I borrow from Dickens to express a foreboding, in particular one that will culminate with this year’s Presidential election.
The December 5, 2023 New York Times carried a front-page article, “Second Term Could Unleash Darker Trump.” I fired off a brief letter to the Editor to add my opinion and was surprised it was immediately published online and then in print under the rubric “Trump Unbound: An Autocrat in Waiting?”
To the Editor:
A second Trump presidency not only would be more radical, but also seems inevitable. Donald Trump and his handlers have learned to exploit every weakness in our democratic system of government.
Our founders must have assumed that those who gravitate to government service would essentially be people of good faith, and the rotten apples would be winnowed by our system of checks and balances. But here we are less than a year away from the election, and while Mr. Trump’s transgressions have drawn 91 criminal charges, there has been no justice yet.
He has proved to have a serpentine instinct to capitalize on weak links ranging from the Electoral College to our justice system, gathering strength every time he flouts the rule of law.
Perhaps the Times published my laconic letter as it encapsulates a sad truth: our form of government was never designed for the unthinkable. The greatest existential threat to us is, well, us.
It’s simplistic to blame Trump for all of this, but he taps into popular discontent like none other before. His brand of anti-intellectualism and affinity for reality TV and social media are in perfect sync with his minions. Those "attributes," and his ability to exploit the weakness of our justice system, are a perfect storm for 2024.
Since I wrote that letter there have been further key developments, with certain States trying to keep him off the primary ballots, citing the 14th amendment (lots of luck with that) and SCOTUS rebuffing special counsel Jack Smith’s request for an expedited ruling on whether Trump can claim presidential immunity from prosecution for crimes “allegedly” committed on January 6.
We all saw it -- suggested, aided and abetted by him -- and here it is three years later! It should not be a presidential immunity issue but one of special presidential culpability.
A handful of States will again determine the 2024 Presidential election and Democrats are still making arguments about what has been accomplished, as if that reality will decide the forthcoming election. President Biden, who has done what he intended, deserves our gratitude, should now be thinking of the greater good, and recognize his age and undeserved lack of popularity should be major factors in deciding whether he should run. He could be the first incumbent president to substantially win the popular vote but lose the election by a few Electoral College votes (yet another seriously flawed factor in our Democratic system).
Can democracy survive while Justice is further postponed? Or will Justice be foregone by fiat in 2024?
This is not my first New Year’s message of cheer. It is remarkable to read the New Years’ entries from 2021 and 2022 while we were all mostly COVID bound. It’s like mirrors in mirrors in mirrors:
Saturday, January 9, 2021
The Revoltingly Horrid Year Continues….
Wednesday, January 5, 2022
And so, with a little editing, as Tiny Tim observed, “God HELP Us, Every One!”
