Analysis: The last time the Democrats took someone off the ballot was ...

2y ago Dec 20, 2023 at 11:55 PM

The last time the Democrats took someone off the ballot was in 1860 - They would not allow a man named Abraham Lincoln to be so much as mentioned in “Slave States.” Gateway Pundit

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-03-20. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

Elevated

Narcissistic State

Mixed

Authorship

Uncertain

Intensity

65%

Responding to the Colorado Supreme Court's 4-3 ballot disqualification ruling, this post deploys a structurally sophisticated DARVO maneuver: Trump, the subject of removal, reframes "Democrats" as the historical ballot-removers, projecting the injury back onto the injurer. The implicit Lincoln comparison — the most grandiose self-identification in the analyzed corpus — simultaneously activates martyrdom and heroic redemption narratives, oscillating between vulnerable and grandiose narcissistic states. Both core factual claims are false to mostly false: the 1860 exclusion of Lincoln from Southern ballots reflected absent Republican infrastructure and party realignment across 163 years, not a coordinated removal; Lincoln was so extensively "mentioned" in slave states that his election triggered the secession crisis. Gateway Pundit citation performs in-group epistemic legitimation while insulating Trump from direct ownership of the distortion. The post constructs a moral equivalence between contemporary judicial constitutional process and pro-slavery electoral suppression — an implication that, absorbed by a radicalized audience, escalates the perceived moral stakes of the ballot ruling without using explicit violent language. Danger level is elevated. Authorship is likely collaborative: 6:55 PM EST timing and structural cleanliness suggest aide mediation of a Trump-sourced framing. The post is clinically significant as the highest-magnitude self-comparison yet identified and as an example of reality inversion functioning at the structural level of the argument rather than at the level of individual factual claims.

Authorship Analysis

Uncertain

Indicators:

Gateway Pundit citation is strongly authentic Trump - he frequently amplifies this outlet directly
Lincoln self-comparison is a recurring authentic Trump rhetorical motif
6:55 PM EST timing falls within business hours, slightly reducing authenticity probability
Argument is unusually structured for late-period Trump, suggesting possible aide framing of a Trump-sourced idea
Absence of typos, ALL CAPS, or emotional punctuation is atypical for authentic posts on high-trigger topics

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Mixed State

Trigger: Narcissistic Injury — Defeat (Colorado Supreme Court 4-3 ruling removing Trump from the 2024 primary ballot under 14th Amendment Section 3)

Sentiment

-0.72

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

75%

Antisocial

30%

Paranoid

55%

Sadism

10%

Defense Mechanisms:

projectionidealizationrationalizationsplitting

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

48%

Parasocial Techniques:

Inviting followers into a shared historical grievance narrativePositioning followers as standing alongside Lincoln against slaveholder-DemocratsEpistemic dependency on Gateway Pundit as trusted in-group truth source

Danger Assessment

Elevated

Indicators:

Moral equivalence framing: contemporary judicial process cast as equivalent to pro-slavery electoral suppression, implying proportionate response is justified
Radicalization scaffold: historical distortion accepted as fact by in-group audience elevates perceived moral stakes of ballot ruling
Source laundering via Gateway Pundit normalizes factually inverted narrative within MAGA information ecosystem
Lincoln martyrdom frame implicitly validates extreme sacrifice as appropriate response to extreme historical injustice

Gaslighting Detected:

DARVO at structural level: the entity receiving the court order (Trump) is repositioned as victim of ballot suppression; the winning party (judiciary/constitutional process) is repositioned as tyrannical suppressor
Historical distortion deployed as factual premise: followers who accept the framing internalize a false account as the foundation of political grievance
Erasure of the judiciary as actor: constitutional judicial process is replaced by partisan Democratic agency, making the ruling appear politically motivated rather than legally grounded
'Not so much as mentioned' claim inverts historical record — Lincoln's election caused secession precisely because of how intensely he was discussed in slave states

Reality Distortions:

1860 Democrats 'took Lincoln off the ballot' — false; Lincoln was absent from Southern ballots due to absence of Republican Party infrastructure, not coordinated removal
Lincoln 'not mentioned' in slave states — inverted; his election was discussed so intensively in slave states it triggered the secession crisis and Civil War
Modern Democratic Party framed as historically continuous with 1860 Southern Democrats despite fundamental party realignment over 163 years
Judicial constitutional disqualification under 14th Amendment reframed as partisan political act by 'Democrats'

