In a recent interview Liz Cheney warned that the U.S. is “sleepwalking into dictatorship.”
Liz Cheney is no liberal-lover; she’s always been a hard-right conservative Republican, and her father (former-VP) Dick Cheney has always been loathed by the left. But the Cheneys and a plethora of conservative Republicans (including many who worked in Trump’s administration) are sounding a 5-alarm warning. Make that a 10-alarm warning.
Apart from Trump’s vile descent into fascist language (his opponents are “vermin” who are “poisoning the blood of America”), the orange-makeup-faced autocrat-lover has been loudly and proudly laying out his platform should he win in 2024. From his own words in interviews, at rallies, and on his so-called Truth Social website, a second Trump presidency would include, among other actions:
ending birthright citizenship
directing ICE to target legal citizens who espouse “anti-American” views
reimposing travel bans
terminating the Department of Education
reclassifying federal workers so they can be fired
abandoning NATO
rewarding loyalists, lapdogs and cronies with high positions
pardoning Jan.6 insurrectionists and other convicted Trump loyalists
unleashing revenge and “retribution” against political opponents
promoting climate-denial policies
promoting anti-vax conspiracy theories
targeting women’s reproductive rights.
The list could go on and on, but these are current themes that Trump is openly espousing. And with the complete politicization of the Supreme Court coupled with a cowardly Congress, the historical “checks and balances” underpinning American democracy would be absent. In a second-term, unconcerned about future elections (President for life?) and surrounded by sycophantic loyalists, Trump would have no guardrails at all.
I see three life-lines to save American democracy:
snap Trump loyalists out of their cult-like trance (nearly impossible)
motivate dispassionate Democrats to crush Trumpism in a Bluenami (very difficult, but not impossible)
convince 5-10% of independent, non-partisan voters “in the middle” that their 2024 choice is not between Biden or Trump, but between Democracy or Dictatorship. (This group of non-partisan independents could be the decisive factor in 2024.)
Timothy Snyder wrote: “any election can be the last” so we need to take Liz Cheney’s warning seriously.
It’s VOTE BLUE FOR FREEDOM. VOTE BLUE FOR DEMOCRACY. Bumper stickers and other stickers. https://thecommunety.etsy.com
I am increasingly fearful that Biden will lose in November of 2024.