How Trump Can Save Our Democracy From Himself
America, America, God shed his grace on thee.
This is perhaps the most beautiful line of our national hymn, America the Beautiful, which was adapted from a poem written by Kathren Lee Bates in 1893. America, in turn, is the world’s oldest and most influential democracy.
Our finest decades extended from the 1940s through the early 1990s, when we saved the world from totalitarian fascism and communism. But these days, our own nation’s democracy is in great peril.
America, of course, has not always been such a great bastion of democracy. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation finally freed the slaves. A few years later, Black men were given the right to vote. Of course, that right was soon abolished throughout the South until the late 1960s.
All American women would need to wait until the ratification of the nineteen Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920, when they were finally granted that right. Significantly, most Black women, and many Asian and Native American women continued to be denied the vote.
It wasn’t until the civil rights movement and the passage of far-reaching civil rights legislation in the 1960s, that Blacks became full-fledged American citizens. This was followed by the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s, when Blacks and women began getting elected to significant numbers of political offices and finally being allowed to begin climbing up our corporate ladders.
Donald Trump Is Making Another Run For The Office
Today, in the tradition of Hitler and Stalin, former President Donald Trump, our nation’s own home-grown aspiring dictator, is making still another run for our highest office. If he wins the election in 2024 – whether by hook or crook – he will not only abolish our democracy, but will encourage the spread of totalitarianism throughout the world.
Still, I believe we shall overcome Trump’s last hurrah next fall. Let’s look back to the words of a song in Rogers’s and Hammerstein’s 1958 hit Broadway play, South Pacific: “You can call me a cockeyed optimist!”
I have two reasons for being so optimistic. First, I’m very confident that Trump will win the Republican nomination for president early next year. Indeed, he will utterly demolish the clown-car of opponents, nearly all of whom are mortally afraid to even lay a glove on him. And then too, I think that Biden will easily beat Trump in the general election.
Let me add just a few words about Ron DeSantis. Judging from his record governing Florida, it would be fair to say that he is an even more committed fascist than Trump. And considering how much less political baggage he’s carrying, I think he would have a pretty decent shot at beating Biden.
The MAGA supporters – who strongly prefer Trump – would almost all flock to their new Fuhrer – while DeSantis would attract tens of millions of Republicans and Independents who would never have considered voting for Trump. And oh yeah -- the guy’s thirty-four years younger than Biden. And he’s not going to prison like you-know-who.
The Republicans’ best chance in 2024 is if Trump is not their nominee. That will happen if he decides to drop out of the race or he is be found guilty of the mishandled documents case in Florida, the Georgia election interference case, or the Washington insurrection case. There is almost no chance that he will be beaten in the Republican presidential primary.
Already indicted for four felonious crimes, Trump has ordered his lawyers to begin circling the wagons, falling back on the time-tested Trumpian legal strategy of stall, stall, stall. That may work. In fact, I hope it does.
Trump’s greatest contribution to the preservation of democracy will be to run against President Joe Biden in 2024. That’s because Trump will lose – and probably lose quite badly. And along with Trump, many Republican candidates for the House and the Senate will be also be dragged down to defeat. The Marjorie Taylor Greens, the Loren Boeberts, the Matt Gaetzes and the other extreme rightwing Republican crazies, bigots, and demented will be stripped of their legislative powers.
Nearly two thirds of American voters have indicated that they will either definitely vote against Trump in 2024 or very likely vote against him. The lion’s share of them is motivated by their dislike of Trump rather than by any great love for Biden.
Demolish The Deep State
Trump has already disclosed his plan to “drain the swamp” and demolish “the deep state.” In plain language, he will illegally take full control of the executive branch of the federal government – just as any good fascist would do.
He would then withdraw the United States from NATO, thereby likely fatally wounding that organization. He would cut off all aid to Ukraine and reclaim his position as Vladimir Putin’s lap dog.
With Trump’s aid and blessing, Putin will use whatever means necessary to resume his quest to completely overrun Eastern Europe, and perhaps most of Central Europe as well. And then, just for good measure, he would reconstitute the old Soviet Union as well. The Soviet Empire will rise again!
More importantly, a new totalitarian axis will be formed, anchored by China, Russia, the United States, and possibly, India. And in this brave new world, there will be no room for democracy.
But thankfully, none of that will happen because Trump will lose very badly in 2024. Distracted by his multitude of legal problems and soundly defeated by his arch-nemesis, Joe Biden, Trump will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
The worst thing that could happen between now and election day is that Trump will die or drop out of the race and be replaced by a less divisive Republican presidential candidate. Although Biden is hardly in robust health – and clearly suffers from occasional mental lapses – Trump is no “very stable genius.” But almost as alarming is his physical health. Rumored to now weigh 270 pounds, he is obviously wrapped in some kind of body girdle in an attempt to hide his morbidly obese physique. He can drop dead any day.
It is truly amazing that Trump mocks his rival and main critic in the race for the Republican presidential nomination for being fat. Maybe they should both weigh in before a debate – if Trump ever shows up for one.
The fate of our nation – and much of the world as well – depends on Trump’s winning the Republican nomination, and then staying in the race through election day. It would be nice if he lived long enough to reprise his lament about the election having once again being stolen from him.
Trump is so narcissistic and evil that he will do nearly anything to reclaim our nation’s presidency – even risking our very survival. Can we afford to just stand by while he secures the Republican presidential nomination? And then possibly beating Biden next November?
Nobody knows for sure. I’m betting on Trump’s winning the Republican nomination in a walk, and subsequently losing the general election to Biden in a landslide. And in the process, helping to preserve democracy in America and in the rest of the world.
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