Seventy-nine years ago today, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, which led to the formal entry of America into World War II. The war raged on for the next four years in both the European Theater of Operations and the Pacific. It was the greatest threat to American democracy since the Civil War. The leadership and the population of the country rose to the occasion and made tough decisions and major sacrifices that ultimately led to the United States prevailing. Today, the country is at war against a virus that is ravaging the nation and the leadership and much of the population don’t seem at all interested in engaging in this fight. And to make matters even worse, American democracy is under direct attack from the very president who was sworn in to defend the Constitution and protect the country.
What is wrong with this picture? The President of the United States – home of the free and land of the brave – calls the Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, and tries to convince him to call a special session of the state legislature to convince the legislators to essentially overturn the results of the election and nominate a new slate of electors who will vote for Trump in the electoral college.1 And the Republican leadership just stands by with their collective thumbs up their butts and say nothing!! If this isn’t an assault on democracy, I don’t know what is. This is absurd. Sure, Republicans and Trump supporters can argue that he has every right to exercise his legal rights to file lawsuits to challenge the election. However, his legal team has been unable to provide any evidence of wide spread voter fraud in about 40 lawsuits that has stood up to scrutiny in a court of law. Legal challenges are one thing. But for a president to personally intervene in an election process is unprecedented and a true assault on democracy.
Let’s just assume that Governor Kemp was stupid enough to do what Trump asked him to do. What exactly do you think would happen in Georgia? Do you really think all of those people who turned out to vote for Joe Biden would just sit on their hands? Georgia would come apart at the seams. This place is looking more and more like Belarus after their recent ‘election.’ I, like everyone else in this country, have not seen anything like this in my lifetime – a United States president actively trying to interfere with the election process.
If that’s not enough, the country can rest easier now that Trump has appointed Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie to the Defense Business Board in support of the Pentagon after purging the board of its existing membership. Mind you, Lewandowski and Bossie have no military experience at all, and their sole qualification is that they are loyal to Trump. This is just like his purging of the Defense Advisory Board recently of the likes of Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger and replacing them with Trump loyalists. This has tinhorn, ‘banana republic’, dictatorship written all over it. And the Republican leadership just remains silent. ‘Pathetic’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.
In a week, the electoral college is scheduled to meet and vote for President of the United States. Assuming things go according to the certified election results, the tally will be 306 to 232 electoral votes ensuring that Biden is the next president. We should all expect some ‘rogue’ electors who will violate their pledges and crossover and vote for Trump instead of Biden. That said, it is unlikely (I hope) that 38 electors would violate their oaths and go rogue, which is what would be required for Trump to emerge victorious. Given that Biden’s lead in the popular vote now stands at more than 7 million votes, it is hard to imagine that sufficient numbers of electors would go rogue to allow Trump to remain in office. As I have stated before, there is no doubt in my mind that the country would descend into what would essentially be a civil war.
Trump has to know what would happen if he were successful in convincing enough electors to go rogue and throw the election in his favor. The fact is, he doesn’t care. That should give every single American all the information they need to know about how much Trump cares about this country. I have no doubt that he is perfectly willing to plunge this country into the greatest constitutional crisis and civil unrest since the Civil War – all in the name of his corrupt ego.
He probably has it all figured out. He steals the election knowing that there will be widespread civil unrest. He has installed loyalists at the Department of Defense who will be willing to carry out his orders under the Insurrection Act to deploy the US military to put down this unrest across America. These troops would no doubt be aided unofficially by groups like the ‘Proud Boys’ who are to Trump what the brown shirts and black shirts were to Hitler and Mussolini. He would more than likely declare martial law to suspend all kinds of rights and expand the power of the presidency. Think that Trump hasn’t thought of this? I’d be willing to bet large sums of money that he has. Think that he wouldn’t try something like this? I’m personally not willing to take that bet.
The one saving grace is that I sincerely doubt the military would back Trump up. Virtually all dictators who come to power have the military behind them. I don’t think the US military would back Trump if he tried to use the military to cement a grip on power that was not obtained legitimately. And, having 38 electors violate their pledges to throw the election to Trump can hardly be considered legitimate.
On Dec. 14th, one week from today, the Electoral College, will convene and vote for the president and vice-president. If the Electoral College does its job and elects Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, it will be interesting to see what Trump does. You can just imagine the Tweet storm that will follow. At least we will be one step closer to getting rid of this megalomaniacal potential dictator.
Trump will, of course, continue milking his supporters of their money regardless of the outcome of the Electoral College vote, which to date has been more than $210 million. This should provide Trump and his kids with enough cash to retire some campaign debt and embark on a nice post-election lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. Perhaps there is a remake of the movie ‘The Grifters’ in the works. This time, the story could take place in the White House. OK, forget a movie remake. We’ve been watching it in real time the last four years. It’s time to change the channel!
The prohibition on rebellion and insurrection arises in a brief passage found in 18 U.S.C. Section 2383. The law prohibits the incitement, assistance, and participation in a rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States and its laws. The punishment for this crime is a fine, a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, and ineligibility for public office. The President I believe has violated this law found in 18 U.S.C. Section 2383. He should be put in prison. This is one reason why Trump should not be above the law. If these militias who support Trump start killing people I believe Trump should be held responsible and Republicans who remained mute on this crime should also be held responsible.