Days before the 2022 mid-term election, I isolated myself from the news, up until Election Day. I did not watch the returns that night.
I was scared!
For months on end, I’ve been writing about what would happen should the Republican Party completely takes over Congress, the Senate, and the Presidency.
They would rig the voting system by gerrymandering and voter suppression, making it impossible for Republicans to lose any more elections. If they did, the election would be overturned in favor of any Republican that’s running for that particular office. Eventually, the Republican Party would become the only ruling party in the nation, making the U.S. a tyranny, possibly establishing a theocracy.
White, neoconservative males would solely be in charge, oppressing women and minorities, reducing them to second-class citizens, or worse. The wealthy would dominate, the poor would have no chance to improve their lot, literacy would be controlled via censorship, people who committed violent acts in Trump’s name (Jan. 6) would be pardoned, the U.S. Constitution would then be abolished, and this would only be the beginning.
One party rule would be ugly, oppressive, and violent.
If this sounds far fetched, remember what Mitch McConnell once said, “I know it’s written in the Constitution, but I don’t care! Make me!”
Trump himself at a party at Mar-a-Lago, with Q-Anon supporters, anti-Semites, and White Supremacists called for the suspension, even termination of the Constitution, to overturn the 2020 presidential election (still, after the 2022 election) to have himself restated as President.
What does that tell you? Our Constitution would be no more, and shortly thereafter, all our liberties would vanish.We, and the world, would then plunge into a new Dark Age.
I have already explained all this in previous essays I have written, all accessible on my blog, foundationandstate.blogspot.com. You can look them up, for I stand by them.
Fortunately, we did not meet that fate!
The American people caught on to all this, and voted many of the extremists out in droves. Many followers of Donald Trump and his factions, such as MAGA and Q-Anon who were candidates, lost the elections for whatever office they were running, and the more reasonable Democrats won.
ALL of Trump’s chosen candidates for the U.S. Senate lost their bids.
It was these voters, (that’s you) who saved America, saved democracy as we know it, and preserved our freedoms.
America, which many thought would die after this election, survived. What just passed was the biggest crisis since the Civil War, and again, we pulled through.
History is moving forward, and the American people finally realized what is at stake. Here are examples:
In Wisconsin, Tim Michels, the Republican candidate for governor, also backed by Trump, stated that if he is elected, no Republican candidate will ever lose another election. Go figure!
Instead, his Democratic opponent, Tom Evers, won, so all plans for stealing any future elections were dashed. Integrity prevailed, and so it was across the country.
Every state-wide ballot in the country guaranteeing the right to an abortion also passed.
As of Saturday, November 12, the senate race for Nevada was called in favor of the Democratic incumbent, Catherine Cortez Masto. This left Georgia for their special run-off election in December. On December 6, the Democratic candidate Ralph Warnock won. This leaves the Senate now with 51 delegates. The U.S. Senate retains its Democratic majority. (There are three Senators in that majority that are Independents, but they lean towards the Democratic side, so it doesn’t matter.)
Trump failed with his chosen candidates winning office, but he is still determined to take back the White House in 2024. He announced his candidacy for President on December 8, 2022.
I’ll be daring; Trump does have a chance of being nominated and elected, but it is decreasing by the day. First, the American people are tired of hearing him rant that “the election (of 2020) was stolen.” It wasn’t, but that is all he ever says, and as a result, he is becoming crazier and crazier.
Second, it may destroy the Republican Party by, first irritating everybody, and second, forcing other potential candidates to run early, such as Ron de Santis and other Republicans.
More and more people, especially Republicans, are losing interest in Trump. He’s already served one term, accomplished almost nothing, and caused a lot of trouble, both here (January 6th riots on the Capitol) and abroad.
Trump acts like a spoiled child, which he is, throwing tantrums over his defeat in 2020, and the American people don’t want this anymore. They want new blood!
They’re getting it.
Ron de Santis is a rising star, and he will run for President, and he will acquire a large following, taking voters away from Trump. Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland and a lot of other now unknown candidates may do the same.
Trump, however, still has hard-core followers. There are also the extremists, such as the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, White supremacists and other racists, anti-immigration factions, and neo-Nazis who still support Trump. These groups are extremely violent and Trump, out of desperation, will support them and condone their actions, as he did on January 6.
Trump has stated that if he wins the election, he will pardon everyone who participated in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
However, many, but not all, Republicans have realized this and are turning away from Trump as you read this essay. Other candidates are stepping in, and where they will stand on issues still remains to be seen.
Trump has also stated that if he loses the Republican nomination for President, he will run as an independent candidate, splitting the Republican Party.
The Democratic Party will greatly benefit from this, and they will end up winning the 2024 election, no matter who runs. This happens every time there is a party split. That party always loses.
