Dictator

The takeaway from my last column is simple, but horrific: Donald Trump wants to become a dictator for the purpose of revenge. But how will do this? How will he expand the already awesome power of the presidency? This story by the Washington Post provides part of the answer.

Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.

In my previous article I discussed how concentrating too much power in the hands of ANY one person could lead to disaster--especially if that person is only advised by "yes" men and women. A president who only seeks out the opinions of others who tell him what they think he wants to hear will be basing his assumptions on faulty or incomplete information, and stumbling around with blind spots never ends well.

However, if the imperial president with nearly unchecked power happens to be Donald Trump or someone like Trump, the danger becomes exponentially greater. Trump plans to implement an extreme authoritarian agenda that will transform America into a police state. The Los Angeles Times reports:

In speeches, interviews and campaign videos, Trump has promised to:

• Use the military to participate in the largest deportation of undocumented immigrants in American history;
• Order the National Guard into cities with high crime rates, whether local officials want it or not;
• Prosecute Californians who protect minors coming to the state for gender-affirming care;
• Impose a 10% tariff on almost all foreign goods, increasing prices for consumers;
• Appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” his political opponents, beginning with Biden;
• Purge the federal civil service of anyone who questions his views.
  

I predicted that Donald Trump would be an existential threat to our democracy two weeks before the 2016 election. I stand by that prediction. Even though Trump didn't kill our democracy, he strained its guardrails during his presidency, and he nearly killed it on January 6. We got lucky that day. Had a few people made different decisions, our democracy would likely be dead.