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Writer's pictureGregory N. Austin

Can Trump Prove Lincoln Wrong?

The future of political outcomes remain cloudy, over whether the voter will become wary of ex-President Donald Trump.  Many of his followers, for reasons unknown to many of us, will not only accept the autocratic type of government used in Russia by Vladimir Putin and in Hungary by Viktor Orban, but they overtly seek it.  Many of us are hoping that the famous quote from Abraham Lincoln will inevitability be proven correct, and a calmer more well informed voter may carry the day for America.

Lincoln and fool Trump
I'm laughing because my disinformation is working so well!

Abraham Lincoln, while commenting on political outcomes, once famously said; “You can fool all of the people part of the time, and part of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

 

So far, ex-President Donald Trump has a toe hold on keeping his followers with him despite his constant stream of lies, disinformation drama, mayhem and chaos.  If you asked ex-President Trump about his accomplishments as President, he would suggest the people never had it so good under his watch.  The fact that he set a record for spending deficits, of course, are always absent from the softball questions asked by his minions of right wing media.  However, Fox News, Sean Hannity and others in the tower of babble, would no doubt back the ex-President as a successful Executive.  His loyal listeners consistently react positively as if honest historians and other scholastics are just fake news. 

 

Recently there is a tiny chance of slippage in the strong adoration towards ex-President Donald Trump.  Just before the start of his trial on the hush money case, he called for a mass turnout.  But there were fewer than 30 people standing outside the courthouse.  Earlier, he had made a speech when the audience was less than 5,000 people and he reported it was 42,000.  This ex-President is not known for his accuracy or his honesty.  But his followers allow dishonesty and major exaggerations to be simply ignored. 

 

There have been 45 Presidents in the United States.  Donald Trump is the first to be tried as a criminal.  The obvious question, "is this going to impact his popularity in the polls?"  Twenty nine percent of his followers voted in a recent poll that they would not vote for him if he is found guilty.  Remember, out of the 12 members in the jury box, it takes only one to can save the day for the ex-President by voting "not guilty". 

 

So now we have an ex-President ranked dead last out of the ranking of those 45 past Presidents.  This ranking was developed by academic historians and scholars.  Is it possible that they would impact the popularity of the ex-President?  Well, as far as I can tell, this ranking of dead last in the current poll, has not even been reported on any right-wing radio or television stations.  Some believe that no matter what this man does, he will never lose ground politically, simply because 95% of negative news on ex-President Donald Trump goes unreported on these right-wing radio and television stations.

 

Would ex-President Ronald Reagan, were he alive today, stick with a fellow Republican who admires Vladimir Putin more than any of our Founding Fathers?  Ronald Reagan admired and respected our military, and our intelligence agencies while defending the American concept of immigration.  Donald Trump rejects all 3 of these positions.  Ronald Reagan had a sense of humor and never attempted to divide and conquer public opinion from the Oval Office.  He was friendly with Tip O’Neil, Speaker of the House, a Democrat.  Ronald Reagan called the country of Russia an "evil empire".  At one point in a speech, Ronald Reagan demanded in a message to Russia, “Tear down this wall---the one separating Germany and Russia.”  That deed was accomplished.

 

The future of political outcomes remain cloudy, over whether the voter will become wary of so many negative statistics that are fact checked and indeed, applicable to the politics of ex-President Donald Trump.  Many of his followers, for reasons unknown to many of us, will not only accept the autocratic type of government used in Russia by Vladimir Putin and in Hungary by Viktor Orban, but they overtly seek it.  Do they really want to trash the 240-year-old U.S. Constitution?  Many of us are hoping that the quote from Abraham Lincoln will inevitability be proven correct, and a calmer well informed voter just may carry the day for America.


Opening Image: Alexander Gardener/FineArtAmerica, Getty Images, koya79/Getty/Istockphoto, Flagline.com

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