As the youtube video to the right demonstrates, I am certainly not the first person to see similarities between Trump and Voldemort. In my case, the focus is on how and why they attract followers, or “coup eaters”, the Trump equivalent to “death eaters”, and the consequences of a possible return.
- The Plot Of Trump And The Coup Eaters
- Why Compare With A Fictional Story?
- Coup Eaters vs Death Eaters: The Coup Eaters Must Swear To Support Election Rejection.
- The Trump 2024 Strategy: It is not votes, is all about the “coup eaters”.
The Plot Of Trump And The Coup Eaters.
The nightmare is that just as Voldemort returned in the novels through the aide of key followers, that Trump could return to power following the 2024 election with the aide of key followers who have the position and power to overrule the voters in key states.
This is an exploration of just how much of that plot is possible. Much hinges on how successful Trump can be at gaining loyal followers.
Why draw inspiration from a fictional story? There is a famous theme from the the Harry Potter books about “you only see what you want to see”. The same goes with interpreting the novels, and at a certain level, we only see what we want to see. The novels do not need to provide some great insight into Trump and his followers, but they can provide a starting point for thinking about people following a leader like Trump.
Deciding if the behaviour and loyalty of “death eaters” in Harry Potter is credible, is very similar to deciding if the loyalty needed to overturn the results of voters is credible.
Coup Eaters vs Death Eaters.
Why Follow?
I recently was re-watching the Harry Potter films, having previously read the books, and then watched the movies with a child. Ok, it is fantasy fiction, so it should not be surprising if not all is logical, but I began thinking about the “death eaters”, and wondering their motive for following the “dark lord”.
There seems to be a part of human nature to idolise and follow. Why do so many in Britain, and even beyond Britain, “follow” and/or idolise the British Royal family? The entirety of “fandom” is a trove of evidence for how people will “follow” others with very little, and sometimes perhaps no logical reason.
Why “Death Eaters”?
It seems there is no definitive answer for the name “death eater“. On first reading the books, I assumed that followers in some way avoided their own deaths in some deal with evil, or by perhaps even some ritual that was deadly to others, but it seems that only Voldemort himself is entitled to cheat death.
There is much discussion on the “death eaters”, what united them, and why they had the name “death eaters”, but it is enough for this exploration to consider they supported and aided their leader in his return and immortality, and they embraced applying death to their enemies.
Why “Coup Eaters”.
Just as Voldemort avoided death being the end of him, Trump has so far denied his political death and loss in 2020 ending his political future. But the key reason I use the “coup eaters”, is that Trump requires his followers declare their true allegiance to him, by publicly supporting the claim of election fraud, and willingness to support measure to prevent a repeat. If their enemies look like winning, they will resort to what could be considered a coup.
Loyalty: The Coup Eaters Must Swear To Support Election Rejection.
It’s that Trump has turned election denialism into a litmus test for aspiring Republican candidates. If you aren’t willing to say you believe — contra all available evidence — that the 2020 election was stolen, then you not only won’t have Trump’s support but may well find him actively working to defeat you when you run for reelection. (See Brian Kemp and David Perdue in Georgia. Also Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel.)Trump is working to make a belief that the 2020 election was stolen a central piece of the Republican Party platform. And, again, this isn’t like making abortion or trade a party platform. This is making a rejection of American democracy a major part of what it means to be a Republican.
CNN: A single sentence that perfectly captures the utter madness of the Trump era
It is clear that Chris Cillizia of CNN believes that Trump is collecting followers who at least say they would take steps that could override the ballot box.
On Monday, former Sen. David Perdue officially announced his Republican primary challenge to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. On Wednesday, he pledged allegiance to Donald Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
CNN: How election rejection has become a must for aspiring Republican candidates
Asked whether, had he been governor, he would have signed the certification of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results, Perdue said he would not have done so.
The Trump 2024 Strategy.
If Trump Believes His Own Stolen Story, It Is Not More Votes He Needs.
And I was told by the real pollsters — we do have real pollsters — they know that we were going to do well and we were going to win. What I was told, if I went from 63 million, which we had four years ago, to 66 million, there was no chance of losing. Well, we didn’t go to 66, we went to 75 million, and they say we lost. We didn’t lose.
