Danger Ahead?

I fear we may be entering a new, more dangerous stage of Trump’s manic presidency.  Likely, he is getting close to the exploding stage of his presidency, where he fears greatly that he may be rejected by the people, even the ones who elected him in 2016. My angst is climbing daily, almost hourly, with each new Trump tweet. I keep wondering, would all this shit go away if Twitter simply banned him from its site? Of course, that might well drive him over the cliff and he could enter the full crazy mode of his mindless behavior.

The protests and riotous behavior of the people of this country in full-on protests at the killing of Mr. George by the Minneapolis policemen reveals the explosive temper of our times.  Trump has pushed the citizenry to the edge of despair and anger by his outrageous behavior on almost every subject. And then the pandemic came upon us, like some noxious cloud threatening to cause us all to stop breathing. And with his cry, “I can’t breathe”, followed by the insistent police knee pressure on his neck, until he finally stopped breathing altogether, not only did he die, but the American people moved beyond the “thoughts and prayers” stage, to an “Act or Die” stage.  People are protesting as I have not seen since maybe 1968. Then they were protesting the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1968. But, much like today, the people were aroused by that killing, and, even more, by the senseless warring in Vietnam, warring that began as it often does, by lies about the enemy’s behavior towards America.  

Today, the explosive outrage at police killings was triggered by a population suffering from despair at a president who foments hatreds with each utterance.  And then the pandemic created even more fear and more hatreds. Lies, ignorance, unbelievable incompetence at the topmost level of our nation led to thousands of unnecessary deaths—35-40,000 by some counts. And then, instead of a president moving to calm the outrage over racist violence by police forces. The president began stoking the rage, threatening even more violence. His quote of “when the looting starts, the shooting starts," is a quote by Walter Headley, of the Miami police force. Headley was head of the police force for 20 years and referred to his "get tough" policy on crime during a 1967 news conference as a war on "young hoodlums, from 15 to 21, who have taken advantage of the civil rights campaign. . . . We don't mind being accused of police brutality."

It has been clear for some time that Trump desperately wants to be a wartime president, despite his bonespur history of draft dodging as a young man. I imagine he thinks of wartime presidents as being seen as tough people, leading the nation at a time of great risk—maybe Roosevelt, perhaps even Johnson spring into his weak mind.  One great fear of mine has been that Trump would provoke a war with some relatively weak enemy, and begin bombing them. I assumed he would even unleash nuclear horror on some poor country, just to demonstrate how tough he was.  And with every criticism, he becomes even more crazed.

So, here, with our citizens close to total panic mode, Trump begins shouting his rage and threatening utterances about more heavily armed troops.  He wants shooting in the streets. He wants people dead on our sidewalks. More proof that he is THE MAN in charge, and nobody dare mess with him.

There is some speculation that right wing fringe groups are the ones who have actually sparked the real violence, in an attempt to bring blame on the left wing, mostly peaceful demonstrators, especially the fires and the looting.  Which brings me to a main point.

One of the many things we have learned from Trump and his right wing friends is that, whenever Trump begins blaming the Left for something awful, we can reasonably assume it is something either he or his right wing friends are planning, or already doing.  For example, on the looting and violent protests. We think (but do not yet know for certain) that right wing Neo-Nazi groups are purposefully promoting violence in an effort to discredit the left’s otherwise peaceful protests.

But perhaps of even greater import, Trump has been decrying the whole issue of voting by mail.  He has been listing actions that threaten the vote-by-mail process.  He says that children are recruited to steal ballots. That people are going to houses to collect ballots and then throwing them away.  He declares that voting by mail is filled with corruption, potentially destroying the whole process. But he also declares that, if we allow voting by mail, the republicans will never win another election. And therein lies his objection. If more people vote, republicans will lose.  And he is desperate to avoid that. He will in fact do anything in his power as president to avoid a result in which he loses. And I mean ANYTHING—war, shooting of civilians by HIS military, and surely corruption of the voting process.

So, whatever he is forecasting in a voting by mail process, is something he and his friends are definitely planning. We should expect and begin planning now for a voting process that will be threatened by President Trump’s friends.

Which means, we the people in every state, must begin planning now for a very large vote by mail system. By November, we may well be in a full-on Stage Two of the pandemic. A resurgence is expected by the Fall, and that is when we will be voting.  States cannot wait until October to begin planning for the vote by mail system.  That system is likely not designed for the millions who may be using it this fall.  The ballots themselves, the machines needed to read the ballots must be brought into being as soon as possible. The ballots we know will need to await the final decisions by the electorate as to who will be on the ballots. But any machines needed and any volunteer staffing will need to be lined up now. And my best guess is that most states have not even begun the process of planning, no less buying the equipment needed.

So, if we want an election in which our citizens can vote safely (without the risk of dying from COVID19), we need to prepare every state for such an election.  We need a President. The country can no longer afford operating without one.  And we desperately need to get the current maniac in the White House to leave by all means peaceful, even if that means being escorted out by the Secret Service.  And Melania, you will then be free to discard this human scum currently masquerading as your husband.  Think of that Melania. How nice, to be free again.