5-31-24
Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies. He is a criminal by any definition. In addition, we also know that he is an habitual liar, has authoritarian tendencies, and is more than willing to undermine America’s democratic values for his own personal benefit and quest for power. Millions and millions of Republicans have continued to blindly follow Trump despite the clear evidence of how dangerous and unqualified he truly is. Now, the question is how will his felony convictions affect voters’ decisions.
One thing that is extremely obvious is that if Trump was a Democrat, Democratic voters would have rejected him a long time ago. Don’t believe me? Consider Al Franken, the popular comedian who became a Democratic Senator. When photos emerged that had been taken years before showing him on a USO tour pretending to touch a sleeping female colleague’s breasts, Democrats turned on him very quickly which resulted in his resignation. What he did in the photos was clearly inappropriate, but it does not appear that he actually touched the woman. He was pretending to as a joke. While in particularly poor taste, it pales in comparison to things Trump has said, done, been accused of, and now convicted of, yet Republicans continue to blindly follow Trump. Here’s another example of what I’m talking about. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York was a very popular Democrat that many Americans turned to for leadership during the COVID Pandemic. It seemed that his political future was quite promising. But after allegations of sexual misconduct came to light, Democrats rejected him very quickly. High ranking Democratic leaders even recommended an investigation of him. His political career was over.
Most Republicans have continued to blindly follow Trump despite everything he has said and done. The truth is, most Republicans have shown themselves as much more likely to be blind followers as compared to Democrats. The way millions and millions of Republicans continue to blindly follow Donald Trump is overwhelming proof of this. So it leaves the question: how will the fact that Donald Trump is now a convicted felon affect how people vote in the November election? The scary and extremely dangerous fact is that the vast majority of his core followers are going to believe Trump’s lies and vote for him in overwhelming numbers. Even though Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies by a jury of 12 ordinary Americans (who had been agreed upon by both the Prosecutor and the Defense), MAGA supporters will devotedly believe Trump’s lies making ridiculous, outrageous conspiracy claims and other nonsense.
The big question will be if and how Trump’s convictions affect Independents and other swing voters. How many of them will think twice about voting for Trump? How many of those who were leaning towards voting for Trump will now reconsider that possibility? At this point, nobody knows. The United States is in uncharted waters. An American President, or former President, has never been convicted of a felony before. Plus, we are dealing with a severely divided nation politically and an authoritarian style leader whose mass of hard core supporters have proven themselves to be blind followers.
Troubling and scary times indeed.
It’s that much more reason why those of us who see how dangerous Trump is need to get out and vote against him in overwhelming numbers. We also need to be smart about our vote because like it or not, the next president will be Trump or Biden. That is reality. It’s also why we must get out and vote for Joe Biden in overwhelming numbers, even those of us who have legitimate concerns about Biden, because voting for a third party candidate, who has zero chance of winning, or not voting at all is helping Donald Trump. That is cold, hard reality. And this country cannot afford another 4 years of Donald Trump in the White House, especially now that he’s a bitter, convicted felon.
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