Barring Trump or Biden (or even both) having a fatal stroke we can now suffer months of angst in the run up of a Biden v. Trump 2024 Presidential Election rematch.
Trump and his minions are salivating over the prospect of a victory, one in which Trump becomes “Dictator for a day” minutes after taking the oath of office. Former Sen. Liz Cheney (R) accurately warned on Dec. 4th of this year that Trump’s “Dictator for a day” is a dog whistle, assuring his base that he fully intends to take authoritarian hold of the government and “never leave.” Suffice it to say that Trump always tells us exactly what he intends to do.
The vision of Trump as a de-facto Dictator is relished by his base. In the innocuously titled 950 page “2025 Plan” of the far right Heritage Foundation, “Day One” launches an array of highly detailed actions and policies that will eviscerate the upper echelons of the military, as well the purging of some 50,000 career civil servants. The summarily fired employees will immediately be replaced by politically vetted Trumpista loyalists. Most of these moves are aimed at the eradication of Federal agencies. This fifth column cadre will continue to erode if not destroy what is left of many agencies and their mandate to serve the America people.
Another aspect of “Day One” is found in the seemingly innocuous term, “The Unitary Executive.” This theory argues that there is constitutional law in which the President holds total power over all government agencies, as well as Congress and the Courts. There has never been a President in our history with this kind of power. In actuality such persons have been historically defined as dictators or authoritarians. The Unitary Executive creates a leader with a rubber-stamp government, providing only the illusion of a democratic governmental structure. There are no checks and balances, only a government that consistently aligns with the leader’s agenda.
Trump’s Ace In the Hole: National Emergency
Most Americans don’t grasp how close Trump came to declaring a state of martial law on Jan 6, 2021. The national emergency would only end when Trump decides to end it. This is what Gen. Milley was referencing in Trump’s attempt to realize a “Reichstag Moment.“ Milley was alluding to a time when in Februrary of 1933 the building housing the German Parliament was burnt to the ground in the early days of Hitler’s Nazi Regime. Hitler, blaming the Communists, invoked the “Enabling Acts”, granting him extraordinary powers. Ironically the very laws the Fascist employed were created by the recently dismantled Weimar Republic in a vain attempt to quell violence and insurrection from Communists and Fascist political factions.
After declaring a state of emergency, Hitler assumed complete control of the government with an iron fist, making the Nazis the only legal party, while arresting and incarcerating thousands in concentration camps. He also shut down press outlets that did not parrot the Nazi view. The “State of Emergency” remained in Germany ending in 1945 when Hitler’s charred remains were found outside his Berlin bunker and after an estimated 65 million people world wide were dead.
Today the parallel form of laws the U.S. has to deal with national emergencies are referred to as PEADs (Presidential Emergency Action Documents). Since the attacks of 9/11, Congress has embedded numerous provisions into law that can be invoked by the Executive to meet threats to our nation in what he/she deems a state of Emergency.
According to Andrew Cockburn of Harper’s Magazine in his November 2020, article The Enemies Briefcase, these documents include: suspending habeas corpus, seizing control of the internet, imposing censorship, and incarcerating so called subversives. Among other repressive measures are suspension of a free press, mass arrest and detention without trial.
It will be years in the future before we have real insight on how people in the Pentagon, and possibly Trump’s own White House, foiled Trump activating a state of national emergency in the January 6th insurrection, but the known and documented actions of Mike Pence and Gen. Milley give us a pretty clear insight on just how close we were to a Trump dictatorship.
Trump’s Fellow Travelers: Who Are They and What Do They Believe?
The growth of a Christo Fascist belief system known as “Christian Nationalism” has accelerated greatly since Bush Jr. courted and embraced the support of White Evangelicals in his run for President. Today Evangelical support has elevated Trump as literally being chosen by God to fulfill their mission of returning the nation to the rule to a specific sect of Christianity. One that sees Trump as a sign of Millennialist End Times prophecies including the Rapture and of course Christ’s return to annihilate all non-believers.
According to The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), Christians who identify as born-again or evangelical are each about five times as likely to be Christian Nationalist adherents as members of the same racial or ethnic groups who identify as Christian but not as Evangelical.
According to WAPO on the recent primaries and recent PRRI polls and research, Trumps base incudes:
36% over the age of 65
37% are under 50
52% identify as very Conservative
46% are women (who have previously supported Trump)
White Evangelicals who flock to him (70% according to data from PRRI)
71% of White Evangelical Christian Nationalists embrace “Replacement Theory”
Close to 70% agree that the man is the head of the household, with a wife who submits to his leadership
More Than Simple Opinions
The propensity of Evangelical Christian Nationalists to incorporate or append a host of Fascist ideologies into their dogma is well supported by research polling.
We know from history and research that : “Replacement Theory” is a belief held in racial supremacy, and it is supported by Christian Nationalists. According to PRRI 55% believe that immigrants are invading the U.S. and are “replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” They hold that women should be submissive to husbands. This is practice that further fuels and supports misogyny. These belief are all part of the Christian Nationalist religious world view.
That millions of Americans today see these belief as sanctioned a God and that he chose Donald Trump to realize his “plan” forecasts serious consequences for our Democratic Republic.
When People Know God Sanctions Their Beliefs, Bad Things Are Sure to Follow
If Biden wins:
A repeat of election denial with likely armed terrorism and insurrectionist assaults on Federal and State levels. January 6th insurrectionist activity will ratchet up on a nationwide scale, involving assaults on State Legislatures.
If Trump wins:
Instead of a focus on the real challenges we face in creating an egalitarian society that tackles issues like universal health care, free education, and never ending imperialistic warfare, much less saving ourselves from climate change; will be consumed by holding off a Fascist State.
Trump will initiate the 2025 Plan of the Heritage Foundation inevitably leading to protests by Democrats and/or Democracy supporters in the streets. The ensuing violence (fomented by Trump agent provocateurs posing as and/or blaming Antifa) will provide the pretext for Trump’s declaration of a National State of Emergency.
That’s when our long national nightmare truly begins.
Great post. Thanks for the breakdown. Keep fighting on. ❤️🇺🇸💙
I think you nailed it and now remains which apocalypse dystopia the 2024 presidential election delivers.
I think it was in 2016 that I first learned of the Vanity Fair interview of Ivana Trump, who was quoted saying, when she was married to Donald, he kept a book of Hitler’s speeches in a cabinet on his side of their bed and sometimes he read it at night.
A fellow named Trevor Ravenscroft explained in his book, The Spear of Destiny, how a powerful demon infiltrated Adolph Hitler and enhance him, and did the same to Hitler's inner circle, and infiltrated most of the German population. Deja vu in America today.
I am pretty sure a demon also is working on Biden, back up plan, but he has a ways to go to remind us of Hitler.