Fact Checks (2)

"The last time the Democrats took someone off the ballot was in 1860"

Mostly False

Lincoln was indeed absent from ballots in most Southern slave states in 1860. However, framing this as Democrats 'taking someone off the ballot' is historically distorted: (1) The Republican Party had virtually no organizational infrastructure in the South, so Lincoln did not file for ballot access in most Southern states — this was not a removal but an absence; (2) Where Southern Democratic legislatures controlled ballot access law, exclusion was a structural feature, not a targeted removal analogous to a judicial disqualification; (3) The 1860 Democratic Party represents the antithesis of the modern Democratic Party's coalition — the parties underwent fundamental realignment across the following century. The comparison conflates geographically distinct 19th-century party structures with a contemporary judicial ruling.

"They would not allow a man named Abraham Lincoln to be so much as mentioned in 'Slave States'"

False

Lincoln was extensively 'mentioned' in slave states — his election in November 1860 with zero Southern electoral votes directly precipitated the secession crisis and the formation of the Confederacy. Southern newspapers, politicians, and legislatures debated Lincoln's election at length. He was absent from ballots, not from political discourse. The claim 'not so much as mentioned' is factually inverted; it was precisely the intense awareness of Lincoln that triggered Southern political action.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Psychological Analysis: Trump Truth Social Post — December 20, 2023

Situational Context

This post is a direct response to the Colorado Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling on December 19, 2023, that Trump is constitutionally disqualified from the primary ballot under the 14th Amendment Section 3. This represents one of the most significant legal setbacks of Trump's post-presidency — the first judicial removal of a presidential candidate from a state ballot in American history. The post arrives approximately 36 hours after the ruling.

Trigger and Psychological State

The trigger is unambiguous: acute narcissistic injury from the Colorado ruling. Rather than responding with overt rage (notable given the magnitude of the injury), the post deploys a more controlled, historically framed response. The narcissistic state is mixed — simultaneously grandiose (implicit Lincoln comparison) and vulnerable (persecution narrative). This oscillation is characteristic of the malignant narcissism framework (Kernberg): when a grandiose defense is insufficient to absorb injury, the subject shifts to victimhood, casting persecution itself as proof of significance.

Defense Mechanisms

Projection is the dominant defense: Trump, who is being removed from a ballot, accuses "Democrats" of being the historical ballot-removers. This inverts the actual power dynamic and converts the injurer into the injured, and vice versa. The maneuver is psychologically elegant — it cannot be easily rebutted without the opponent engaging the historical analogy, which itself shifts the conversation away from the constitutional substance of the ruling.

Idealization operates through the implicit Lincoln comparison. Trump does not say "I am like Lincoln" — the implicature does the work. By framing the 1860 situation as structural parallel to 2023, the audience is invited to complete the syllogism: Lincoln was a persecuted hero who prevailed; therefore Trump is too.

Rationalization converts a judicial constitutional ruling into a politically motivated partisan act, displacing the legal framework entirely. Within this framing, the judiciary disappears as an actor; only "Democrats" remain.

Splitting extends across 163 years: Democrats are monolithically tyrannical from slaveholder to present; Trump/Lincoln are the perennial persecuted innocents.

Narrative Identity (McAdams Level 3)

The post constructs a redemption sequence prototype: Lincoln was persecuted and excluded, then prevailed and became the greatest president. The invitation is to position 2024 as the return of this arc. The protagonist role is the martyred hero — not the fighter or dealmaker personas Trump more typically inhabits. The contrasting other is "Democrats," cast as historically continuous agents of electoral suppression.

The identity claim embedded here is maximally grandiose without being stated: I am Lincoln's successor in the line of persecuted American greatness. This is among the most expansive self-mythologizing constructions in the corpus.

