My Turn: ‘You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians’

Republican presidential candidate former president Donald Trump reacts after speaking at a campaign rally on July 20 in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Republican presidential candidate former president Donald Trump reacts after speaking at a campaign rally on July 20 in Grand Rapids, Mich. AP PHOTO/EVAN VUCCI

By MIK MULLER

Published: 07-30-2024 8:59 PM

 

I’ve been drafting a letter for these pages for months now, but the news keeps moving so fast. Something I have been wanting to comment on is how we got to where we are now, a sort of follow-up to Carl Doerner’s July 18 column “How we’ve reached this place of danger,” and was going to throw most of the blame on the Democratic National Committee for their twice-now (2016 and 2020) removal of viable, popular candidates from the primaries.

So, while I agree on the surface with letter writer Victor Moschella [“DNC: Real threat to democracy,” July 29] that the DNC did twice now deny me my right to choose who represents me by forcing out the primary candidates I was rooting for, I disagree with the notion that the DNC rises to the level of being a threat to democracy.

I certainly wasn’t happy when they forced out Bernie Sanders in favor of Hillary Clinton in 2016. Arguably, Hillary was the most credentialed presidential candidate ever, yet arguably also the most hated by conservatives. In the three decades since she was first lady alongside her husband Bill Clinton back in the late 1990s, she was almost universally reviled by Republicans. Bad choice. Forcing out Bernie for Hillary was bad decision, and it cost us.

Then, in 2020 they forced out Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar in favor of Joe Biden. What? Again? Really?

Fortunately Biden did win, staving off a second term for Donald Trump, who many people have accused of wanting to be a dictator, and who adds more evidence of that by continually praising leaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdoğan, all while promising his supporters that he will be a dictator, but only for one day. Right.

How do Republicans support such rhetoric? I thought they were the party of “better dead than red?” When America was great, they were the standard bearers against communists and dictators. They were the only political party that could save us from such a fate. These colors don’t run.

But, on Friday, Donald Trump said something new that I hope will raise the hairs on every American voter’s neck:

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

As I See It: Melania Trump’s nude photos — Art of pornography?
Trump wins vote in four Franklin County, North Quabbin towns
New electric vehicle stations installed in Athol
Missing hiker in Royalston Falls located uninjured after search
GoFundMe started to cover celebration of life expenses for Keene, NH woman found in Warwick
Athol receives grant to begin downtown restaurant study

At the end of his speech on Friday, July 27, to a gathering of religious conservatives called the Believers Summit, Donald Trump said the following: “Christians, get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

My God.

Mik Muller lives in Greenfield.