And by the way, does anybody believe that Joe had 80 million votes? Does anybody believe that? He had 80 million computer votes. It’s a disgrace. There’s never been anything like that. You could take third-world countries. Just take a look. Take third-world countries. Their elections are more honest than what we’ve been going through in this country. It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace.
Donald Trump: Trump’s Jan. 6 Speech
It is my belief that Donald Trump comes believe the things he says. While in some cases that may only be for the moment, with something like this story how how the election was stolen, I believe he has become genuinely fully convinced by his story. Perhaps you agree with Trump that the election was stolen, or disagree with me that Trump himself believes this story. But at least imagine for a moment, what if Trump does believe that he won sufficient votes to have been declared president, but ‘fake’ votes for Joe Biden robbed him of victory. If you believe that narrative, what do you need to change before the next election? Not votes, because in that narrative, he already has enough votes, but no matter how many votes he get, ‘fake’ votes can exceed the votes he receives.
Trumps Goal: “Coup Eater” Officials Who Will Ignore Votes Trump Believes ‘Fake’.
In the 2020 election, just 4 key states with Republican Governors cost Trump victory. If those Governors were “coup eaters”, rather that what Trump would describe as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), could they have changed the outcome? Obviously, Trump believes they could.
Could A State Withhold or Overrule Electoral Votes?
There are many articles that clearly state the answer is “no”, but this is a somewhat simplistic view. No, the state cannot simply lodge nominate electors other than those chose by the electorate, but there is still a lot a state can do.
A state does play a role in determining which votes were legally cast. This does leave room for manipulating the result that is accepted, or even having the state not submit their college votes before the dealine.
There are pages discussing the option already:
- ‘Not-so-secret weapon’: Critics warn Trump, GOP planning 2024 Electoral College heist
- Terrifying for American Democracy: Is Trump planning for a 2024-election coup?
- REPORT: Trump is Systematically Laying The Groundwork to Steal the 2024 Election
- Journalist says Republicans now have more reliable ways to overturn election results
- Why 2024 is going to be *way* worse than 2020
- Trump’s back. Here’s what his re-entry means for 2024
- Column: Trump couldn’t steal the election in 2020. His allies are laying the groundwork to try again
- We Underestimated Trump Before. It Didn’t Go Well
- Trump Is Laying the Groundwork to Steal Michigan in 2024
- Donald Trump’s election fraud claims are turning into a policy push that could be devastating for Democrats
- The Outdated Law that Republicans Could Use to Upend the Electoral College Vote Next Time
- The Republican plot to steal the 2024 election
- Trump Is Planning a Much More Respectable Coup Next Time
There is a lot to digest, but the quick summary is there are a variety of very real threats. I will review these links and add a 1 or 2 line summary for each.
Can Trump Get Enough ‘Coup Eaters’?
The first hurdle is getting the republican party to embrace that what happened in 2020 would be rejected in 2024 by the party. Right now, there is far from universal support for this position within the republican party, even though Trumps efforts to promote those who support the position continue.
Trump will possibly on run in 2024 if he feels he has party support for his stance than the 2020 election result should not be accepted.
It is one thing to get sufficient supporters to make it happen, but what would become of the many republicans who would still be in place in 2024 who would not stand by and let this happen?
Unless the party becomes so infiltrated by the ‘coup eaters’ that others longer have a say, president who gains power this would would have support of neither senate nor house as it seems likely many members would cross the floor if necessary.
Log Successfully Installed ‘Coup Eaters’ who can impact 2024.
This section to be added. I will post an update when it is added.
Conclusion.
To be updated after the log is complete, and a further review of the links identified.
At this stage, I think Trump gaining power in 2024 by as a result of clear election inference is unlikely, but the consequences are so severe that even the unlikely requires serious reflection and monitoring.
Then there is the more confusing result, where there is efforts to interfere which disturb the counting of votes, but as a result it becomes unclear who would have won without the interference.
Updates:
- 2021 December 21: Initial version.
