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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJust how stupid and hypcritical are Trump supporters?
This stupid.
After Years Of Conspiracy Theories About Obama Staying In Office, Half Of Republicans Say Theyd Postpone The 2020 Election For Trump
A chilling new poll conducted by scholars Ariel Malka and Yphtach Lelkes, which they write about in the Washington Posts Monkey Cage blog today, finds that not only do nearly half of Republicans falsely believe that President Trump won the popular vote in 2016 and that nearly 70 percent believe that millions of illegal immigrants voted in the election, but that more than half would support postponing the 2020 presidential election until the country can make sure that only eligible American citizens can vote if Trump were to propose it.
Malka and Lelkes caution that this whole situation is hypothetical and that peoples views might be different if faced with the situation in reality. But they write that their findings, at a minimum show that a substantial number of Republicans are amenable to violations of democratic norms that are more flagrant than what is typically proposed (or studied).
Its worth remembering that one of the many conspiracy theories that the right-wing media propagated about President Obama was that he would invent some kind of crisis in order to justify staying in office for a second term, or even indefinitely.
WorldNetDaily, the website that was the chief driver of the racist birther myth, also had a sideline in stories about ways that Obama might manage to stay in office beyond his second term. One WND story speculated that Obama planned riots in Baltimore as a step toward instituting martial law, forming a national police force and postponing the 2016 elections. Another warned that Obama might use the Ebola virus to create chaos in the country, declare martial law, and cancel the election. WNDs editor, Joseph Farah, repeatedly warned that Obama might find a way to stay in office whether Trump or Hillary Clinton won the election.
When WND asked Ben Carson, then considering his own run for president,Who would stop Obama from remaining in office past his second term?, Carson played along.
Alan Keyes, who was Obamas Republican opponent in the 2004 Illinois Senate race, warned that Obama might use a nuclear war as a pretext to stay in office. Televangelist Jim Bakker and radio hosts Michael Savage, Alex Jones and Rush Limbaugh also expressed their concerns about a third Obama term. Paid email blasts went out to the subscribers of several conservative websites warning of some unspecified event that could propel Obama to a near-unprecedented third term. In early 2015, a spokesman for the Family Research Council assured worried callers to the groups radio program that there was a whole host of people lined up ready to help make sure that Obama would leave office in 2017, adding that a third Obama term was a concern of his as well.
The militia group Oath Keepers repeatedly warned of efforts to cancel the 2016 election if attempts to elect Clinton by nefarious means started to fail.
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/after-years-of-conspiracy-theories-about-obama-staying-in-office-half-of-republicans-say-theyd-postpone-the-2020-election-for-trump/
Wounded Bear
(58,647 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Because it offends their delicate sensibilities and makes us nothing but big-city intellectual elitists
Caliman73
(11,730 posts)We all tend to do it because it is a somewhat subconscious response, but it appears to be a fundamental defense mechanism for conservatives. They very often signal their own desires and assign them to "others".
JHB
(37,158 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)democratisphere
(17,235 posts)rock
(13,218 posts)Or is that Hillaryous?
ThoughtCriminal
(14,047 posts)The shrinking percentage of adults who identify themselves as Republican. As the base shrinks, the proportion of stupid and support for insane ideas will grow.