Trump is afraid of vote- by-mail because he is afraid it will cause him to lose the election. On Twitter today, he made specific accusations of fraud in the vote by mail process.”There is no way (Zero!) that Mail-In-Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mailboxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged, and even illegally printed out and fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many who never even thought of voting before, how and for whom, to vote. This will be a rigged election. NO WAY!”
You don’t need a license in psychotherapy to hear the pathology in his rant. Predicting the future in detail with paranoid ideology is not normal. One could express fear or skepticism about a process and curiosity about how fairness and accuracy will be protected. However, to get on a platform and try to influence people to believe an election is rigged before it happens is not something normal, rational people do. If he is not delusional, this tweet was a dangerous, misleading piece of propaganda to do the very thing he was accusing the vote-by-mail process of doing, which is to degrade the chances ofa fair election.For the first time, the CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey initiated a fact check qualifier after Trump’s tweets. Many Twitter users have complained about Trump’s flagrant disregard for the platform’s guidelines, which say you cannot;
- threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. You cannot glorify violence.
- threaten or promote terrorism or violent extremism
- Zero tolerance for sexual exploitation of children
- engage in targeted harassment of someone or incite other people to do so.
- promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.
- use Twitter to manipulate or interfere in elections, i.e., posting any content that could suppress voter turnout or mislead people about when, where, or how to vote.
- deceptively share manipulated media that could likely cause harm
- to violate copyright or trademark rights
- impersonate an individual, group, or organization to mislead, confuse, or deceive others
Trump routinely accuses people of crimes ( most recently Journalist Joe Scarborough of murder) states conspiracy theories as truths and has aggressively targeted individuals and groups attacking their reputations and spreading lies. His content aims to confuse, mislead, and control the opinions and behaviors of people to suit his agenda. People who have committed lesser violations of Twitter guidelines have been banned. However, Trump continues to prove that a rogue president can get away with pretty much anything in this political climate of no checks and balances.
Trump is reasserting his 2015 campaign conspiracy theory of widespread voter fraud, as he feared he would lose the election to Hillary Clinton. Part of the Trump gaslighting playbook is to spread lies and create narratives of conspiracies against him that don t exist. In a therapist’s office, he would be labeled delusional. In a court of law, he would be seen as a manipulative criminal. In the political world, he could be seen as an opportunistic, power-hungry, dishonest, autocrat.
Finally, Twitter called him out for making accusatory comments with no evidence to substantiate his claims. Dorsey grew a spine and a hint of integrity by challenging the credibility of this self-serving, unsubstantiated Trump twee t.On April 20, 2020, CNN was quoted as saying, “Multiple studies have confirmed that there is no widespread voter fraud in his country, and millions of people vote-by-mail every year without systemic problems. An expansive study from the Brennan Center in 2017 found the rate of voter fraud in the United States was somewhere between 0.00004% and 0.00009 of all votes.” The report also says that vote-by-mail is getting increasingly popular with both Republican and Democratic voters. Trump and his family have routinely used vote-by-mail, however his fear that this process favors Democrats has resulted in his hypocritical attacks.
Trump is also campaigning to defund the USPS in an attempt to interfere with the efficient delivery of voter registration forms and voter ballots. The Post Office is just one among many historical, foundational American traditions Trump attacks and threatens to destroy. His attacks on the USPS, the free press, the judiciary, the intelligence community, Democrats, and any elected official who doesn’t pledge loyalty to him is proof that he is an unpatriotic adversary to our history, our democracy, and the Constitution. He only favors laws that support his political and personal interests. He has fired friends and loyal colleagues simply because they disagreed with him. He will praise the military one day, then attack career generals and war heroes, such as the late Senator John McCain. Trump is for Trump.
His “America First” mantra is an old saying dating back to World War 11, which was rooted in anti-semitism. “America First” attracts white people in rural states and counties who believe a true America is white. Trump plays to their feats of white becoming a minority. Like cult leaders and dictators before him, he has figured out how to endear himself to those who are needy or greedy. Unfortunately, the Trump presidency has uncovered an excessive number of needy, greedy, racist, misogynistic people who may need to suffer a low bottom event before they realize Trump is only a friend to white, rich Americans. Occasionally he will tolerate a minority individual into his inner circle if they are rich, successful, or good looking enough. Diversity is not a word that would describe his Cabinet.
The evangelicals will suffer the most when Trump’s criminality brings him down, as their blind loyalty to a false prophet will bring shame and confusion to them. They will have to figure out their path back to being authentic Christians, not tainted Trump Christians. In the meantime, as the “resistance movement” awaits his inevitable fall from power, (which happens to all criminals and charlatans), we can thank Twitter this week for sending a message to Trump that there are limits to the abuse and dishonesty that America will tolerate from him.
