# Surprises coming for voters for the Leopards-Eating-Faces Party **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [November 12, 2024, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166 "2024-11-12T19:54:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 146
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2901 "2025-04-16T06:03:18Z")
> [@scudsucker](#): > > Please, please vote in the mid-terms, and vote in 2028. For all of us, across the world. I’ve been voting for a half century. I have doubts as to whether or not that can work at this point but rest assured I WILL be voting if I am physically able to get to a polling place to do it (and attempt absentee if I’m not, but that’s getting more and more iffy these days…) > [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Are you really so blinded to the situation we are in to believe these fuckers are going to willingly give up power? The fact that changing things will be difficult is not an excuse for not trying. I support the right of anyone to express how difficult change for the better will be at this point, but I also encourage them to keep fighting. > [@Smapti](#): > > Remind me whaf happened the last time they tried to avoid giving up power. Did they overturn the election and get to stay in control? > > No. They tried and failed. If we beat them once we can beat them again. We CAN but that does not mean we WILL… or that we might not have to make multiple attempts. The people in charge - not the people charging in but the people IN CHARGE and instigating things like January 6 - have studied that event and have no doubt learned something from it, which will make them more likely to succeed next time. > [@Smapti](#): > > > [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > > > And they are eager to deport anyone to foreign prisons who raises too much of a ruckus. > > Then let them try. They can’t deport all of us. Do you want to die on your feet or live on your knees? Personally, I’d prefer to NOT die in a “shower” like too many of my relatives did in WWII, thank you very much. There’s fighting for a cause and making your death, if that happens, count and dying like slaughtered cattle. Maybe they can’t deport all of us but they can deport thousands, even tens of thousands, or more. Modern technology enables governments to kill by the millions. Most people don’t want to be first. Even if they’re willing to give their own freedom (because a lot of people are going to prison in the near future) and potentially life facing the prospect of their _families_ being treated likewise can give them pause. This administration has already deported young children in leg irons and waist chains like they were hardened adult criminals. They have done this to children for the “crime” of being brought here by their parents. The regime is becoming more and more ruthless. > [@Smapti](#): > > Except for when it doesn’t happen BECAUSE PEOPLE FOUGHT BACK AND HE BACKED DOWN, because that’s what bullies do when you challenge them. Except when they don’t. At one point in my early teens I tried to fight back against a bully and was left unconscious in a school hallway with broken ribs. The fucking school counselors tried to bury it under the rug. No, bullies do NOT automatically back down when you challenge them. Just paying attention this last decade should have shown you that. Trump is a bully _with power_. He runs the fucking US government. He has a LOT more resources than the average citizen and he’s becoming more and more bold in using it. It’s not that you can’t win against bully, but it can be fucking hard and fucking costly. People need to opposed this regime with intelligence and strategy, not feel-good slogans. > [@Smapti](#): > > So you’re saying that the Republicans will never give up power again and it doesn’t matter who we vote for because they’ll declare themselves the winner… but we should still vote and resist anyway, even though it won’t change anything? Even if you don’t think your vote will count you should still vote… because it _might_ matter. Or you do it because it’s a way of resisting losing your rights even if they’re being whittled away by death by a thousand counts. Gestures and symbols can be very important. We still need to acknowledge we won’t win every battle and what the cost of those losses will be. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2902 "2025-04-16T08:08:02Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > So you do the only thing you can do - engage in personal attacks like a child would do. I just wish he’d confine his single-minded smuggery to that one thread where it’s sort of appropriate and quit disrupting all these other discussions with his shallow threadshitty strawman objections until it’s time for him to lock himself in his basement and fantasize about ghostly demonic handjobs or whatever the fuck it is he’s doing. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2903 "2025-04-16T13:40:51Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > > > They have control of all 3 branches of the government. > > They did in 2020 as well. No, actually. They did in 2018, but the Democrats captured the House and Senate. In 2019-20, a shadowy group worked hard behind the scenes to insure a free and fair election. Since then, the Rs have been diligently working to make sure that does not happen again. We may be able to defeat their efforts, but it will take a little more than merely casting votes. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2904 "2025-04-16T15:20:24Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Remind me whaf happened the last time they tried to avoid giving up power. Did they overturn the election and get to stay in control? Yep, the beer hall putsch was put down, so that should be the final word on that. I’m going to sleep soundly, near to my long knives. * * * In terms of the point that some here are making “I should be safe; my anti trump views are unremarkable”, I don’t think you get it. There’s nothing remarkable about being in a Gaza protest either (even if it’s a smaller segment of the population). If they don’t like the look of you, finding anti trump views will be sufficient justification to label you a terrorist or whatever. They don’t need to round up everyone with anti trump views; people will pretty soon stop expressing such views out of fear. After all, law firms, TV stations and universities have already been intimidated into silence or even sycophancy. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2905 "2025-04-16T15:39:06Z")
(me seeing 20 new posts in this thread and eagerly opening it to see the latest face-eating, and instead finding a snail-trail of bbq) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2906 "2025-04-16T15:43:47Z")
I know. I do get sick of “we’re all gonna DIE! Can’t you SEE!!!” I thought we had a special thread for that, that I could ignore. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2907 "2025-04-16T15:49:48Z")
Forget it, JAQ…it’s the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2908 "2025-04-16T17:46:36Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The fact that changing things will be difficult is not an excuse for not trying. I support the right of anyone to express how difficult change for the better will be at this point, but I also encourage them to keep fighting. And where did I suggest people shouldn’t try to change things? If you think that is what I’m suggesting then you are misrepresenting my concerns just as much as the poster I was responding to. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2909 "2025-04-16T17:59:26Z")
Absolutely – it seems we just can’t put down this zombie straw man. No one, on either side, has said “let’s do nothing”. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2910 "2025-04-16T18:08:25Z")
Cross-posted from the “really fucking boring” Pit thread: > [@The argument that Trump will do whatever he wants and no one can stop him is really fucking boring](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-argument-that-trump-will-do-whatever-he-wants-and-no-one-can-stop-him-is-really-fucking-boring/1011527/791): > > FWIW, today on his _Hopium Chronicles_ Substack, **[Simon Rosenberg responded to a “_Game over, man!_” commentor](https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/dems-now-up-on-the-economy-fighting/comment/109334102)** (my emphasis below): > > > **Simon Rosenberg:** > > Your cynicism is both unwelcome here and misplaced. Prominent Republicans are now making OUR arguments about the central legislative initiative of the early Trump era. This is a huge win for us, and evidence that work does matter, that we can change minds, that their control over the daily discourse can be overcome, and that MAGA can be defeated. _ **We don’t know when there will be a true meaningful break from Trump but the only way it happens is with early, initial steps like this** _. > > > > **Simon Rosenberg:** > > Chris, my point here is that you already wrong and misunderstanding the transaction and what is happening here. It is not about being right - this is not about you. _ **12 House Republicans just adopted our argument about Trump’s highest legislative priority. THIS IS A HUGE FUCKING WIN.** _ It shows we can change minds, win debates, and as I said _ **when their thing collapses, which it will someday, the break will start like this.** _ So we just keep working it, building support, taking the wins when they come and keep getting stronger, and making them weaker. _ **We never know when the break will come but if we cynically don’t work these moments when they arise the break will never come.** _ > > > > **Michael G Baer:** > > Take the wins when they come folks. > > > > Its easy to see past as prologue, but that idea is a trap in these unprecedented days. _ **This group is working under the assumption that the GOPs will cave when they fear their own electoral chances by staying with Trump more than they fear going against Trump.** _ ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2911 "2025-04-16T18:10:53Z")