Trump is now on his way out and there are many who say otherwise, but that doesn’t alter the fact that he is.
When Trump was acquitted during both his impeachments, many Senators who voted to acquit him, I believe, really wanted to vote to remove him from office, but were afraid to do so because of what Trump and his cronies threatened to do to them. This is very similar to the Mafia when they call in favors.
Trump is now losing that power, due to many people deserting him, along with his problems in the courts, so more people of all strips are becoming emboldened to stand up to him. Remember Liz Cheney. She lost her Congressional seat in Wyoming, but that didn’t stop her.
Trump is of the lunatic fringe, and in the U.S., fringe candidate are bound to fail. Just look at this past election.
Trump and his supporters failed in their efforts to seize control of the government. There are 155 election deniers elected to Congress, and overall, the Republicans may have a slight majority in the House, but again, it doesn’t matter.
The Republicans were doomed from the day, June 24, 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned. This resulted in women getting mad and voting against everyone who favored this act by the Supreme Court, mainly male Republicans who had no right to control women’s bodies; i.e. interfere with their reproductive rights.
This is what brought them and their party down. As a result, they lost votes, and many, the election.
And Now The Test
Once again, Trump has declared his candidacy for President. It was at Mar-a-Lago on the evening of November 15, 2022.
Few of the major networks broadcasted it, and I couldn’t find it, so I turned to C-Span, 10 minutes into his speech. Not having declared his candidacy yet, he simply rambled on about how much President Joe Biden is destroying the country, in everything, from energy to the economy, and from Afghanistan (President Trump agreed on a pullout date with the Taliban, of which President Biden simply followed through on the agreement. The fiasco that followed wouldn’t have been any different at any other date or time, or with any other President.) to Ukraine.
Trump simply rambled on, and didn’t declare himself a candidate until 20 minutes into his speech.
Trump then revealed his plans of what he would do. I turned off the TV, because I saw that it was the same old stuff. Trump has nothing new to offer, and I remember all the chaos from his last term. It was Biden that calmed everything down.
On the CBS Evening News the next day, I saw that much of the audience at Mar-a-Lago tried to leave early, except for the security detail that wouldn’t let anyone leave.
Many billionaires who regularly donate money to political candidates decided to support some other Republican in the future, whoever he or she may be.
In other words, the world was not impressed.
There are many editorials and professionals, including political scientists, who believe that Trump may win the nomination, and some even fear that he might win. These fears are not unfounded. One third of all Republicans still support Trump, and many others fear this support may once again increase.
I disagree.
The world now knows Trump for what he really is.
If he chosen candidates in Congress he supported during the midterm mostly lost, or won the House by a bare margin but lost the Senate, and lost major state elections for governor and especially Secretary of State, Trump isn’t going to fare better in the 2024 Presidential race, even if he runs against Joe Biden.
It already shows.
The January 6 riots mere reflects Trump throwing a temper tantrum for losing the 2020 election.
It also reflects those who participated in the riots, and the politicians who condoned this action because of their gullibility in believing everything Trump says.
“If Trump said it, then it’s true!”
Trump coddled up to dictators, especially Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong-un. Note in his speech Trump said that he never would have let Putin invade Ukraine.
Yes he would, and if Trump were President when Russia invaded, Ukraine would have gone down in defeat, being totally occupied and annexed by Russia. Trump would not have sent a single weapon to Ukraine for self-defense.
Trump had no regard for the environment, allowing more pollution and deforestation.
He messed up the economy, cutting taxes to favor the rich while leaving the poor and middle class out in the cold.
Trump alienated the rest of the world, greatly embarrassing the United States.
Do we want to go through all this again?
I think not, and neither does the rest of the country, Democrat or Republican
Trump is losing it, though, by his temper tantrums, his rambling speeches, his lies, his misinformation, and his age. Biden is older than Trump, but he has more control of himself and his actions.
Republicans are going to want fresh blood. They will want younger candidates with clear minds, and voters will be able to tell the difference between Trump and his younger competitors. They will also know Trump’s weaknesses, and they will exploit it.
Trump still has a good chance of getting the nomination, with one-third of all Republicans still following him regardless of what he says or does.
A lot can happen in two years.
Does Trump have a chance of winning? He may have a chance now, but it is decreasing. Judging from the mid-terms, and looking at Trump for what he is, more voters, even hard-core Republicans, will either be tempted to vote for the Democratic candidate or and Independent, to Trump’s detriment.
There is also the subpoenas from the January 6 committee, along with Georgia and New York. Many are calling for the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump from running for President because of his part in the January 6 insurrection. Of course, there are politicians who have no regard for the Constitution will to look the other way.
We have a two year show ahead of us.
