A Step toward Fascism in America

Editorial, The Hartford Courant, November 21, 2020

Trump’s effort to steal the election is a step toward fascism in America. If you call yourself a patriot, you can’t support it.

A vain, angry man who is refusing to accept reality has his finger on the button.

A sulking, bitter man who is refusing to accept the will of the people leads the world’s most powerful democracy.

A man who dwells in the world of lies and deceit is firing those who will not blindly do his bidding.

It’s been long clear to many that Donald Trump, in sowing division, discrediting uncomfortable truths and fomenting a cult of personality was walking the same path dictators have in the past. Just look up Matyas Rakosi (Hungary), Francois Duvalier (Haiti) or Benito Mussolini (Italy), since the past holds important lessons that too many seem willing to ignore.

And now, facing defeat — the moment when character is revealed — Trump is showing his true colors in a way that even those who for four years have looked past his flaws cannot ignore. The alternate reality Trump is working hard to create — that the election was tainted, that it was stolen from him by Joe Biden — is a dangerous narrative that threatens the core of our Democracy. There is no evidence of any widespread or systemic fraud. When Trump’s own head of election cybersecurity sad that, he was fired.

That false narrative is Trump’s justification to pave a path toward fascism in America, a path that calls for upending the will of the people. And those who are going along — repeating the lies, looking for ways to undo the vote or even standing silent in acquiescence — risk supporting fascism over freedom. The problem in Nazi Germany wasn’t only that there were German people who thought exterminating Jews was acceptable. It’s that there were many who knew it wasn’t but stood by quietly and let it happen.

We’re not suggesting that there aren’t valid remedies to challenge potential issues connected to the administration of any election. But this has gone way beyond that. As the legal challenges filed by the Trump campaign have fallen one by one, the paranoid rhetoric has ramped up.

And so have efforts to replace Democracy with dictatorship.

The initial unwillingness of elections officials to certify results in Wayne County, Michigan, the alleged interference of Sen. Lindsay Graham in the certification process of the results in Georgia and now suggestions that Republican legislators in key states could simply ignore the election results and nominate pro-Trump electors are unparalleled threats to democracy.

This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats anymore. It’s about those who believe in democracy versus those willing to risk living under a fascist regime.

If you’re among those who voted for Trump — and there were many — you may have had good reasons. In a recent Courant story, reporter Mike Hamad chronicled the rise of Trumpism among disaffected middle-class voters. But supporting Trump’s efforts to unravel a clear and unequivocal result must be resisted by anyone who calls themselves an American or a patriot.

There may be a lot we as Americans disagree on these days. But if the will of the people to choose who leads is no longer a shared value, we are in deeper trouble than we imagined.

It’s time to stand up and be counted. That goes for people in Trump-leaning towns. That goes for local talk show hosts who parrot lies and conspiracy theories. And that goes for anyone who posts falsehoods on Facebook or Instagram. You are aiding and abetting fascism. Time to stop.

It’s also time for majority Democrats to listen harder to the voices of those who have drifted to the right. There is a growing perception that the Democrats are beholden to wealthy elitists on the one hand and progressives on the other. Those in the middle are clearly looking for someone who can speak to the hopes and fears of every working American.

Over the next two months we will write a new chapter in American history. We’ll either put partisan interests aside and reinvest in democracy or we will allow a bully to continue down a dangerous path. It’s time to appreciate what the flag really means. It’s time to be a real patriot.

Can the American Democracy Survive?

The next two months are a test of the American democracy. The question will be can the democracy withstand the pressure of a president who wants to destroy the system?

Adolph Hitler attained power in March 1933, after the Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act of 1933 in that month, giving expanded authority to president President Paul von Hindenburg who had already appointed Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933 after a series of parliamentary elections and associated backroom intrigues.

In 1933 with the death of Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler became absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader.” The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany’s democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler’s Third Reich.

