When I was a child in elementary school, we had fire drills, and earthquake drills and atomic bomb drills. The country was afraid that world leaders would destroy the planet and kill all its inhabitants in a nuclear war.
The atomic bomb drill we practiced had us bend over, put our heads down and crawl under our desks. The drill led to a funny parody by comedian Dick Gregory. In case of a nuclear attack, he said, we should “bend over, put our head between our knees, and kiss our ass goodbye.”
Thankfully, that doomsday never arrived. But we have just passed an even worse constitutional “doomsday” in this country — and it’s no laughing matter, because it will happen again.
Donald J. Trump, the impeached, philandering, multiple-bankrupted grifter who managed to win a term as president of the United States but suffered a devastating popular vote and Electoral College defeat for reelection on Nov. 3, along with dozens of members of Congress, 18 state attorneys general and dozens of “fellow travelers,” just demonstrated that they are willing to stop at nothing — including the open destruction of the constitutional principles they profess — in order to maintain political dominance in this country.
The Donald, who told more than 25,000 confirmed lies during his four years of hell in the White House, boasted that he got nearly 74 million votes in the just-concluded election, 11 million more than in 2016 when he won the presidency, even though his opponent in that contest got 66 million votes — 3 million more than he did. In 2020, he got more votes than any incumbent president in history, he bragged. What he didn’t say is that his opponent got more than 80 million votes, and defeated him in the key battleground states, resulting in a 306-232 Electoral College margin for Joe Biden — the same margin Trump declared to be a “landslide” in 2016.
Only this time, the prevaricating POTUS said that his opponent’s votes were illegitimate and that he was robbed of a second term. At least 55 times, #45 and his team challenged the vote outcome in courts in seven states, and twice before the Supreme Court. Virtually ach and every case was laughed out of court because there was no evidence — not a single shred of evidence — that there were any improper ballots cast resulting in his defeat! Not even the three justices he appointed to the Supreme Court backed his baseless, preposterous claims!
The final treason came when the attorney general of Texas — clearly pandering and sucking up for a pardon in the face of a five-year federal investigation into his own corruption — filed suit against the states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, alleging that the certified election results in those states be thrown out, and that despite the overwhelming will of the voters expressed at the ballot box in an open and free and fair election, Trump should be declared president.
They demonstrated openly that nothing — not the will of the voters, not the Constitution — should stand in the way of them holding on to power, because in those “suspect” states, the overwhelming majority of Black voters in Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee who chose Trump’s opponent Joe Biden were all fraudulent and had to be nullified!
Had that maneuver prevailed, there would be no reason to consider the United States anything resembling a “democratic republic.” That concept would have simply been tossed into the trash heap, and the Trumpified Republikkkan Party will have prevailed. Period.
After their defeat, the sore losers — including those from the mythical states of “New California” and “New Nevada,” suggested that they should bond with other “law-abiding states” and should “form a Union,” or better a new Confederacy. They should secede.
These fiends will not give up. They lost at Appomattox in 1865, but despite the Reconstruction, they did not give up. Their like-minded Nazi brethren lost again in Europe in 1945. They lost the Second Reconstruction when the civil rights movement dismantled apartheid from the lawbooks in this country in 1954 (though it remains in practice). They will not surrender, concede.
Their ultra-right-wing GOP standard-bearer Barry Goldwater was humiliated in the 1964 presidential election. Richard Nixon took up his mantle, only to later be disgraced and shamed from office. Then came Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, and finally, Donald J. Trump, who almost, almost pulled off the final fascist coup.
They are relentless. They are like the Terminator in the movie. Every atom of their being is aimed for white domination. And trust me, they will try again.
Donald J. Trump may have been defeated — this time — but Trumpism is far from dead.