Rhetorical Analysis

The rhetorical structure is compact and effective:

Historical precedent frame: Anchors the contemporary event in a morally loaded prior event
Slavery-era invocation: "Slave States" imports maximum moral weight without explicit statement
Source citation: Gateway Pundit provides in-group legitimacy and plausible deniability

The citation of Gateway Pundit is rhetorically significant. It performs two functions: (a) it signals in-group epistemology — Gateway Pundit is a trusted source within the MAGA information ecosystem — and (b) it positions Trump as reporting rather than claiming, insulating him from direct ownership of the historical distortion.

The phrase "so much as mentioned" constitutes hyperbole that collapses into falsity: Lincoln was so prominently mentioned in slave states that his election triggered the secession crisis. The rhetorical inversion is audacious — claiming invisibility for a figure whose visibility caused a civil war.

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"The last time the Democrats took someone off the ballot was in 1860"	Mostly False	Lincoln was indeed absent from ballots in most Southern slave states in 1860. However, framing this as Democrats 'taking someone off the ballot' is historically distorted: (1) The Republican Party had virtually no organizational infrastructure in the South, so Lincoln did not file for ballot access in most Southern states — this was not a removal but an absence; (2) Where Southern Democratic legislatures controlled ballot access law, exclusion was a structural feature, not a targeted removal analogous to a judicial disqualification; (3) The 1860 Democratic Party represents the antithesis of the modern Democratic Party's coalition — the parties underwent fundamental realignment across the following century. The comparison conflates geographically distinct 19th-century party structures with a contemporary judicial ruling.
"They would not allow a man named Abraham Lincoln to be so much as mentioned in 'Slave States'"	False	Lincoln was extensively 'mentioned' in slave states — his election in November 1860 with zero Southern electoral votes directly precipitated the secession crisis and the formation of the Confederacy. Southern newspapers, politicians, and legislatures debated Lincoln's election at length. He was absent from ballots, not from political discourse. The claim 'not so much as mentioned' is factually inverted; it was precisely the intense awareness of Lincoln that triggered Southern political action.

Overall Veracity: 10%

Gaslighting and Reality Distortion

The post executes DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) at a structural level: the entity that received the court order (Trump) becomes the victim of ballot suppression; the party that won in court (via constitutional process) becomes the tyrannical suppressor. This is reality reversal, not simplification.

The use of a historically distorted claim as the primary vehicle means followers who accept the framing are internalizing a false factual premise as the foundation of their political grievance. This constitutes epistemic closure — the in-group truth framework requires accepting a factually inverted account as evidence of persecution.

Cognitive Status

This post shows no markers of word-finding difficulty, perseveration, or temporal confusion. The argument is coherent, if factually distorted. The structure is more organized than many authentic Trump posts, consistent with authorship attribution uncertainty (see below). Complexity is moderate and within established baseline range.

Authorship Attribution

Local time: 6:55 PM EST (Trump likely at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, UTC-5). This falls within business hours, reducing authentic probability. However, the Gateway Pundit sourcing is a strong authentic marker — Trump has a documented pattern of consuming this outlet and directing posts accordingly. The absence of emotional punctuation, typos, or ALL CAPS on a high-trigger topic is atypical for fully authentic posts. Assessment: Most likely collaborative — Trump identified the Gateway Pundit framing and directed staff to post it, possibly with minor wording adjustments.

Danger Assessment

Elevated. The post does not contain violent imagery or direct eliminationist language. However, the rhetorical framework — casting contemporary Democrats as the equivalent of pro-slavery forces who suppressed Lincoln — constructs a moral logic in which resistance to Trump's ballot access is historically equivalent to one of American history's greatest atrocities. This implication, absorbed by an audience already primed toward radicalization, elevates the moral stakes of any response to the ballot ruling. The framing implicitly validates extreme responses as proportionate to extreme historical injustice.

Archetypal Dimensions

The post activates the Martyr-Hero archetype, with Lincoln as the mythological template. The shadow projection is onto "Democrats" as Tyrants — the archetypal oppressors of freedom. The Victim archetype is invoked but immediately elevated toward heroic martyrdom rather than remaining in passive victimhood, consistent with the mixed narcissistic state. The Jungian resonance of the Lincoln comparison is powerful within American political mythology: invoking Lincoln is invoking the nation's most sacred political memory, and claiming kinship with it claims access to that sacred status.