The Buffer
Donald Trump has been walking around and telling people that he doesn’t need their vote. He has plenty of votes. There are three possibilities of why he is using this gambit and all of them are still on the table. The first is that he is using some kind of Eric Cartman reverse psychology where you will all of the sudden want to vote for him since he told you he doesn’t want your vote.
Before you call me crazy let me explain how this works. No one is storming the capital or any of the state houses. Instead, they have installed loyalists at the county and state levels that will simply refuse to certify the vote if it goes against them. Heads I win and tails you lose.
Trump is using the same playbook he ran in 2020. Essentially, there is no way the Democrats can beat him. Look at the size of his crowds. Look at how much merch these people buy. Look at all the monster trucks with his face and the MAGA flag on them. So, if the vote turns out differently you know they cheated. I know the polls say they are ahead, but that’s a vast left wing conspiracy from the liberal mainstream media.
That’s why if you look carefully you can see cracks in the veneer. Harris’ crowds are bigger than Donald’s crowds. The enthusiasm gap has been narrowed and Harris is pulling ahead. He knows this and can’t trot out the same lines about nobody coming to Joe’s rallies. Instead he has to pivot to Georgia St. somehow cheating and keeping his people out.
This is an important first step to beating him. Listen, I know this as much as any of you. I’ve listened to family members and friends parrot the big lie even now. There is no way Joe Biden got 81 million votes. It was fake news. It was all made up. So, seeing Harris one or two points ahead in the polls is nice and certainly better than the alternative. Still, it isn’t enough.
As hilarious as this is to say, Trump is playing a longer game. He doesn’t have to convince a majority of voters. He just has to keep it close enough to allow his minions on the ground to contest the results. If enough counties and states throw their results into chaos then he can eek out an electoral college victory and become the first president to serve two terms without ever winning the popular vote.
Obviously finding a way to make one person, one vote the law of the land is the long-term plan. That’s years or even decades away. The plan now is to play for the blowout. A one point victory isn’t going to do it. I might not even feel comfortable with a five point win. So, ignore the polls and put your foot on the gas. We need a buffer to win this thing. We need a blowout so significant that they will be shamed into accepting it. Remember, all MAGA accusations are a confession.
The problem is and always has been that even after a blow-out election (like in 2008), the vast majority of voters slack off. They don’t vote in local elections, and that’s how the MAGAts seize control of election boards, state attorney-general offices, and the rest of the election machinery. The Repubs know this; that’s why so many state elections for governor and other high-level offices are now in the “off-election” years instead of during presidential election years.
The corporation Democrats also fail to maintain interest and enthusiasm when they do take office. Obama wasted a vast mandate for change, instead spending time trying to achieve compromise with jackasses that refused to even acknowledge he was an American-born Christian. By the time 2010 rolled around, the college students and ordinary people gave up on any effective change.
Even if we do get Harris/Walz elected, it will all be rolled even further back unless they can continue to fight after winning. And wean themselves away from sucking up to large corporations and the financial giants ….
1The US needs to move into the 21 century along with other western democratic countries (perhaps some Asian, too) and abolish the electoral college.
As a voter I have never thought my one vote mattered (although I’ve always voted), since the votes of the few unknown people in the electoral college ultimately decided the election.
2To counter Trump’s 4th grade “my crowd is bigger than your crowd” narrative, Dems need to remind the masses:
Every living former Democratic president has endorsed Harris
3No Republican president has endorsed Trump
Trump’s former VP hasn’t endorsed him
Where’s Melania?
We don’t need a blowout. Sick of Democrats having to do more than Republicans to win elections. WE NEED TO IMPRISON CRIMINALS WHO BREAK OUR LAWS. WHO LEAD INSURRECTIONS. WHO TAKE BRIBES, SUCH AS 200 POUNDS OF $100 DOLLAR BILLS FROM FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS. WHO CALL SECRETARIES OF STATES AND TELL THEM TO FIND 11,309 VOTES. IF WE CAN’T LOCK THEM UP BECAUSE OUR SYSTEM IS TOO CORRUPT, WE HAVE TO FIND JUSTICE ANOTHER WAY.
4We KNOW they are going to cheat one way or another.
” But in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark, journalist A.B. Stoddard warns that if Harris wins in November, an “ENTIRE ARMY of Republicans” is “ready to block certification of the election at the local level.”
5https://www.rawstory.com/maga-has-game-plan-to-halt-elections-if-harris-takes-lead-report/
Sure trumpf knows nothing about project 2025.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-project-2025-secret-training-videos-trump-election
I think the same group responsible for getting project 2025 going has similar initiatives for grooming candidates and people that are infiltrating local and state offices and positions like what’s going on in Georgia’s elections board. This kind of stuff is going on with little media attention (until it’s too late) in an area near you as the Surly Professor pointed out at #1.
6