Nothing about this is normal.
On Saturday, Donald Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania, and held a rally at the same location where he survived an assassination attempt last July. He was greeted by the many thousands of gathered MAGA fans.
Fascism is a form of religious politics; it exists outside of the normal politics of voting, campaigns, parties, “the presidential horse race” and public opinion polls that the mainstream news media are so obsessed with; on Saturday, Trump was elevated, even closer, to full God King status.
To that point, Trump’s return speech was accompanied by an operatic “commemoration” to mark the exact moment that the assassination attempt occurred in July. This was surreal and frightening, a fascist spectacle right out of Mussolini’s Italy and a Dario Argento Italian horror movie. I am surprised that the MAGA people in Butler did not lay prostrate before Trump so that his feet would not touch the ground when he walked or tried to touch his clothes so that they could be blessed and/or cured of some horrible disease.
With less than 30 days until Election Day, Trump and his surrogates are in full-on attack mode as their feral politics are turned up to the extreme. If put back in power, Trump and his regime will work tirelessly to end America’s multiracial pluralistic democracy. The events at Trump’s return rally in Butler are a preview of what will happen to the country as he becomes a dictator who rules by claiming divine authority and permanent emergency powers both to serve his authoritarian and fascist political agenda and advance his corrupt and perverse personal goals.
Donald Trump and his forces (and their allies abroad) are opposed by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party, the larger pro-democracy movement, and those everyday Americans who understand the existential danger that Trumpism and the MAGAfied Republicans and the larger neofascist movement represent. The question is, are there enough of these Americans who will vote on Election Day (especially in the battleground states that will decide the final outcome in the Electoral College) to stop them?
In an attempt to make better sense of this unprecedented and truly historic election and where we are as a nation in these remaining weeks, the larger democracy crisis, our collective feelings and anxieties, and what may happen next, I recently spoke to a range of experts.
Steven Beschloss is a journalist and author of several books, including "The Gunman and His Mother." His website is America, America.
Based on all the available data, I am convinced that Kamala Harris will win the election, even as the tight polling in battleground states remains worrisome. Her remarkable, joyful campaign and likely win is a reason for optimism, of course. Her large rallies, which I’ve attended, are an extraordinary outpouring of relief and hope for democracy. I am also particularly encouraged by the growing number of high-profile Republicans who are standing up and speaking out about what a danger Donald Trump is to the country’s future; their voices may help Harris at the margins with independents and some Republicans.
But the toxicity of Trump’s pathological lying, scapegoating of migrants, blaming Jewish voters if he loses and falsely asserting that the cheating of Democrats rather than getting out the vote is his priority — all this makes clear that he is preparing to deny the outcome if and when he loses. And as his fear rises, as his desperation becomes more obvious, his lies become wilder, grimmer, and more exhausting. He’s a poison that lingers and lingers, leaving me to feel as if we are all engaged in a death march. Once liberation day arrives, only then, can we genuinely look toward building the future.
I’d like to think that soon after Nov. 5, this deathly pallor will lift, but we all must be prepared for all the ugly efforts after the election to deny the will of the people. And if I’m wrong and Trump actually wins the election? Well, the battle for the survival of our system of self-governance will be an all-hands-on-deck resistance effort by pro-democracy advocates in the courts, in our democratic institutions, and in the streets.
Darick Robertson is an American comic book artist, writer, creator, and executive producer with a decades-long career in the industry. His notable works include co-creating the award-winning “Transmetropolitan”, and the comic that inspired the hit Amazon Prime show “The Boys.”
I am feeling bewildered but optimistic. I believe in my gut that the Trump fatigue is real. The small turnouts for his rallies, his multiple felonies and indictments, his blatant racism and obvious lying, and the jettison of normie Republicans who have been tired of his schtick and string of losses for many years now show all signs of a big win for Haris and Walz in November. To say nothing of the driving motivation for the majority of Americans to avoid Project 2025 and reinstate a woman's right to choose what happens in her body. I'm bewildered how anyone cannot see through the blatant corruption and lies that permeate everything Trump does to still find him somehow worthy of holding the highest office in America and having access to the nuclear codes. Propaganda and greed are powerful weapons.
I was optimistic that President Biden would eke out a win if he stayed in the race. His economic record and his salient leadership should have been enough to keep his coalition together from 2020, despite the concerns of his age. But handing the campaign over to Kamala Harris was a surprise as was the overwhelmingly positive reaction from the electorate. What felt like a possible replay of 2016 has become a reinvigorated campaign more reminiscent of 2008. Meanwhile, Trump is rerunning 2016 and 2020 and showing obvious signs of mental decline while being prosecuted in court.
I have long believed that the issues of abortion and gun control, two issues that poll very high across all voters, regardless of party, should ensure that Trump doesn't return to the White House. He lost every election since 2016, with the loss of the popular vote, and he's only worsened and declined since. But the media needs a horse race, so we hear about polls in a frightening way, but logic says Trump has done nothing to expand his base and win over independents.
In the upcoming weeks, I believe that we will see more erratic and extreme behavior from Trump and his MAGA base. I expect stories of intimidation at the polls. I expect to hear claims of everything "being rigged" and his litigant liars repeating his lies on his pet networks, while Kamala Harris and Walz to steady on and use the recent stunning economic statistics to boost their positive message of not going back and better days ahead.
Like Springsteen said, I only have one vote, and I know who to cast it for. Predicting the future is a fool's errand and we live in bizarre times. But I will drink a big glass of my best bourbon if Harris wins.
For God's sake people, get out and vote!
Dr. Jennifer Mercieca is a historian of American political rhetoric. She is a professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at Texas A&M University and author of several books including "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump."
I'm feeling optimistic about the election. Democrats are enthusiastic, Republicans and Democrats are forming a coalition to defeat Trump, and Trump is not more popular in 2024 than he was in 2020. Those are all good signs that make me cautiously optimistic that Kamala Harris will win.
The presidential election race, so far at least, has gone about as I expected. I never expected Trump to quit or admit guilt and I never expected his right-wing authoritarian followers to abandon him. I've hoped that the system can hold and so far, it is, but I also know that most authoritarian takeovers happen through the legal system. The Supreme Court has paved the way for Trump (or whoever wants to implement Project 2025) to do so.
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We are a nation that is exhausted and traumatized by Trumpism.
I see a plot between right-wing Christian conservatives, the right-wing legal community, the right-wing tech bro accelerationists, and enemy nations like Russia and Iran to destroy democracy in America. I think Trump is the problem, but he's also just fascism's current American avatar, so he's not the end of the problem.
People are already voting and most have already decided who they'll vote for. We already have election lawyers battling in courts to make sure the votes are counted quickly and accurately. It's all going to come down to turnout and enthusiasm.
In the end, if Harris wins, we will see exhausting state-level challenges like we did in 2020. I believe that Jack Smith's evidence in United States v. Donald Trump is really helpful for allowing people to see how Trump was so dedicated to overturning the 2020 election. Smith shows that Trump spent the better part of two months just grinding out these many layers of plots to try to steal the election from Biden. Trump worked over and intimidated individuals, institutions, and the media to try to force himself back into office. I suspect that Trump will do the same this year. If he does, at least we'll have a context to be able to see that it's the same thing Trump did before.
If Donald Trump wins the election, we will see a chaotic and violent government controlled by someone who appears to be a madman.
Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and the author of "Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President."
As expected, Trump is unchanged. He is on-brand: awful. As I predicted, he is demonstrating what appears to be an ongoing devolution of his ability to think, form coherent sentences, and find and pronounce words. For example, he read “Thailand” from a teleprompter as “Thighland.” Without a White House machine to do the bare minimum to shield him from his worst moments, Trump’s challenges are there for all to see.
Trump’s defensive use of contempt continues unabated and unmodified. His contempt is laced with projection, as when he calls Harris “dumb.” He’s the person who fears being called stupid.
I anticipate an escalation of this behavior as the election approaches. But I am also concerned that the Democrats are not hitting back hard enough. Gov. Walz had ample chances to confront JD Vance’s bald-faced lies in their debate and chose not to until the very end.
If Harris wins, there will be great national relief and even joy, I think. My only worries are about some of Trump’s more impulsive and armed MAGA fanatics. The fact that his rally crowds are bored, and dwindling makes me think few will want to spit out their gum long enough to protest. What the unhinged MAGA fringe may do is anyone's guess. I am comforted by the knowledge that the Justice Department and the FBI in particular are all over this situation.
If Trump wins, all bets are off; he really might start acting destructively toward the American people, our Constitution, and his critics well before his inauguration. The once laughable idea that he has “the best people” around him is no longer funny.
I keep thinking we will get to Trump fatigue, but that may be only because I’m often exhausted by him and drained of energy to confront him. Answering your questions has proved challenging for just that reason. I hope I speak for many Americans in saying that I am over Donald Trump. And I think I speak for many of his former “fans” who will be voting for Harris because they are never ever getting back together with Trump.
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