HOW TO PREVENT CIVIL WAR AFTER THE ELECTION
By Armin J. Wagman
There is enough concern among many that civil war may break out after the election. I believe it is more likely that people appreciate not because Trump is refusing to step down but Trump truly believes he should rule the nation for the rest of his life. All his “joking” about this is no joke, and others believe it as well. The Washington Post reported this comment by Ruth Ben- Ghiat, a New York University professor who studies authoritarian rulers: “Everything that he says is a trial balloon — even [his quotes], jokes are trial balloons. But if you look at what he jokes about, it’s always things like this — it’s the extension of his rights, it’s the infringement of liberties. And authoritarians are continually testing the boundaries to see what they can get away with, and everything he does is a challenge to Democrats to mount some response against him.” (quoted on MSNBC, Newsweek and other news sources.
Everything Trump has been manipulating has been towards trying to get the type of control any dictator would want and need to maintain power. He is trying to suppress the free press by saying they only print false news, when in fact he is the greatest purveyor of false news. A dictator needs control of the legislature and the ridiculous Senate impeachment trial certainly appears to suggest that he is moving in that direction. It appears that both he and much of the Republican party want to run the country their way and not what the American people want.
A typical autocrat will want a Supreme Court under his thumb and he is certainly trying to pack the court especially to challenge the election. Trump also appears to have the Justice Department under William Barr in his control.
Controlling the masses by using paramilitary forces is another technique and his support among white supremacists, neo- Nazis, the Alt-right, Steve Bannon, David Duke (Former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan) are just the type of people he could use as Hitler used his brownshirts(also know as storm troopers). He has refused to denounce them and has at times provoked violence from the far right side of his supporters. I am sure that these groups would love to take arms up against any one speaking against Trump.
Finally, Trump will need the support of the military. He has already used the military to suppress protests in states that he claimed were not doing enough and this occurred without military objection. I am sure he would not hesitate to declare martial law to try to control the military. I believe this will be his most difficult challenge and will hopefully fail.
But make no mistake that if Trump loses the election he will challenge the results and even if he does win he will move towards a dictatorship. So as they say “be afraid, be very afraid.”
I believe we can prevent this. But it will require a joint and concerted effort of a special group of people. And it needs to happen now. Every past president, Democratic and Republican, must say the following. They must jointly make a public statement on television/ads/news condemning Trump for not agreeing to step down if he loses the election. They must also state that there is nothing questionable about our election system and you must reassure the public that there is absolutely nothing wrong with mail-in ballots. Last month the heads of the FBI, the National Security Agency, Infrastructure Security Agency and National Counter Intelligence and Security Center have already testified to this effect, that they will do everything to safeguard the election. How people in Trump’s administration were able to do this is unprecedented. But it wasn’t enough. The conspiracy theories of a rigged election continue. That is why it must be done by all formerPresidents, the legislature and anyone who the general public trusts to reassure the nation that this will be a fair election.
Mitch McConnell has said there will be an orderly transfer of power and here is his chance to put his money where his mouth is. The Senate and House majority leaders and minority leaders should join the Presidents in making the same statements, preferably jointly. The icing on the cake would be that both the Senate and the House of Representatives publish a unanimous joint statement stating that if President Trump loses the election he must accept it and no attempts at trying to control the government in an unconstitutional fashion will be tolerated by either party. And it would help if this was publicly broadcasted on television and social media.
It is my belief that with this kind of public outcry by our highest level past and current leaders can stop Trump. The question is will they?
