I know many of us wouldn’t mind if Donald John Trump fell off the face of the earth never to be heard from again. (Wow! Just writing that felt therapeutic.) We’re exhausted by being outraged at all the lying and trampling of norms that used to underlie the most basic of decent human behaviors. We’re glad he’s no longer president and hope never to deal with Trump in that position ever again. We’d love to never give this boorish toad another thought.
But beware the danger of Trump fatigue. Donald Trump is not finished wreaking havoc upon the fabric of our nation. Not by a long shot.
He is looking at the very real possibility of doing at least some time in prison for one or more of his cornucopia of crimes in and out of office. The only thing that may save him from some kind of consequence of confinement — to save the rest of us from him — is a second presidency and its accompanying protections and privileges. If he runs again, he’ll cheat to make sure he wins. Republicans have been hard at work and are already implementing their plans to make sure their candidates win. All you have to do is make sure Secretaries of State in swing states are GOP loyalists, fill the ranks of poll workers and all the various aspects of vote tallying with Trump supporters, and easy peasy! Election stolen.
Democrats have long been weak in the face of naked election theft and failed to call out the GOP’s galling project.
The 2000 election came down to Florida, whose Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris purged voter rolls of overwhelmingly African-American ex-felons. She openly campaigned for Bush and certified his electors despite a contested 600-vote margin that was overturned by the Florida Supreme Court. Ultimately, of course, the U.S. Supreme Court handed the election to Bush anyway.
In 2004, Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell co-chaired Bush’s campaign and presided over a number of steps meant to suppress Democratic votes, such as removing polling places in densely populated urban areas in favor of the suburbs.
In 2016, how many people would have gotten their butts to the polls and held their noses to vote for Hillary Clinton had they known about the attack on our democracy by Russian actors? The only reason the American people were not informed before going to the polls was because Barack Obama feared being accused of messing up the election if he told voters what was going on. Shame on Obama for folding.
2020 was declared among the best-run elections ever, and yet Trump falsely calls fraud. A cheater cries cheating when he fairly loses.
Now we’re facing the most critical midterm elections in history. Republican majorities in 2022 will solidify their power to ensure sweeping victories from 2024 forward for generations. This is the final battle line. And they’re not being the least bit coy about it. They understand politics better than Democrats. Far too many Democrat and Independent voters look no further than the top of the ticket and fail to get out for midterm elections. Politics is bottom up, starting with local school boards, which the GOP intends to use as a galvanizing lever. Look to hear more fearmongering about critical race theory and transgender tolerance.
We cannot allow Republicans to succeed with their plans for 2022. If they do, then it’s game over for American democracy. And no, that is unfortunately not hyperbole.
We the people must not assume for a second that Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden will save us. They need us to save them. And not through any act of violence. Rather, we initiate a million conversations with folks who have been lied to and manipulated into fearing and hating their fellow citizens. It’s reprehensible and for most of them, it’s not their fault. When people know the truth they tend to make wiser choices.
We also need to make sure all those already on the side of reason know what the GOP game plan is. Forewarned is Forearmed. And then we must vote in staggering numbers.
Donald Trump, on a rare occasion, spoke the truth. Proposals to expand early and mail-in voting, he said, would lead to “levels of voting that, if you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” Remember folks, the 1% is counting on us not being able to do simple math. There are way more of us than there are of them. It’s about time we started acting like it.
