{"id":598,"date":"2024-10-31T12:11:43","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T16:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/?p=598"},"modified":"2024-10-31T12:11:43","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T16:11:43","slug":"vance-would-be-like-trump-on-steroids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/growpurpose.com\/skipjack\/2024\/10\/31\/vance-would-be-like-trump-on-steroids\/","title":{"rendered":"Vance Would Be Like Trump on Steroids"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has become impossible for me to understand why any American would want Donald Trump to be president again.<\/p>\n

The Republicans who know him best, those who worked for him in the White House, are turning against him in droves.<\/p>\n

At least 25 former Trump officials — his vice president, five cabinet members, eight White House officials and 11 persons who held other executive branch jobs —
\nhave warned us that he is dangerous.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just those who worked with Trump.\u00a0 At least 39 officials who worked in previous GOP administrations have openly warned us about him.\u00a0 They include a former president, a vice president, 13 cabinet members, five White House officials and 29 persons who held other executive branch offices.
\nBut don\u2019t stop there. \u00a0Among other Republicans who now publicly oppose Trump are five sitting senators, 12 former senators, three current House members, 41 former House members, two current governors, 18 former governors, and a dizzying flock of GOP state and local officials, judges, party officials, public figures, right-leaning news outlets and other organizations.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s well more than 200 Republican officials who have stated publicly that they fear another Trump White House.\u00a0 You can be sure that not one of them wants a Democrat there, but they\u2019ll vote for Harris anyway because a Democrat is preferable to a fascist \u2013 and after that infamous Trump rally Sunday, there can be no doubt he is a fascist.<\/p>\n

He has become the spitting image of Adolf Hitler, who America declared war on in 1941.\u00a0 And now all the polls show about half of Americans want him to be our president?\u00a0 Again I ask: How is it possible that any American could want someone to be president who we fought World War II to stop?<\/p>\n

The New York Times recently listed six major ways Trump\u2019s promises could weaken American democracy if he is elected .<\/p>\n

One. He would use the Justice Department\u00a0to punish people who opposed him, including \u201clong term prison sentences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two. He would revoke the licenses of \u00a0broadcast outlets that have criticized him, specifically NBC, MSNBC and CBS.<\/p>\n

Three. He would reward his allies and campaign donors by reducing taxes on wealthy people and corporations and replacing the lost money by circling the U.S. with tariffs, which would sharply increase costs for the middle and lower classes.<\/p>\n

Four. He would fire tens of thousands of federal workers and replace them with people who would swear their loyalty to him, not to the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Five. He would ignore laws he opposes, such as laws that provide money for clean energy.<\/p>\n

Six. He can absolutely be trusted to claim without any evidence that the election was rigged and he actually won, just like he did in 2020. \u00a0(More on that in a moment.)<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just his anti-democracy, pro-Nazi ways that make me wonder why anybody would want him to be president.\u00a0 There\u2019s also the mounting evidence and growing realization that Trump is physically and mentally falling apart, and if he is elected he will not be able to serve.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, 230 doctors publicly called on Trump to release his medical records, which he absolutely will not do.\u00a0 They wrote, \u201cTrump is falling concerningly short of any standard of fitness for office and displaying alarming characteristics of declining acuity.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just a few days ago 233 mental health professionals warned that Trump \u201cappears to be showing signs of cognitive decline that urgently cry out for a full neurological work-up.\u201d \u00a0They also said that his malignant narcissism makes him \u201cgrossly unfit for leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

All that comes on top of that 2017 book, \u201cThe Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,\u201d in which 27 psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health experts revealed him as being criminally mentally ill.<\/p>\n

Toss in his 34 felony convictions, the 54 other felony charges against him, the adjudication that he is a rapist, etc., etc., etc., and it should be clear to everyone that Trump is unfit to be president of the United States.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s consider for a moment that the unthinkable happens, that Trump legitimately wins the election and, once in office, it quickly becomes clear he is incapable of performing.\u00a0 What then?<\/p>\n

