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OPINION

Use the power the Constitution gives you

As conspiracy theorists discuss overthrowing democracy with the support of Donald Trump, the former president encourages his supporters to refuse to accept any electoral defeat. This raises concerns about the erosion of democracy in the United States.



Use the power the Constitution gives you

As conspiracy theorists discuss overthrowing democracy with the support of Donald Trump, the former president encourages his supporters to refuse to accept any electoral defeat. This raises concerns about the erosion of democracy in the United States.

F or those who think people telling you the sky (may soon) be falling, it isn’t just political blather.

Listen to conspiracy theorist and Trump supporter Jack Prosobiec at CPAC the other day:

“Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this right here. After we burn that swamp to the ground, we will establish the new American republic on its ashes and our first order of business will be righteous retribution for those who betrayed America.”

Listen to Trump supporter and former White House Counselor Steve Bannon as Prosobiece delivered those remarks:

“All right! Amen!”

Listen to their leader, Donald J.  Trump, who called his political opponents:

“Sickos…evil..Stalinist…executioners thugs and tyrants…fascists…scoundrels and rogues.”

Trump told his supporters not to accept an electoral defeat, claiming, without evidence, that any Trump loss would be illegitimate. This, before even one general election vote is cast. And if you think he too is just tossing out blather, think back to Jan 6, 2020.

He also said:

“Nov. 5 (Election Day) will be our new Liberation Day … but for liars and cheaters and fraudsters and censors and imposters who have commandeered our government, it will be their Judgement Day.”

Trump’s time as president presented a learning curve to him, clearly a man who doesn’t believe in the Constitution and only believes in himself. Now he understands better what he would need to put in place to provide him leverage to try to become a dictator.

I used to hold out hope that Trump couldn’t achieve what is his obvious goal – achieving and never relinquishing power in this country.

I believe and still hope that our balance of powers will protect our democracy from another term of enlightened (about the tools of power) Trump.

But the best way to protect our democracy from a would-be tyrant is to use the power that the Constitution gives us – the vote.

PMP Magazine

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Sources:

▪ This piece was first published in The Screaming Moderate and re-published in PMP Magazine on 2 March 2024 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.
Cover: Unsplash/Jonathan Simcoe (Free to use under the Unsplash License).