Opinion: Trump Has One Democracy Destroying Option Left

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:25 pm

After Trump’s Supreme Court issued a death blow to his ploy to “legally overturn” the 2020 presidential election it is likely he will seriously consider doing what no small number of anti-democracy Trump acolytes have asked him to do.

No doubt the various Republican appeals begging Trump to suspend the U.S. Constitution and declare martial law to remain in power will tantalize the loser who has dreamt of becoming America’s permanent dictator.

Now that he has Republicans behind his effort to stage a coup and veritably declare himself dictator, it is not out of the realm of possibility that he will take America into its most dangerous constitutional crisis since the Civil War.

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Throughout his tenure as head of the Executive Department Trump has made several statements expressing his disdain for the rule of law; particularly the law of the land as outlined in  the U.S. Constitution. He has also made it clear that he encourages his acolytes to initiate violence leading to civil unrest as a “valid” reason to deploy the military against American citizens. Over the past week Trump’s enablers have done what Trump dreams of  and called for an uprising  over a lost election.

By now most Americans who follow the political news are aware that the convicted felon Trump pardoned, disgraced former general Michael Flynn, called on Trump to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, order military tribunals to prosecute Trump’s enemies, and conduct a new election supervised by the military until Trump gets the result he wants.

Flynn shared a press release from an ultra right wing outfit calling on Trump to take unconstitutional action. It reads in part:

“When the legislators, courts and/or Congress fail to do their duty under the 12th Amendment, you must be ready Mr. President to immediately declare a limited form of Martial Law, and temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections, for the sole purpose of having the military oversee a national re-vote….You must also act to silence the destructive media’s one-sided propaganda designed and proven to influence the election outcome, and end the unlawful censorship of Big Tech, to restore the confidence of the American People in our electoral process or we cannot continue as a nation. Failure to do so could result in massive violence and destruction on a level not seen since the Civil War. Martial Law is clearly a better option than Civil War!”

A former Trump campaign lawyer and Flynn legal representative, Sidney Powell, amplified Flynn’s call for Trump to “suspend” the election and “set up military tribunals” to launch an investigation into it.

Apparently, many of Trump’s judicial appointees failed Trump’s loyalty test by dismissing the insane claims that several groups rigged the election to rob Trump and prevent him from creating a dictatorship to rule over the American people.

Another Trump sycophant, a teabagger from Ohio, reiterated the call for Trump to do precisely what the traitor Michael Flynn called for.

The Ohio Republican, Tom Zawistowski, is the executive director of the Portage County Tea Party and member of the We the People Convention. He took out a full-page ad in the Washington Times calling on Trump to do what any aspiring dictator has to do to stay in power. Zawistowski took Trump’s election loss personally and echoed Trump’s claim that everybody cheated except where Republicans won. He wrote that if Trump does not declare marital law, there will be bloodshed.

“Without a fair vote the threat of a shooting civil war is imminent. We will also have no other choice but to take matters into our own hands, and defend our rights on our own. We wanted to express our concerns to the President Trump, to the legislators, courts and Congress that We the People will NOT cede our exclusive Constitutional right to elect our Representatives to judges, lawyers, courts, Governors, Secretary’s of State, Congress, corrupt election officials and local politicians, the corrupt media – or Leftist threats of violence! It is OUR EXCLUSIVE RIGHT to elect our President and that sacred right has been infringed by the massive, planned, illegal election fraud conducted by corrupt Democrat/Socialist Party operatives across our nation to steal our vote. We will NOT stand for it.”

As if a concerted effort, Arizona’s Republican Party took the next logical step and summoned personal, really personal, sacrifice from Trump supporters.

The Arizona GOP shared a tweet from “an itinerant right-wing provocateur” and one of the leaders of the Trump-supporting group called “Stop the Steal” with an appeal to other Trump acolytes.

Ali Alexander, formerly Ali Akbar, tweeted that he was “willing to give my life for this fight.” Naturally, Arizona Republicans took it a step farther and asked its members: “He is. Are you?”

Now this may seem like just another angry Republican machination with no chance of occurring, but with Trump desperate to do anything to stay in power, it is a real and present danger.

The wannabe dictator has expressed his hard feelings about the Constitution’s restraints on the Executive Branch, and his inclination to rule by executive edict make it tempting for him to create the ultimate constitutional crisis. He is also prone to heeding advice from the bootlicker class and with more than one call to suspend the Constitution, invoke martial law, and deploy the military to enforce his style of rule, Americans should be terrified.

Now that the High Court has put what many consider the final nail in his legal fight to subvert the will of the people in a case Trump said “everyone was waiting for,” it is highly likely that some of  his supporters will follow through on their threats of violence. That will be all Trump needs to suspend the Constitution, invoke marital law, and send in the troops to conduct an election declaring his victory. And conduct tribunals against anyone, Republican or Democrat, who dared to oppose his attempted coup.

If Trump had followed protocol and conceded that he is a loser to President-elect Joseph Biden, then his base might be disappointed, but that’s all. However, he has spent over five weeks convincing his base that they were robbed of their man-turned-god’s continued rule and they are very angry.

It is unclear what Trump intends to do next, but with the worst of his base looking for bloodshed, and calls to bring in the troops and suspend the Constitution, one expects him to make a serious power grab with what he thinks will be the military’s support. Just the fact that these calls to suspend, not ignore, the law of the land were frequent and very public is terrifying; except to Trump and his anti-American supporters.

Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.