Supporters absorb former US president’s strategy of inverting accusations against him and turning them on his accuser. To his fans, Trump is the saviour of democracy

Snow was falling, lightly dusting the tables full of “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” and “Fight for Trump” and other “Make America great again” regalia. Still, in subzero temperatures, people waited in a long and winding line on Saturday for a chance to see their greatest showman.

Donald Trump, the former US president, was about to hold the biggest campaign rally yet in New Hampshire’s primary elections, where victory would put him within touching distance of the 2024 Republican nomination – and trigger renewed warnings that democracy itself will be on the ballot in November.

But his ardent supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire, saw things differently – 180 degrees differently. In their view it is Joe Biden who acts like an autocrat and Trump who is the saviour of the constitutional republic.

  • @[email protected]
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    5610 months ago

    Yes, everything Trump accuses his opponents of, he usually does himself. But, I guess it’s not even a revelation that he plans to be a dictator, since he kind of already said that fully out loud.

  • @[email protected]
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    3510 months ago

    I guess when they’re willing it isn’t brainwash, but they definitely live in an alternate reality from everyone else.

    • originalucifer
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      2710 months ago

      its projection.

      people have been pointing out how he wants to be a dictator, so he is claiming thats what biden arleady is. in this way, his idea doesnt sound as crazy as it.

      conservatives are master at projection, if they are claiming someone did something theres a reasonable chance they are doing it themselves.

      • Uranium3006
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        910 months ago

        it’s not a sophisticated trick, and it works because liberals are too cowardly to call it out

        • Introversion
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          1310 months ago

          And too many conservatives are too goddamn gullible to realize they’re being conned.

          • squiblet
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            610 months ago

            Why not… their religion tells them that it’s a virtue to believe as hard as possible in fantastical stories that have no evidence supporting them.

        • @Pretzilla
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          310 months ago

          More like too honest to stoop to that level of deplorable

        • @[email protected]
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          210 months ago

          That’s not really the problem. The problem is liberals failure to deliver meaningful change to worker’s lives when they have majorities. The best they can do when they win at the ballot is deliver conservative bills in sheep’s clothing like Obamacare or Wall Street deregulation.

          The biggest difference is Dems ability to not run a deficit, but apparently that’s to abstract for voters to care about as it doesn’t materially impact them. Even then what is the point to a balanced budget when it includes military spending like this, a response like this when the free option is stopping an allies from continuing a genocide?

          So many bigger issues that “calling out” hypocrisy. Truly the only thing that can stop Trump is a good headline of how Biden “slammed” him.

    • @[email protected]
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      1110 months ago

      The brainwashing part is just to prepare their minds to accept whatever a trusted authority feeds it. Fox News did that part between 1990 and today. So yep, they are brainwashed, though it doesn’t remove personal responsibility of course.

  • @PedroMaldonado
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    2910 months ago

    From the Fascist playbook…call em what you are. This guy is a nightmare.

  • Flying Squid
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    2310 months ago

    “Don’t vote for Biden, he’s a dictator. Also, I’m going to be a dictator.”

    And his fans don’t even listen or care.

  • squiblet
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    10 months ago

    Conservatives in 2014 insisted “Obama is a DICTATOR!” but like many things they say, none could explain what he did to make them say that.

  • @half_built_pyramids
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    1010 months ago

    That title needed punctuation somewhere. I’m not sure where. Maybe just completely throw it out

  • @jaybone
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    910 months ago

    Why would you accuse someone of being something you proudly claim to be yourself?

    • @frunch
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      510 months ago

      Logical consistency isn’t something you’re gonna find at a trump rally.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        “Jenna Driquier, 31, a hairdresser, added: ‘We’re living in dictatorship right now. The high prices, trying to get to communism, it’s not what this country was founded on.’”

        This woman gets told by her friends that she’s the smart one.

  • @Riccosuave
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    810 months ago

    Ah, yes, the “I know you are, but what am I” defense. Ever popular with first graders and political despots alike, I guess…

  • @xc2215x
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    610 months ago

    Trump is closer to being a dictator than Biden.

  • @the_q
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    10 months ago

    deleted by creator

  • Introversion
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    510 months ago

    Everyone still supporting this man is too dumb to be allowed to participate in democracy. What idiots. Jesus wept.

  • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin
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    310 months ago

    Honestly I just see this all as a case for the abolition of the office of president.

    There should be government ministers who each attend to the leadership of various necessary departments, and the necessity of a leader in crisis should be a position created during that state of crisis and then nixxed on its resolution. Also, there should be redundancy, both for the sake of making sure someone’s always able to step into a vital role, but also for accountability’s sake making sure no one person can sign orders to conceal information which would serve the public interest better in the open.

    • FuglyDuck
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      310 months ago

      Such governments are usually not agile enough during a crisis, where there needs to be immediate action.

      Unless you’re saying you want an unelected person making the decision to activate the military and “respond” to a bunch of hicks with 3rd hand rockets and drones?

      • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin
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        010 months ago

        I’m saying that unless for some reason it’s absolutely impossible to make happen, the intervention in that crisis should be lead by the minister Congress chooses to be the eye on the military or on homeland security.

        If we’re so incomprehensibly fucked that we need someone large and in charge then Congress should recognize the need and appoint a crisis minister to address the issue with their authority but also with regular reports on the status of the crisis and their work to address it.

        Not to mention how the very idea of the state of emergency has its roots with one of the leading lawyers of the third reich, and was specifically invented as the legal grounds for which a dictator should be allowed to just ignore any accountability to other authorities.

        The actual circumstances that warrant having one guy able to give all the orders are a VANISHINGLY rare occurrence compared to the instances where someone insists there’s such a crisis because there being one means they get to waltz in and take over and make everyone just shut up and deal with it.

  • Dave V
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    110 months ago

    Would that these Christians would read 2nd Timothy 3