Stay tuned!
Trump’s Legal Problems
This is what may finally bring him down, and his sins are finally catching up with him.
Trump’s residences at Mar-a-Lago and other mansions are constantly being raided by the F.B.I., and more and more documents are being found, confidential documents that he is not suppose to have. They should have been turned over to the national archives.
Trump’s tax returns are finally in the hand of Congress, and they will investigate them. Already, there is evidence of tax fraud by Trump’s organizations, and more is being uncovered.
The January 6th committee has subpoenaed Trump, though he is resisting.
There is evidence of fraud in both Georgia and New York.
Trump is doing everything he can through his lawyers to say that he is innocent, but he is now on the losing side.
A lawyer, Jack Smith, from prosecuting war criminals in Bosnia, has been appointed to investigate his attempts at voter fraud, overturning the election through the electoral process leading to January 6, and his handling of stolen document from the White House. He is a professional investigation, ruthless, and will show no mercy towards Trump. This will be the biggest investigation since Watergate.
If Trump were innocent, then he wouldn’t have to worry about any investigation. He could simply say, “Bring it on. You got nothing on me.”
Instead, he is ranting and raving about these investigators, accusing them of being pawns of the Democrats, say that they hate him and want to get rid of him.
What has he got to hide?
Trump is also running for president a year early, thinking that no legal system can touch him if he is a candidate.
Again, what has he got to hide?
If Trump is innocent, then he wouldn’t have to worry about any investigation
Where do we go from here?
Both the Democrat and Republican parties still exist, and both parties still have power.
Many say we should abolish the Republican Party, but that is not going to happen. The Democrats control the Senate, but just barely. The same goes for the Republicans controlling the House.
Many 2020 deniers (about 155 of them) are still in office, including many who participated in the January 6 attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol.
Here is a tally of election deniers:
155 House wins
9 Senate wins
7 Governor wins
5 State Attorneys General
2 Lt. Governors
3 Secretaries of State
In the categories of Sectaries of State, we were lucky, for they have the power to overturn elections in favor of another candidate.
We need to go beyond a two party system, having members from multiple parties elected to the House and the Senate, like they do in Europe. This will result in many new ideas from many other points of view.
Everyone should also talk to each other, reach across the aisle once again, so the U.S. will never again revert to a state of polarization, where nobody speaks to anyone else with views different from their own.
If the Republican Party is to continue to exist, it has to change, but they do not have to become Democrats.
The Republican Party was at one time a noble party. Many prominent Republicans had working class backgrounds, where many candidates worked all their lives, unaided, received an education, sometimes by working their way through college, and worked their way up into politics.
The Republican mantra was that you should make it on your own to be successful. The term “Nixon Republican” (regardless of what happened with Watergate) meant the workers, as opposed to “Reagan Republicans” which meant the rich, who later hijacked the party.
Back in the 1970s, the Republican Party abided by the U.S. Constitution. Case in point, Watergate.
When Watergate first occurred, the Republicans stood behind Nixon, being President and of their party.
As time went on, the Watergate hearings commenced, and the truth of what was really going on in the White House came out, the Republicans then turned against Nixon. The reason was obvious. Either they, the Republicans in office in 1974, had to choose, Nixon or the Constitution. They chose the latter, and Nixon was forced to resign in order to avoid impeachment and removal from office.
This had to be done. Nixon’s actions were clearly illegal and threatening to the legal system, which, if left unchecked, could have led the U.S. to becoming a tyranny.
It is the same thing that in happening today. Unfortunately, many in today’s Republican Party are extremists, have no moral compass, and will stop at nothing to get what they want, mainly wealth and power. It doesn’t matter to them have the American public feels.
This has got to change.
How? Here are a few ways.
- Get rid of the lunatic fringe. That is, the extremists who want to steal elections any way they can, and will even resort to violence.
- Go back to ethics, morals, and abiding by the Constitution.
- Do not tolerate dishonest people. Don’t even tolerate people who behave badly in Congress. Throw them out!
- Be open to change.
- Cross the aisle and talk to people of other parties.
- Have a multiple party system.
- No more lying, cheating, and stealing.
- Participate in rebuilding America, with rebuilding the infrastructure and other such projects.
We have barely escaped becoming a tyranny by the skin of our teeth. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken wisely. They knew what we were up against and they fought it through their votes, and won.
Trump is still here, and he is still strong through his followers, but there are still two years to go before the 2024 election. A lot is happening, Trump is being investigated for his crimes, and the recently appointed prosecutors will not be so lenient towards him as others were.
Trump is going down, slowly, but surely.
Like Nixon before him, Trump will fall.
Reason and common sense prevailed. May it continue to do so.
Alastair Browne
