‘insidious’ effort to undermine US democracy

POSTED BY: THG
UPDATED: Monday, August 31, 2026 22:00
VIEWED: 3656
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The most insidious efforts to undermine US democracy IMHO are censorship, politicized prosecution, big money in politics, and vote counting fraud. (Or, as Stalin is said to have quipped: "It's not who votes that counts, but who counts the votes". There was a reason why Party Secretary was such a powerful position! We don't want our Secretaries of State vote-counters to be like Stalin, do we?)

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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE someone poor - William Blake

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Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Pity

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What we are seeing is shocking, but it’s part of an established pattern. Trump engages in some kind of egregious misbehavior, prompting official scrutiny and condemnation of his actions. Trump treats these actions as unjustified persecution, proof that the “deep state” is out to get him, a claim that the Republican Party and conservative press dutifully echo. His most radical supporters become even more radical, even contemplating violence.

January 6 is, of course, the most terrible illustration of this sequence to date. As Trump’s legal problems mount, there is every reason to expect it to repeat and even escalate, given the furious rhetoric from Trump and the GOP in recent days attacking the foundational legitimacy of the American state. The consequences could be calamitous.

The Trump-GOP-extremism feedback loop

We are closer to the beginning of the Trump investigations than the end of them.

Trump’s reported possession of nuclear documents, if it turns out to be true, raises the possibility that he violated federal statutes in a manner punishable by jail time. The New York state investigation into his business practices is heating up; on Wednesday, Trump spent four hours in questioning — pleading the Fifth on every question except when he was asked to state his name. On Friday morning, the Trump Organization lost a motion to dismiss the Manhattan district attorney’s tax fraud case against it.

In Georgia, where a grand jury has been impaneled to examine potentially criminal 2020 election interference, Trump just hired a criminal defense attorney famous for representing rappers. And the Justice Department’s probe into January 6 is starting to reach the former president; 10 days ago, it was reported that his legal team sat down with Justice Department lawyers to discuss whether conversations he had while in office could be shielded from investigators.

None of these investigations is a witch hunt. In each case, there are serious reasons to believe that the president violated the law. If prosecutors chose not to even investigate Trump, that itself would be politically motivated — a tacit admission that if a political figure is popular enough, he is above the law.

But the result of prosecutors doing their job is predictable: Trump reacts by casting it as proof that he is under attack by nefarious forces. Take his reaction to the reports of the nuclear weapons documents, posted on Truth Social:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more. Same sleazy people involved. Why wouldn't the FBI allow the inspection of areas at Mar-a-Lago with our lawyer's, or others, present. Made them wait outside in the heat, wouldn't let them get even close - said "ABSOLUTELY NOT." Planting information anyone? Reminds me of a Christofer Steele Dossier!
Aug 12, 2022, 06:35
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/108809454912105665

The litany of grievances, the sense that Trump has been forever persecuted by the government, the unfounded implication that the FBI was “planting information” at his house: all of it screams victimization, that Trump is the target of a vast and shadowy conspiracy pulling the FBI’s strings.

The fact that a Truth Social user had just been radicalized by such talk — posting violent threats on the site before attempting an armed breach of an FBI building — isn’t deterring Trump at all. He is, as the political scientist Julia Azari puts it, a nationalist who has no concept of a nation; a narcissist who abuses the language of patriotism without any commitment to the underlying idea that he has some responsibility to preserve order and cohesion in the polity. In fact, he does the opposite — sowing division and stoking violent distrust if it helps him.

Perhaps Trump’s talk wouldn’t be so dangerous if the rest of the GOP would work to tamp it down. Yet it’s

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
Hmmm I thought the 5th was a clear statement of guilt?

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That's because you are an idiot.

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Falsus in unum, falsus in omnibus

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Quote:

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Originally posted by second:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Pity

---

What we are seeing is shocking, but it’s part of an established pattern. Trump engages in some kind of egregious misbehavior, prompting official scrutiny and condemnation of his actions. Trump treats these actions as unjustified persecution, proof that the “deep state” is out to get him, a claim that the Republican Party and conservative press dutifully echo. His most radical supporters become even more radical, even contemplating violence.

January 6 is, of course, the most terrible illustration of this sequence to date. As Trump’s legal problems mount, there is every reason to expect it to repeat and even escalate, given the furious rhetoric from Trump and the GOP in recent days attacking the foundational legitimacy of the American state. The consequences could be calamitous.

The Trump-GOP-extremism feedback loop

We are closer to the beginning of the Trump investigations than the end of them.

Trump’s reported possession of nuclear documents, if it turns out to be true, raises the possibility that he violated federal statutes in a manner punishable by jail time. The New York state investigation into his business practices is heating up; on Wednesday, Trump spent four hours in questioning — pleading the Fifth on every question except when he was asked to state his name. On Friday morning, the Trump Organization lost a motion to dismiss the Manhattan district attorney’s tax fraud case against it.

In Georgia, where a grand jury has been impaneled to examine potentially criminal 2020 election interference, Trump just hired a criminal defense attorney famous for representing rappers. And the Justice Department’s probe into January 6 is starting to reach the former president; 10 days ago, it was reported that his legal team sat down with Justice Department lawyers to discuss whether conversations he had while in office could be shielded from investigators.

None of these investigations is a witch hunt. In each case, there are serious reasons to believe that the president violated the law. If prosecutors chose not to even investigate Trump, that itself would be politically motivated — a tacit admission that if a political figure is popular enough, he is above the law.

But the result of prosecutors doing their job is predictable: Trump reacts by casting it as proof that he is under attack by nefarious forces. Take his reaction to the reports of the nuclear weapons documents, posted on Truth Social:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more. Same sleazy people involved. Why wouldn't the FBI allow the inspection of areas at Mar-a-Lago with our lawyer's, or others, present. Made them wait outside in the heat, wouldn't let them get even close - said "ABSOLUTELY NOT." Planting information anyone? Reminds me of a Christofer Steele Dossier!
Aug 12, 2022, 06:35
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/108809454912105665

The litany of grievances, the sense that Trump has been forever persecuted by the government, the unfounded implication that the FBI was “planting information” at his house: all of it screams victimization, that Trump is the target of a vast and shadowy conspiracy pulling the FBI’s strings.

The fact that a Truth Social user had just been radicalized by such talk — posting violent threats on the site before attempting an armed breach of an FBI building — isn’t deterring Trump at all. He is, as the political scientist Julia Azari puts it, a nationalist who has no concept of a nation; a narcissist who abuses the language of patriotism without any commitment to the underlying idea that he has some responsibility to preserve order and cohesion in the polity. In fact, he does the opposite — sowing division and stoking violent distrust if it helps him.

Perhaps Trump’s talk wouldn’t be so dangerous if the rest of the G

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