“Donald Trump may be crazy, but he’s not stupid. When he claims that ‘nobody’ showed up at a 10,000 person Harris-Walz rally in Michigan that was live-streamed and widely covered by the media, that it was all AI, and that Democrats cheat all of the time, there is a method to his madness,” Sanders said in a statement.

“Clearly, and dangerously, what Trump is doing is laying the groundwork for rejecting the election results if he loses,” he added. “If you can convince your supporters that thousands of people who attended a televised rally do not exist, it will not be hard to convince them that the election returns in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and elsewhere are ‘fake’ and ‘fraudulent.’”

[…]

“This is what destroying faith in institutions is about. This is what undermining democracy is about. This is what fascism is about,” he said of Trump’s campaign falsehoods. “This is why we must do everything we can to see that Trump is defeated.”

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    He offers very little in the way of remedy.

    What do you do in a country with a two party system when one party is openly caught trying to cheat the election results? What do you do when that party loses and then accuses the other party of doing the same? What do you do with the millions of Americans who don’t trust the winning party to lead?

    The Dems’ answer seems to be capitulation. Give Republicans what they want to demonstrate bipartisanship. Put Republicans in your cabinet. Cherry pick “the good Republicans” and pretend they represent the secret heart of the rival party. Then compromise away every piece of legislation that becomes the subject of right wing hysterics.

    How do you govern like this? How do you govern in a country where one party can break the law with impunity absent any consequences? How do you govern when breaking the law gets your opposition rewarded whether or not you win on election day?

    • Josey_Wales@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      This is why turnout matters. If enough people vote against Trump the mandate will restore faith in the election results. Harris/Waltz need to win with a clear mandate. If not we will still be dealing with MAGA going forward.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        If enough people vote against Trump

        “We need to score 3 points for every 1 they make in order to win” is a rickety formula for success. It assumes you can run up the score every season and doesn’t question what happens when you lose.

        • SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 months ago

          We are ~11 weeks from Election Day. What do you propose we do?

          This is what we have in front of us. We can’t get upset about what could be or would’ve been. It’s mid-august 2024, time’s up.

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I don’t actually know. But what I do know is that the GOP is recruiting 100,000 election “observers” (read: saboteurs) and we’re gonna need way more tactics beyond just turnout to counter that!

            • SteveFromMySpace@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              4 months ago

              I completely agree but also remember that they have no power and have to keep a certain distance. They do anything funny don’t even engage them. Report them immediately. Especially if they are wearing any Trump merch. Easy to accuse them of campaigning too close to a polling location.

              They did the same shit in 2020 and 2022. Gotta be vigilant.

        • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Its what we got. Win here and then throw out FPTP immediately. We can’t change how voting works right this instance, Varuca.

    • Nougat@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      The Right intends to play fuck around with the election.

      “How could the Democrats do this?”

      Go home Russian propaganda.

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      You seem to be ignoring the obvious here, this is intentional. The Democratic party leadership actually wants the same as the old Republicans. It’s just that the Overton Window has shifted so far to the right that we no longer see actual Left views to compare against anymore.

      And both parties are fine with using social issues to mask everything else because those are always in your face and easy to take a side one way or the other, and the two-party system excels at that.

      • Gsus4@mander.xyzOP
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        4 months ago

        It’s always possible to go further left, but I think being pro-union, anti-trust, pro-regulation, pro-equality, pro-school meals is far enough left to qualify as left in the historical US political spectrum, no?

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The Democratic party leadership actually wants the same as the old Republicans.

        Careful, you’ll get called a Putinista Wumao Trump Bot Account for saying things like this.

        And both parties are fine with using social issues to mask everything else

        Social issues tend to be the symptom of underlaying economic issues. They’re just easier to talk about, because we can frame the discussion as “opportunity” and “freedom” rather than “economic restructuring” and “wealth redistribution”.