Donald Trump is not known to do a lot of reading but he knows how Hitler destroyed the German democracy and obtained absolute power. Trump has already insisted that all secretaries and all department heads must swear allegiance to him. That is the reason Mark Esper is no longer the Secretary of Defense, Chris Krebs is no longer Director of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, and Doctors Birx and Fauci have been sidelined in the Corona Virus Task force.

Trump has not obtained the needed electoral college votes to obtain his second term as president. So now he is using every arm twisting and threatening way he can conger up to induce Republican controlled legislatures to send delegates to the electoral college meeting to vote for him even though he did not win the popular vote. And it might work.

If this election is fraudulent then all elections in the future might also be fraudulent. That would mean that the American democracy is dead. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Kim Jong-un are among the dictators who are smiling and saying “We told you democracy doesn’t work. The United States government collapse proves it.”

Civil War or Autocracy?

Is this what the start of a civil war looks like in America in 2020?

Thousands of President Donald Trump’s supporters of all stripes, including right-wing and far-right groups, rallied in Washington, DC, on Saturday to protest the election results and fights erupted between Trump supporters and Biden supporters.

Autocracy is a system of government in which supreme political power to direct all the activities of the state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control. An autocrat is a ruler who has absolute power. That is the dream of Donald Trump.

In an extension of Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election to Joe Biden, Vice President Mike Pence on Friday said the administration plans to remain in place for another full term. But it won’t be his last term.

I wish it wasn’t so but Donald Trump will not be giving up the presidency. Somehow he will be inaugurated for his second term on January 20. And I predict he will be inaugurated for his third term on January 20, 2025. By that time the congress will have will have been sidelines and on the way to elimination as an unnecessary waste of time and Trump will remain in office for the rest of his life with absolute total power. We have the GOP to thank for this. By 2025 some Republicans will realize their error. History will note the end of the American democratic republic in history books written in other countries. In 2025 there will be controls on the “free press.” The constitution will be a memory by the end of Trump’s third term.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, for example, said Tuesday that “there will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” And Trade Advisor Peter Navarro said Friday that the White House is operating “under the assumption” that Trump will serve a second term in office.

Other than a Supreme Court with a backbone and a populace that says No to Trump’s ambition the path is clear. Over 70 million people voted for Donald Trump. That is not a majority but is a substantial minority.

I fear this could be the end of the world’s greatest democracy.

Poor Losers Club

Pictured are three presidents who skipped their successor’s inaugurations.

Bad loser Donald Trump is not likely to attend the inauguration of Joe Biden. He would not the first president to refuse to attend his successor’s inauguration. In the past, three outgoing presidents — John Adams in 1801, John Quincy Adams in 1829 and Andrew Johnson in 1869 chose not to attend their successor’s inaugurations.

In the instance of John Adams a re-election a tie between Jefferson and running mate Aaron Burr, which meant that the election decision next moved to the House of Representatives. After more than 30 ballots, the House of Representatives finally decided the race for Jefferson. For reasons that he never made public, he chose to skip Jefferson’s inauguration, leaving on the early morning stagecoach out of Washington that morning to begin the journey back to his beloved Quincy, Massachusetts.

John Quincy Adams, son of John Adams, faced multiple challengers, notably from Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. Jackson won the most popular and electoral votes, but he failed to obtain a majority of needed electoral votes. With the election at stake, the Clay electors switched their support to Adams, and the House of Representatives voted to make Adams the next president. Later, Jackson declared a “corrupt bargain” had taken place and vowed to run again in 1828. The election of 1828 featured a contentious rematch between the two men. Adams’ supporters accused Jackson of being a military tyrant and a bigamist. Rachel Donelson Jackson’s divorce to Lewis Robards in 1793 had not been granted, which technically made her an adultress. She was granted a divorce the following year, but Adams’ camp claimed Andrew Jackson was morally unfit to serve as president.

Vice President Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. In turn, the new president committed himself to obstructing the will of the Republican Congress at every step. In November 1868, the nation elected Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Johnson’s nemesis, to the presidency by a wide electoral margin. In the popular vote, Grant owed his slim majority of 300,000 to the votes of nearly a half million freedmen in Southern states.

