Donald Trump faces four indictments, 91 criminal charges and hundreds of years of maximum prison time combined.

This is a former president who — according to the latest grand jury indictment in Fulton County, Georgia — participated in a “criminal enterprise.” Trump and 18 co-defendants are accused of trying “to unlawfully change the outcome of the election” in 2020. Among the 13 felony charges he faces is one count of violating the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act and two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery.

Most of those charges are related to a fake elector scheme by the Trump campaign in which a slate of “alternate” electors in Georgia would cast electoral votes for Trump instead of Joe Biden. The president of the most powerful democracy in the world allegedly tried to steal an election.

We can’t say it often enough: This is serious. Americans cannot shrug this off or normalize it, no matter how many times Trump gets indicted. Yet it feels like business as usual. Not only is Trump favored to win the GOP presidential nomination, he’s also neck and neck with President Biden in the 2024 general election, according to a July poll by the New York Times/Siena Poll.

MORE THAN A CULT

Trump’s support cannot only be explained as the product of the cult-like power he has over his MAGA base, which accounts for roughly 40% of Republican voters who believe those indictments are nothing but a conspiracy against him.

more: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article278265068.html

  • gamer@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Yet if the latest New York Times poll is right — and we’re still a long way from the presidential elections — many Americans either believe Trump’s alleged crimes didn’t occur or they think they aren’t that big a deal.

    It has to be the former. I think the one and only thing that sets these “lunatics” apart from the rest of us is simply that they trust Trump. The things he says are terrifying, and would drive any otherwise sane person to do crazy things to defend their country if they were true. I don’t think it’s fair to call these people evil or stupid, they’re just being played by a master scam artist. Add a little bit of ego and stubbornness to it, and I can see someone rejecting logical arguments if they’re coming out of the mouth of someone who just called them an idiot.

    • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      A smart racist is an oxymoron.

      Not all Republicans are racist, but all of them agreed it isn’t a deal breaker.

    • Arsenal4ever@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      30% of the population still supported Nixon.

      Fox News was started to get a future Nixon off. Even Ailes probably didn’t forsee the massive Trump family criming (we still haven’t talked about Ivanka’s Chinese patents and Jared’s 2 billion Saudi bailouts.)

    • BassTurd@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Nah, they’re stupid. Maybe at first I could give them a pass, but with the mountains it evidence including video evidence and audio recordings of Trump himself, you have to be stupid to still believe he’s innocent.

      • gamer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        When was the last time you convinced someone they were wrong by calling them stupid? A lot of people who are smarter than you are falling for this scam. The last time Trump won, the polling suggested he was going to lose because people who were thinking of voting for him didn’t talk about it publicly for fear of being mocked by people like you.

        • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          If they fear of getting mocked, why do they still do it?

          Wouldn’t that mean they understand their opinion about the topic is just dumb?

          • gamer@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            Are you being serious, or just circle jerking to feel good making fun of people? If they knew it was stupid, they wouldn’t believe it. Clearly, they don’t realize that their beliefs are stupid. We can either try to help them, or bully them until they quietly vote for Trump again or attempt another coup.