needed.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          For DNC it was more about time. I’ll have to leave it to them to figure that out, but it seems they thought they didn’t have enough time.

  • slickgoat@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    In days long ago, one could dismiss such rhetorical musings as fantasy. Then Jan 6th happened, and all that followed, including the GOP falling in behind.

    This anti-democratic cult must be crushed.

    • blady_blah@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Yeah, but this time he doens’t control the army. I’m not nearly as worried if he’s not in power while executing his coup. The republican traitors in congress would have gone along wtih it if he managed to pull of Jan 6th and he would have weeded out any general who wasn’t a Trump nut-job right after he delayed the transfer of power. It’s really was scary as shit.

      • Soggy@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        They aren’t banking on a military coup d’état, they want to delay and obfuscate until their crooked Supreme Court can award them the presidency, then start passing legislation that allows red states to do whatever they want with regards to elections. All this “never vote again” stuff is literal, the GOP wants to take advantage of the fact that there are more red states and that gives them unbalanced voting power, then stuff those governments with loyal cronies.

        All this because Lincoln was killed and we subsequently fucked up Reconstruction. Should have changed the rules back to protect citizens instead of land.

      • slickgoat@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        True, however Trump is turning into an icon now. He will become the dust of history. What he leaves behind is not only a dangerous idea, but a party organisation willing to pursue extreme ideology. Plus almost half the country either disinterested or absolutely fine with it

  • Alright, I’m more than a bit confused about this one. He stated that democrats didn’t hold a real primary and went on to question why they would need a presidential election. How is A related to B? It reminds me of the ubiquitous casual stochastic terrorism of the early 2010s in its complete absence of logic or adherence to reality.

    • RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It’s a ‘why have rules at all if we’re going to ignore them’ whine about how Harris didn’t have to win a primary.

  • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Not that it makes it much more clear, but he’s talking about the nomination. He’s saying Harris didn’t have to go through a traditional primary, so… either he’s saying a) retroactively he shouldn’t have had to either, or b) since he won the primaries, and Harris didn’t have to… then he should just automatically be president and skip the whole “election where are people can vote” thing.

    Probably he meant both, that he shouldn’t have to go through a primary or national election. He should just get to hand-pick a poll and get his crown.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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    3 months ago

    Because US Constitution, Article II, section 1?

    "Article II

    Section 1

    The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

    He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected"