But what did Trump really say in Washington? Electoral and Social Reform at the center of the US political debate

12 January 20213 years ago babelfish

We have all heard of the facts of the Capitol. But do we know them? They revolve around six speeches: the first by Trump, the second and third by Biden, the fourth short by Trump, the fifth by the head of communication of the latter, the sixth by Trump. Let's talk about the first one here. From the speech it is clear that it was not Trump who indicated the crowd to raid the Capitol, much less incite him. And it is equally clear that the core of his political proposal for the future, of his platform, is electoral reform, including intervention on Social Networks: those who ignore this platform ignore the substance of the forthcoming American political debate.

Trump on the lawn of the Ellipse park in Washington DC, on the morning of the Epiphany, gave a long speech to the crowd of his sympathizers: “our movement” , our movement. The demonstration is crowded: "get to the Washington Monument".

Here and there he describes the calamities that, according to him, the ruling Democrats will perpetrate (for example "they wanted to eliminate the Jefferson Memorial … with this new administration it could happen", or "you saw, the other day, Joe Biden say: I I want to eliminate the politics of America First ”, finally a mockery to Hillary Clinton), but only for hints: that is not the purpose of the speech. The central part is dedicated to a very long list of the frauds allegedly suffered (“but I could go on for another hour”). Necessary listing – he says – because the media “are silent. It is called suppression and this is what happens in communist countries ”. The reference is not to the old USSR, but to the new China: it is "using the pretext of the Chinese virus ( China virus )" that the Democrats would have done what the speech accuses them of.

Because of these alleged frauds, Biden's appointment cannot be certified: "now it is up to Congress to face this serious assault on our democracy" … the one carried by the Democrats, of course, because he, Trump, the Constitution is defending it. "They say that contesting the elections is not American", but the opposite is actually true: "we, together, are determined to defend and preserve the government of the People, by the People and for the People", which is the most American thing that there is. Biden's election is not American: “just take a look at the third world countries, their elections are more honest than those we have seen in this country. It's a shame".

Opposing Republican deputies and senators "are warriors, they are in there [in the Capitol] working like never before, studying the roots of the Constitution because they know we have the right to reject an illegally collected vote"; send it back to the states for a new certification process: “recertify” . His vice president, Mike Pence, who is also president of the Senate and the ratification ceremony, should do so: “I talked to Mike. I said, Mike, it doesn't take courage, what it takes courage is to do nothing … [And Pence:] the Constitution doesn't allow me to send them back to the States. Well, I would say yes, it does it because the Constitution says you have to protect our country, and you have to protect our Constitution, and you can't vote with fraud, and fraud destroys everything, right? When you catch a scammer, you can follow very different rules. So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do, and I hope he doesn't listen to the RINOs ( Republicans in name only ) and the silly people he's listening to ”.

After Pence, the Supreme Court: “You know, you see, I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me. I have chosen three people. I fought like hell for them. For one in particular I fought … We put it through and, you know what, they couldn't care less … the legend is that they're my puppets … and now, the only way out – they hate it, it's not good in the social circuit – the only way out is to sentence against Trump, so we blame Trump, and they do ”; same attorney general Bill Barr: “suddenly Bill Barr has changed, if you didn't notice. I like Bill Barr, but he changed because he didn't want to be considered my personal lawyer ”.

All these, what are they? He just called them RINOs ( Republicans in name only ), he once called them "Washington swamp" , the swamp of Washington in traditional jargon. But his favorite expression is “weak Republicans” : “Weak Republicans, and this is, I really believe it. I think I'll call them that. Weak Republicans… there are many of them. They closed their eyes. Even when the Democrats made policies that sent our jobs away, weakened our Armed Forces, opened our borders, and put America last ( America Last ) ”. Well no, “you must have people who fight. And, if he doesn't fight, we must first kick out those who don't fight… Republicans constantly act like a boxer with one hand tied behind his back. He is like a boxer . And we want to be so cute. We want to be so respectful of everyone, even bad people. And we will have to fight with much greater difficulty ”. Weak Republicans like Romney: “When he was beaten, he replied with the most typical: well, I'd like to congratulate the winner. The winner. Who was the winner [this time], Mitt? I would like to congratulate. They don't go into the facts and don't look at them: oh, I don't know. He was massacred. Maybe it was right, maybe yes – that's what happened ”. Weak Republicans who today say to Trump: "we will never let that happen again … they try to get me to give up, they say: in four years you are guaranteed".

Trump disagrees: “because you will never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong ”. Therefore, “we have come to ask Congress to do the right thing and to count only legitimately registered voters. I know that everyone here will soon be marching to the Capitol to make your voices heard peacefully and patriotically… after that, we set off – and I'll be there with you, whoever I want, but I think that's right – we set out for the Capitol. And we'll be cheering on our brave senators and congressmen and probably won't be cheering on more of them that much. " And then again, in closing:

"So we'll walk down Pennsylvania Avenue (I love Pennsylvania Avenue) and we'll go to the Capitol, and we'll try to give (Democrats are hopeless, they never vote for nothing, not even a vote, but we'll try) we'll give our Republicans (the weak because the strong don't need our help), we'll try, we'll try to give them the kind of pride and audacity they need to take our country back. So, we walk along Pennsylvania Avenue ”.

To what end? "Today we will see if we have great and courageous leaders or if we have leaders who should be ashamed of themselves for centuries to come, for eternity (…) If they do the wrong thing, we should never, ever forget that they did" . That is, they will know who the strong Republicans are. This is the purpose of the march: not to convince the Democrats, but to select the Republicans. Strong Republicans, okay, but to do what? Well… to enlist them in the movement: “our exciting adventures and our most daring feats have not yet begun. My fellow American citizens, for our movement, for our children and for our beloved country (and I say this despite everything that has happened) the best is yet to come… Today is not the end, it is only the beginning ”.

Our movement. Which movement? "Today, in addition to contesting the certification of the elections, I ask Congress and the state legislatures to rapidly approve extensive electoral reforms". Electoral reforms. Which?

“We will finally approve strong requirements for voter identification. You need an identity card to cash a check, you need an identity card to go to a bank, to buy alcohol, to drive a car; each person should need to show an identity document in order to express the most important thing: the vote ".
"We will also require proof of US citizenship to be able to vote in US elections."
“We will ban ballot harvesting and prohibit the use of unsafe drop boxes used to commit rampant election fraud. These mailboxes are fraudulent. They collect, they disappear, and then, suddenly, they show up. It is fraudulent ”.
“We will stop the practice of universal postal voting not requested by the voter”.
"We will clean up the electoral lists and ensure that every single person who has cast a vote is a citizen of our country, a resident of the state in which they vote, and their vote is cast lawfully and honestly."
"We will restore the vital civic tradition of in-person voting on election day, so that voters can be fully informed when they make their choice."
Finally, a seemingly non-electoral question: "technological monopolies abuse their power and interfere in our elections", so they must answer for their actions, like any publisher.

This is the program of the movement. A radical program? Well, maybe yes, bearing in mind the rotten present of the American electoral system; far less radical for an Italian or another European, since it is a question of replicating in the United States the minimum conditions, under which none of us would consider elections in our own country as legitimately held. Of course, Trump puts it in his own words: “I think one of our biggest achievements will be election security , because no one, until I came, had any idea how corrupt our elections were. Almost anyone else, would have stayed there, at 9pm [election day, ed ], would have said 'I want to thank you very much' and would have gone off to lead some other life. But I said that something isn't working here, something is really wrong, it can't have happened and we fight, we fight like lions ( we fight like hell ). And, if you don't fight like lions, you won't have a country anymore ”,“ we won't let your voices silence. We will not let that happen ”.

* * *

So far Trump. Then the demonstration moved towards the Capitol, as he had asked, where it then overflowed into the Capitol, as we all know. From the speech it is clear that it was not Trump who indicated this last step to the crowd, much less incited it; although this is fiercely debated, as we will see in the next article. And it is equally clear that the core of his political proposal for the future, of his platform, is electoral reform, including intervention on Social Networks: whoever ignores this platform ignores the substance of the forthcoming American political debate.

The post But what did Trump really say in Washington? Electoral and Social Reform at the center of US political debate appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/ma-cosa-ha-davvero-detto-trump-a-washington-riforma-elettorale-e-dei-social-al-centro-del-dibattito-politico-usa/ on Tue, 12 Jan 2021 05:04:00 +0000.