This is the most important election in our lifetime, a point often made; however, it remains true. If Trump wins the presidency, we will move headlong into an authoritarian form of government.
An authoritarian type of government exercises most or total power over the government and society. It suspends elections and civil liberties. You have probably heard Trump say that – and we should believe him.
An authoritarian type of government is ruled by decree (of a dictator – in this case, Trump). It represses political opponents, and there is no rule of law except what the dictator decrees.
If you vote for Trump, that is what will happen. If you do not vote at all, then that is a vote for Trump and the end of American democracy. So please vote – for Kamala Harris and not for Trump.
Please tell that to anyone you know who thinks this is just another election and we are just hearing political bluster and not what will happen. Tell it to anyone that is on the fence, especially the black men who are leaning toward Trump.
In this election, voting itself hangs in the balance. Many of us are trying to process Trump’s authoritarian plans and those of his allies. Meanwhile, a cornerstone of democracy, the right to vote, is once again being snatched from under our feet. It began with the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby v. Holder, which eliminated the pre-clearance statute of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). This provision required specific states and jurisdictions to get approval for any change they make in voting procedures. As a result, we have had a decade of new restrictions on voting for blacks, Hispanics, and poor people.
Last year, they went further: a federal Court, undoubtedly influenced by Trump’s Right-Wing appointees, ruled that only the government can sue under VRA, not private parties, meaning individuals can no longer sue over restricted voting procedures. Consequently, we must vote—to elect leaders who will work to restore these lost voting rights before they are completely gone.
The next time, Trump will weed out the people who would be guardrails against his wild impulses. He will hire only people utterly loyal to him – not to the Constitution or the rule of law. How do we know? He keeps telling us so, and we know what he did or tried last time.
Project 2025, spearheaded by the influential Heritage Foundation, a Right-Wing Think Tank founded by the Koch brothers, provides the blueprint. They plan to be ready for the next conservative administration on “Day one.” One year into Trump’s previous presidency, the president of the Heritage Foundation declared, “Trump and his administration have embraced nearly two-thirds of the Heritage Foundation’s policy recommendations.”
Among other anti-democratic plans, Project 2025 specifies that the next Trump administration will weaponize the Department of Justice to go after his perceived enemies, which will include everyone who was involved in prosecuting him or the other January 6 insurrectionists.
Trump and his henchmen will eliminate all federal efforts at DEI – diversity, equity, and inclusion. They will delete DEI “out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”
DEI efforts are widespread among universities, businesses, and the federal government as a replacement for the outlawed “affirmative action.” Project 2025 calls for “investigating and prosecuting discrimination perpetuated by diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices.” They have already declared that practicing DEI is a crime.
A new Trump administration will change education as we know it. They will eliminate the federal Department of Education, and they will get rid of all teachers’ unions.
They will privatize education by enacting the Milton Friedman proposal of 1955, which called for the elimination of public education and the giving of vouchers to families to use in the marketplace to purchase education for their children.
Medicare has always been on the Republicans’ chopping block. In a new Trump administration, they will chop it. They will privatize Medicare by establishing Medicare Advantage plans. Such plans are problematic as, unlike Medicare, they limit which physicians members can use.
If we do not vote to halt some of this madness, we may not get another chance to vote and stop it. How do we know? Trump keeps telling us. He is not in enough control of his mental processes to avoid revealing it – which is reason enough to vote against him.