I’ll add this here – **[more from today’s _Hopium Chronicles_ comments section](https://www.hopiumchronicles.com/p/dems-now-up-on-the-economy-fighting/comment/109356621)**: > **Susanna J. Sturgis:** > What’s the evidence that these Republicans are “making OUR arguments,” as opposed to, say, taking the pulse of their districts and worrying about their re-election chances? Of course these positions can co-exist, but based on recent and not-so-recent history, Chris’s comment was firmly based in reality. I’m disappointed by your defensiveness about it. > > **Simon Rosenberg:** > Did you read the quotes of the Republican Members? They are literally our arguments about the importance of Medicaid. And I not being defensive. I am incredibly disappointed at this whole exchange for it reflects a profound misunderstanding of everything we are doing here and what is required for us to win. _ **Cynicism is as much an enemy of our progress as the right wing noise machine itself for it tells us that our work doesn’t matter - which is what they want us to believe** _. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2912 "2025-04-16T18:29:04Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > Voting in the midterms will be just like in the past - everyone registered will be allowed to vote. > > The problem will come in congressional districts where counting all the votes will result in House/Senate seats flipping from red to blue. There will be accusations of irregularities. Major irregularities. And voter fraud. > > The courts, SCOTUS and DOJ will treat accusations as fact. The GOP will maintain control of both Houses of Congress. It doesn’t seem like a huge leap to say that someone who is sure this will happen probably doesn’t see a point in voting. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2913 "2025-04-16T18:39:18Z")
That’s one way of looking at it. I would take the position that it underscores just how important it is for everyone to turn out. The more votes cast then the more difficult it becomes to toss the results without violence breaking out. Also, I differ from certain other posters in this thread and the “boring” thread in that I will always admit I could very well be incorrect in my predictions. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2914 "2025-04-16T18:44:53Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > It doesn’t seem like a huge leap to say that someone who is sure this will happen probably doesn’t see a point in voting. My perspective is that absolutely everyone should vote even if the fascists plan to subvert and ignore the results, not _despite_ that fact, but _specifically because of it._ The more obviously the fascists are ratfucking the election, the faster we can rally people to get the fascists’ heads into guillotines. Now can we re-confine this bullshit “fatalist surrender” straw man back into the “boring” thread where it fucking belongs? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2915 "2025-04-16T18:48:08Z")
Well, that’s a perfectly reasonable position, but it’s not one that he spelled out in the quoted bits, nor did he qualify his use of the future tense with an acknowledgment that he could be wrong. I think Smapti’s interpretation was certainly reasonable enough that Kolak’s objection to it was excessively hostile. Unless he just has a general policy of hostility toward Smapti, which would certainly be justifiable. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2916 "2025-04-16T18:52:08Z")
No, it’s just that everyone’s sick of Smapti repeatedly bulling into all these threads with the same tired horseshit. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2917 "2025-04-16T18:53:03Z")
Fair play. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2918 "2025-04-16T18:56:13Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > My perspective is that absolutely everyone should vote even if the fascists plan to subvert and ignore the results, not _despite_ that fact, but _specifically because of it._ The more obviously the fascists are ratfucking the election, the faster we can rally people to get the fascists’ heads into guillotines. I agree with this, but it also has to be a two-prong effort. While they may try to flip the results with some kind of vote counting fraud, we know they’re already doing two things for sure: 1. restricting access to voter registration 2. limiting polling places in Democrat-leaning areas So we need as many people as possible to vote, and then raise hell at each stage. 1. Make them explicitly tell hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of citizens, “You’re just not allowed to vote”. 2. Make them go out to the people standing in line, and tell them, “No one else is allowed to vote since this poll is closed.” Make them own it in as many public ways as possible, so as to inflame the maximum amount of public outrage. As it stands now, most of these issues are still purely hypothetical. The GOP has passed laws allowing shit like this, but they haven’t quite used it outright yet. Make them use their big guns. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2919 "2025-04-16T18:59:04Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Make them use their big guns. Exactly. Force them to beat you, _even if you know they’ll beat you,_ because that’s how you get people mad enough to _really_ fight back. The whole “but if you know you’ll lose you’ve already surrendered” is just fucking _insulting._ ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166/2920 "2025-04-16T19:46:42Z")
Cervaise got it correct. I have no particular hostility toward Smapti other than on this topic. Their behavior is beyond tiresome. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166.md?page=145) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprises-coming-for-voters-for-the-leopards-eating-faces-party/1010166.md?page=147)