Donald Trump will probably be in Mar-a-Lago on January 20 surrounded by his family and friends. And the world will move on wondering how Americans could have fallen for a circus barker.

Hope for the Future

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win.”

Waah, Waah. This can’t be happening to me

A Panicked Trump falsely claims he’s winning as Biden’s lead expands in nail-biter election.

It is a sad time for the American democracy. Of course we don’t know who will win the election but I can’t recall any one term president claim there were illegal votes and that was the reason he lost re-election.

Donald Trump’s claims of fraud started at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday November 4 in an appearance at the White House, Trump falsely asserted the pending outcome was “a fraud on the American public” and an “embarrassment on our country.”

Then Trump followed up with these were the words were spoken at about 7 p.m. eastern time yesterday by the president in the press room at the White House. “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”

The Los Angeles Times reported some Republicans joined other officials in swiftly condemning President Trump’s latest false claims late Thursday that he is being robbed of a reelection victory by fraudulent votes in decisive states where Joe Biden appears to be winning.

“There is no defense for the President’s comments tonight undermining our Democratic process,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, tweeted shortly after Trump spoke from the White House briefing room. “America is counting the votes, and we must respect the results as we always have before. No election or person is more important than our Democracy.”

Ellen Weintraub, chair of the Federal Election Commission and a Democrat, urged the president to stop making false claims. “Enough, Mr. President. Enough. Spewing conspiracy theories regarding this election will not change the results,” she tweeted. “Your lies undermine our democracy and harm our country. Just stop.”

The sad reality is that we elected a person to be president who believes he is above the law and has the right to a second term in office no matter what the vote count results. The cartoon above says it all.

A Divided Government Equals Gridlock

Think about this.

Joe Biden wins the election.
The Senate majority is held by the Republican Party.
Little or no legislation is passed.

That is not an unlikely scenario. Mitch McConnell wanted to make Barack Obama a one term president by blocking Obama’s agenda. Aren’t we going to hear those same words again?

There is no reference to political parties in the U.S. constitution and that is the problem. This issue is confronted by countries that have a parliamentary democracy by agreeing to a compromise that provides everyone a voice. Or does it?

Explained at britannica.com. A Parliamentary system, democratic form of government in which the party (or a coalition of parties) with the greatest representation in the parliament (legislature) forms the government, its leader becoming prime minister or chancellor.

A majority of the world’s parliaments are unicameral. One body decides what laws are to be passed and who will obtain a judgeship.

One main criticism of Parliamentary system is that the head of the government is in almost all cases not directly elected but that is the system in the United Sates democracy too.

Is Joe Biden to be a place holder? The ACA may not be dismantled and DACA children may not be deported from the country. Then what? The Democratic Party will have to find new leaders in four years.

If Trump were to obtain a second term, he is more likely to see legislation passed.

Grid lock is likely to be the situation for the next four years. Democrats control the House and Republicans control the Senate. This is a system that makes many people question the whole idea of democracy.

Enthusiasm Could Win the Day for Donald Trump

Once again I believe most of the pollsters have it wrong. I’m not happy about this outcome but three pieces of evidence are may well be bell weather indicators.

1. Hundreds of Trump supporters rallied in Beverly Hills on Saturday reported the Los Angeles Times. Beverly Hills has the reputation of being a major Democratic Party stronghold.

2. The Trafalgar Group’s Rob Cahaly — who predicted Trump’s 2016 victory — claims most Americans dislike responding to polls consisting of 25 or more questions. He is now predicting Trump will win.

3. The ‘Enthusiasm Factor’ could lead to another Trump win because there is a lack of it for Biden. How many of those people who said in the polls they support Joe Biden will actually cast their vote for him? A platoon of Trump fans floated in New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay on Sept. 15. They had their Trump support banners on their boats.

Sadly I believe this will be the end of the Republic of the United States if Donald Trump wins this election.