He nominally would remain president, but J.D. Vance would become president-in-fact. \u00a0So, what could we expect from Vance?<\/p>\n

Think Trump on steroids.<\/p>\n

Vance and his financier Peter Thiel (Thiel first employed him, then invested in his venture capital firm, then contributed an unprecedented $15 million to his Senate campaign) are determined to dismantle the federal government.\u00a0 They argue that America\u2019s democratic institutions have created a society that is, as James Pogue wrote in a 2022 Vanity Fair article, \u201cat once tyrannical, chaotic, and\u00a0 devoid of\u00a0 the systems of value and morality that give human life richness and meaning.\u201d \u00a0Thiel has expressed his belief that the modern government stifles innovation by enforcing social values like equality and anti-monopoly, limits that have caused society to stagnate and could lead to an apocalypse.<\/p>\n

Vance agrees with all that.\u00a0 He has spoken extensively about the need to destroy the U.S. government.\u00a0 He emphasizes what he sees as the decadence of today\u2019s America and the need to address that decadence by\u00a0 purging the government of secular leaders \u2013 in short, by establishing a government of Christian nationalists.<\/p>\n

He says he would terminate immigration, end LGBTQ+ rights, ban abortions and support the establishment of a patriarchy in which women would function as wives and mothers even if it meant they had to stay in abusive marriages.\u00a0 He insists that that would be more fulfilling for women than becoming \u201cchildless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance also would support the implication of \u2013 shudder — Project 2025.\u00a0 After all, he wrote the introduction to it that includes these words: \u201cWe are now all realizing that it is time to circle the wagons and load the muskets.\u00a0 In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

In essence, Trump would be a disaster and Vance would be a catastrophe.<\/p>\n

Frankly, I don\u2019t believe Trump expects to win or even cares if he wins. \u00a0 He just wants to keep the election close enough so that he can claim it was rigged.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we can expect on election night. Republicans will take an early lead and Trump will declare victory, probably in time for the 11 p.m. news shows. \u00a0But then Democrats will start catching up, Trump will declare fraud, and his ignorant, Fox News-believing lackeys will believe him.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not fraud.\u00a0 It\u2019s natural. \u00a0Votes are counted by precinct, and Democrats tend to live in densely populated urban precincts while Republicans tend to live in sparsely populated rural ones.\u00a0 Since it takes longer to count the votes in a precinct with many people than in a precinct with fewer people, it will appear Republicans are winning or have even won.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the red mirage. Then, when Democrats\u2019 votes are counted and that lead shrinks throughout the night, it\u2019s called the blue shift.\u00a0 It happens every year.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Trump will file enough lawsuits to eventually involve the Supreme Court, which he effectively controls.\u00a0 That could turn the election over to the House of Representatives, which would elect him president.<\/p>\n

By that point the civil war, which already is underway, will have erupted into the violence that Trump and Vance have been seeking for many, many months.\u00a0 Millions of their\u00a0 puppets are promising violence if he loses again, and everything Trump and Vance do encourages them.<\/p>\n

Well, the good guys won the last civil war and we\u2019ll win this one, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s sad it must be this way but this is just how it is today .<\/p>\n

Only a blue tsunami will prevent that, and that will happen only if freedom-loving Americans vote. \u00a0So please, freedom-loving Americans, vote.\u00a0 If we do, we win.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

-0-<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Correction:\u00a0 In my Oct. 21 blog, headlined \u201cTrump\u2019s Mental Capacity is Shrinking\u201d, I wrote that Trump \u201ctold a long, meandering story about golfing legend Arnold Palmer that ended with references to Palmer\u2019s testicles.\u201d\u00a0 That was wrong.\u00a0 Trump ended by \u00a0\u00a0rhapsodizing about the size of Palmer\u2019s penis.<\/div>\n

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If you like this column, please forward it to your friends.\u00a0 If it was forwarded to you, please consider subscribing by clicking here<\/strong><\/a> (or scrolling to the bottom of this page).\u00a0 Skip Johnson writes an occasional blog focused on current events, and it is free. <\/em><\/p>\n

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