Given Donald Trump's hostility toward democracy, it's worth pausing when he asks supporters, "Why are we having an election?”

Given Donald Trump’s hostility toward democracy, it’s worth pausing when he asks supporters, "Why are we having an election?”

By all appearances, Donald Trump really doesn’t like it when Democrats describe him as a threat to democracy, and yet, the Republican keeps saying things that reflect a degree of animosity toward the American system of government.

Take the former president’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, for example. The New York Times reported:

Trump said polls suggested he was at “93 percent” although it was not clear what that number was referring to. The former president said he responded by saying: “So why are we having an election? They didn’t have an election. Why are we having an election?”

  • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
    0·
    6 months ago

    It is more than the GOP/Trump not liking the “American” way of government. I don’t know anyone who particularly likes it. It is because they are opposed to the very idea of democracy.

  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Trump said polls suggested he was at “93 percent” although it was not clear what that number was referring to

    I just assumed they meant his diaper

  • qantravon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Who didn’t have an election?

    I suppose I shouldn’t be looking for meaning in anything he says.

    • xtr0n@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      6 months ago

      I think he’s referring to the DNC not having primaries. But with a sitting president parties don’t really have primaries to pick a candidate. But since Harris moved into Biden’s place on the ticket, Trump has been whining about how it’s unfair 🙄.

      But then he gets all discombobulated and complains about having to deal with an election even though he was also just made the GOP candidate without any primary elections (I think?). At that point I lose the thread as he devolves into sundowning.

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
          0·
          6 months ago

          As I’ve been quoting since last year in regards to the GOP:

          can’t win a primary without Trump, can’t win a general with him.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      The best anyone can make sense of it is that the Dems didn’t exactly have an open primary to select Harris. So he’s ?? confusing that with why have a general election? Which still doesn’t make any sense but that’s the best explanation.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        6 months ago

        Which honestly is something the DNC can fuck right off about. Make it democratic, what do you have to lose? Are you scared the people might choose someone your corporate overlords dislike?

        But it in no way is party candidate selection as important as ensuring the national election is democratic.

        • someguy3@lemmy.world
          0·
          6 months ago

          For DNC it was more about time. I’ll have to leave it to them to figure that out, but it seems they thought they didn’t have enough time.

        • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          6 months ago

          Under normal circumstances I’d agree, but as long as the GOP is the Fascist Party, spending time on a primary so close to the election is a luxury we couldn’t afford. Immediately coalescing behind a single candidate and hitting the ground running is what we needed.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    0·
    6 months ago

    Because US Constitution, Article II, section 1?

    "Article II

    Section 1

    The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

    He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected"

  • collapse_already@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I just want to be super rude to him. “Because the assassin missed. It’s not like you are going to respect the results anyway. The demographics that were against you in 2020 have only gotten worse.”

  • IndescribablySad@threads.net@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    6 months ago

    Alright, I’m more than a bit confused about this one. He stated that democrats didn’t hold a real primary and went on to question why they would need a presidential election. How is A related to B? It reminds me of the ubiquitous casual stochastic terrorism of the early 2010s in its complete absence of logic or adherence to reality.

    • RoidingOldMan@lemmy.world
      0·
      6 months ago

      It’s a ‘why have rules at all if we’re going to ignore them’ whine about how Harris didn’t have to win a primary.

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-swing-state-officials-election-deniers-1235069692/

    https://protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/PD_County-Cert-WP_v03.1.pdf

    Trump and his MAGA flying monkeys (who are not nearly as addled in the head as he himself is) have every intention of disrupting the counting and certification of votes in as many jurisdictions as possible in order to throw the election to the House (one state, one vote) or SCOTUS. When he questions “why are we having an election” it’s because he’s trying to stop us from having elections under his dictatorship and is floating the idea in advance to normalize it.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
      0·
      6 months ago

      This is why he’s going to keep repeating that he’s winning by absurd margins. He’ll have Magoos convinced that it was an obviously stolen election because “how could he have won 90+% of votes in polls but still lose???”